My Hand-dandy armor look-up tables.

[Bjarkmundur]

Light Armor
Light Armor consists of various types of functional travel wear, which can be made out of rawhide, linen, wool, fur or silk. Higher quality outfits have a higher leather content and increased area of protection, without sacrificing mobility.

Medium Armor
The more battle-ready articles of clothing include padding and various thicknesses of tough leather. The highest level of protection for a Medium Armor includes a breastplate out of metal or extremely tough boiled leather.

Heavy Armor
Heavy Armor is defined by its metal content, which serves to protect the wearer's head, neck, thighs, shoulders and torso. It could be made out of large metal platings, miniscule interlocking links or small plates riveted on either the outside or inside of a thick tunic. Higher quality mail includes more plating and fewer weak spots.



Armor
AC
Misc.


Light
11 + Dex
-


Medium
13 + Dex (max 2)
-


Heavy
16
Req +2 Str.
Stealth Disadv.


Shield
+2
Req. Med. armor proficiency


Buckler
+1
Req. Light armor proficiency



Armor Upgrades
45gp: Light Armor
12 + Dex
50gp: Medium Armor
14 + Dex (max 2), Stealth Disadvantage
400gp: Medium Armor
14+Dex (max 2)
750gp: Medium Armor
15 + Dex (max 2), Stealth Disadvantage
200gp: Heavy Armor
17 AC, Stealth Disadvantage
1.500gp: Heavy Armor
18 AC, Stealth Disadvantage

Mithral Armor
Add 800gp to the price of any medium or heavy armor to remove the Stealth Disadvantage property.

[JNAProductions]

This is different from 5E’s normal armor… how?

You appear to have removed the names and added Mithral for cheap… and that’s it.

[Bjarkmundur]

Choose your starting armor from the table of 5 items instead of looking at the entire armor table.

Removed Padded Armor, Hide Armor, and Ring Mail.

Reduced the flavor text from 550 words down to 134 words.

Depending on how you look at it, I simplified armor somewhere between 15% and 80%, without having to mess around with mechanics. I think that's pretty great of me, to be honest.

The only way it could be made simpler is if you'd go with the "13+Prof" rule, which would be a 99% simplification.

...Which I have now presented. So that gives us an average simplification factor of around 50%

[JNAProductions]

Choose your starting armor from the table of 5 items instead of looking at the entire armor table.

Removed Padded Armor, Hide Armor, and Ring Mail.

Reduced the flavor text from 550 words down to 134 words.

Depending on how you look at it, I simplified armor somewhere between 15% and 80%, without having to mess around with mechanics. I think that's pretty great of me, to be honest.

Here’s the thing-a table that’s cool with homebrew is a table that’s likely pretty good at basic mechanics. Taking away flavor text and a few armor choices never chosen, doesn’t really simplify it.

The only actual change I see is making Mithral very cheap, relative to what it is now.

[Bjarkmundur]

Well, it's a lot prettier to look at than this (https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Armor#content). Plus, it has my name on it :D

Yeah, simplifying annoying or dull parts of the game doesn't really add much to the lore or fantasy of a gameworld, that's true. Sometimes though, you just want to get the mechanics out of the way as fast as possible, and focus more on the adventure at hand. I send the armor tables to my players at character creation, and use the rest of it on my Market Handout (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1okXeDdHzW1n1E7DBaBmACtEj6ZBYoHk3K-kTL-QIfy4/edit?usp=sharing) that I print for my players. It makes it easy to fit a lot of information on a single A4 sheet.


.... wait is 2300gp for Mithral Plate armor cheap??? :O
Jesus, how is it priced normally?

[Kane0]

.... wait is 2300gp for Mithral Plate armor cheap??? :O
Jesus, how is it priced normally?

Normal plate armor is 1500 by PHB, Mithral armor is an uncommon magic item. If available, uncommon category magic gear can be created/purchased for 500gp, which may or may not include the base price of the item (the plate armor).

So it could be 500gp, it could be 2000gp or it could be impossible to obtain.

edit: oh and there's making the plate armor yourself of course, which is half the price. So 500gp, 1250gp or impossible in that case.

[Bjarkmundur]

Mithral armor is an uncommon magic item. If available, uncommon category magic gear can be created/purchased for 500gp.

Wait if Mithral is 500gp, why is 800gp considered cheap?

[Kane0]

Wait if Mithral is 500gp, why is 800gp considered cheap?

