Fluff vs. Mechanics

[diplomancer]

so to address a problem that you have with druid's wild shapes you use armor limitations that has no impact on said feature? The player can be running around in a string bikini and it doesn't affect wild shapes.

I have no problem at all with druid's wild shapes. Honestly, I have no idea where you got that from, since I did not criticize wildshape in any way. I think it's an awesome feature. But, when in wildshape, the scale mail stealth penalty does not apply, and that creates a balance issue, the moment the druid gets OUT of wildshape, the first round of combat, with no stealth penalty, with an 18 AC (if he's a moon druid, the moment he gets kicked out of his wildshape, his AC is immediately 18, and he also did not have stealth disadvantage before getting in combat).

With point-buy, the character that can do this at level 2 is the melee dex Fighter/Ranger/Paladin who took defense as his fighting style (not the most common or optimal style for dex characters, so they are paying for that. Druid gets that for free if they can wear metal armors)

Most Druids carry a shield as well, so an AC 18 would be pretty standard if a breastplate or scale mail was allowed.

I'm addressing specifically scale mail. Breastplate is already somewhat expensive, and won't be immediately available in most campaigns. By the time it is, half-plate is just around the corner, and the same reasoning applies, now for 1 AC higher.

But, around levels 6-8, dex characters start having the same AC without stealth disadvantage, and str characters have better AC with the disadvantage. It's a good moment to let Druids find alternative material armor.