Make ALL Armor Useful

[Flights of Fantasy]

This popped into my head after reading this post in another topic:

If more folks read Karond's Item Guide, even if it's a little out of date because of value changes over the last 24 months (esp. since item restrictions were turned off & Epic Store added), far more garbage would end up with store vendors than in the AH. I guess some folks haven't figured out yet that no-one wears Banded, Split or Scale maille ((sic)), even if its +4?

The other day I paid 3,500 for some +3 half plate, then found a suit of +3 Full plate in the graveyard!!

On another server I played on, they tweaked several of the armors to make them all useful by increasing their dex bonuses, arcane spell failure, etc. For example, the half plate's stats were modified to:

AC Bonus: 7
Maximum Dexterity Bonus: 2
Arcane Spell Failure: 30%
Armor Check Penalty: -5

Essentially, the AC Bonus and Dexterity bonuses are tweaked so they all "provide" 9 AC at maximum. You can then pick the armor that best suits your planned maximum dexterity. Bonuses for different materials are equal across all armors they can be used with.

PS: I might have suggested this before. I got a sense of de ja vu as I was typing. In either case, thought it was worth bringing up again.

[aaron22]

this was done in February and can be seen toward the bottom of the page here. perhaps some twinking could be done to make them all provide something desirable in way of ASF and ACP.

most sit at AC+Dex=8 now, fullplate and padded=9

[Theodore01]

Yeah, tweak them in a way that heavy armor provides the best protection again.

[Flights of Fantasy]

Ah, nice, I hadn't noticed that. Though I still think making all of them a variation of 9 AC would be best.

[Tsidkenu]

Maille was not a mispelling

You can learn to make your own banded maille here.

[Young Werther]

Heavy armor lets you min-max better by dropping dex.

[dedude]

I would also prefer this direction for armors.

[aaron22]

how desirable would half plate be to you in its current state if it's ACP was -2 and ASF was 15%?

[Flights of Fantasy]

You mean like this?

AC Bonus: 8
Maximum Dexterity Bonus: 0
Arcane Spell Failure: 15%
Armor Check Penalty: -2

If I were an armored arcane caster, that would be nice. Especially since the mithral variation would have 0% arcane failure. You'd be able to run around with "heavy" armor defense without having to take feats like still spell or medium armored casting. It'd also be nice for "sneaky" fighters because the armor check penalty would be reduced to 0.

[aaron22]

You mean like this?

AC Bonus: 8
Maximum Dexterity Bonus: 0
Arcane Spell Failure: 15%
Armor Check Penalty: -2

If I were an armored arcane caster, that would be nice. Especially since the mithral variation would have 0% arcane failure. You'd be able to run around with "heavy" armor defense without having to take feats like still spell or medium armored casting. It'd also be nice for "sneaky" fighters because the armor check penalty would be reduced to 0.

and these are the kinds of changes that could really make the undesirable, desirable. maybe the example is extreme, but i think it has some justification to it.

[V'rass]

Light armor + high dex = superior ac... heavy armor does not even come close.

[aaron22]

Light armor + high dex = superior ac... heavy armor does not even come close.

not every build can shoot for high dex. how about a pali build that has a starting dex 16 so it can maximize MBP. doubt those points are really being put in the best places there.

every build is going to be different. and i have not found the hack that lets me start with 20's on every stat.

[Theodore01]

A light armor user should not get more AC (or even the same) than a heavy armor user. Ever !
And the same should be true for medium armor.
(Now light armor users (can) get evasion and better AC )

We have now 3 very good light mithral armor types, 1 very good medium mithral armor and zero very good (mithral equivalent) heavy armor types.

It's time to add Battle Plate and Mountain Plate with something like 11/1 or 12/0, make them very heavy 100+pounds and get them 100% spell failure and -100 concentration or something - to prevent casters from using them.

[metaquad4]

Bear in mind, the servers that did this also didn't have mithril armor at all. Though, I don't really think that is an issue. Mithril armor will always be far superior than regular armor, regardless. Its design has always been to be "like its counterpart, but better". Unless one is building a build that requires one to min on DEX or one has all the heavy armor optimization feats (in which case, fullplate is the only choice, the others are objectively weaker).

A balancing treatment on armor in my opinion, is an undertaking worth doing. Weapons are a little easier, since you can create weapons in merchants with enchantments that make them more valuable.

However, armor is harder to do that. Creating +5 or +6 versions of the weaker armor types is something that the staff probably won't do, and its a bit of a band-aid anyway. And most stats can't replace how valuable to inherent armor traits are.

[aaron22]

It does make sense that some master Craftsman armorsmith would create a mithral armor that pushes the maximum protection out of the fine metal. Something in the realm of 12/0 full plate mithral armor.