Presumably because 'gold stops mattering sometime in tier 2', which varies heavily table to table but the thought process goes that there are few to no appreciable gold sinks built into the game (living costs, healing potions, rations, etc) therefore PCs should be able to afford basically anything sooner or later. My group hasnt suffered this so i cannot speak from experience, however many written adventures are pretty generous.

[Bjarkmundur]

he thought process goes that there are few to no appreciable gold sinks built into the game

Oh yeah I spent weeks pouring over treasure hoard tables, sane magic item tables, downtime rules, magic item crafting, estimated total rewards per level and uuggghhhhh in order to come up with a sustainable economy for my game. It was an experience, I'll tell you that much xD

[Arkhios]

I believe the issue whether a certain special material is cheap is not really about the price itself, but rather that there is a price at all in the first place.

Pricing something tends to lead to an idea that it can be bought, somewhere, provided you have the coin.

This is probably part of the reason why magic items (and other uncommon or more rare items) do not have a listed price, only a suggested range for a possible price; In general, 5th edition has this idea that there are no "Magic Item Emporiums" where everyone can just go and buy whatever they fancy. Magic items are supposed to be extraordinary. Best way to make them feel like that is that you actually have to find them, rather than buy them once you've got the coin. A good example of this is, in my honest opinion, how Bilbo Baggins came into the possession of his signature magic items: a certain ring forged by a certain god-like being, an elven dagger, and a dwarven mithril shirt. All of them were found, not purchased from a market. Their original owners either made them for their own use or were given them as gifts. No one paid anything substantial for them (as far as we know; or should care).

[Bjarkmundur]

Aahhhhh I see.

Yeah I spent a lot of time making various types of market lists, item availability and different shops until I found something I could use as a baseline, so I definitely get that.

[Phhase]

But why. Armor was already oversimplistic already.

[Bjarkmundur]

But why. Armor was already oversimplistic already.

What? No "nice to see you", "how was your day" or "hey your hair looks nice"?

I already said, it's nice to look at and has my name on it. It fits better on my handouts this way. One table that's only used at character creation, with a short description of each type of armor, and a list of all the upgrades available to the players for my market lists.

Feel like my post is getting a lot of flac for some reason

[JNAProductions]

What? No "nice to see you", "how was your day" or "hey you're hair looks nice"?

I already said, it's nice to look at and has my name on it.

Feel like my post is getting a lot of flac for some reason

Probably the title. It implies you've done some kind of big rewrite to vastly simplify armor, when really... It's barely been changed.

[Bjarkmundur]

Probably the title. It implies you've done some kind of big rewrite to vastly simplify armor, when really... It's barely been changed.

Oh right, it's a call back to this post (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?638642-Simplified-Armor), which presented an armor variant rule that isn't all that more simple than the vanilla armors.

The simplest rule for armor is "13+Prof", for those who actually find 5e armor too complicated to wrap their head around, or just need the mechanics but want to rewrite the flavor altogether. With that option available, trying to create simplified armor systems is kinda moot.

Honestly I just find the vanilla armors a bit rough in the presentation, but nothing wrong with the actual mechanics.

The function of my post is more along the lines of "hey, just a few paragraphs of text I can send my newbie about how armor works in one post. That's kinda neat I guess"

I changed the title to be a little less misleading, thanks for that catch ^^

[Kane0]

Rough numbers, needs a check and playtest:

8 + Prof + Dex

You can accept limiting your max Dex bonus to +3 for a +1 to AC

You can accept disadvantage on stealth for another +1 AC

Some classes can substitute Dex for another stat (Barb > Con, Monk > Wis, Bladesinger > Int)

[Gurgeh]

Hm, this seems to make dexterity even more of a god stat than it already is. Even if you want to go wholly down the path of a fully-armoured knight, you still need to push your dexterity all the way to sixteen to pull even with a loincloth-covered barbarian or a dinky little rogue with 20 dexterity. Unless you've rolled some highly favourable stats, you're seriously punishing yourself by using strength without pigeonholing yourself into a class that doesn't need dex to AC, even if you want to fight in melee.

Heavy armour getting one point more of AC than light or medium armour can achieve is the one nice thing that low-dex characters get in standard 5e, it feels really petty to take that away.

At least strength-based monks have been thrown a bone!

[Amechra]

Oh right, it's a call back to this post (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?638642-Simplified-Armor), which presented an armor variant rule that isn't all that more simple than the vanilla armors.

I feel personally attacked here. :smalltongue:

For the record, Kane0, I agree with Gurgeh's complaint. I'd make it (9-10)+Proficiency+Stat as a base, and let people with heavy armor proficiency use their Strength instead of their Dexterity.