ArmoredSaint's page

This has been bugging me. This single issue, more than any other at the moment, bothers me about the Pathfinder rules.

In 3.0/3.5 D&D, the description of "breastplate" armour ran thus:

"A breastplate covers your front and your back. It comes with a helmet and greaves (plates to cover your lower legs). A light skirt or suit of studded leather beneath the breastplate protects your limbs without restricting movement much."

However, in stark contrast, the Pathfinder description of this armour reads:

"Covering only the torso, a breastplate is made up of a single piece of sculpted metal."

Say what?

And the recent Ultimate Equipment book drives home the point even further by emphasizing that the breastplate covers only the front of the torso. So they really do mean that this is a single piece of metal affording its wearer a +6 Armor Bonus.

And not only does the Pathfinder version offer a higher Armor Bonus, but its weight remains unchanged from 3.5e D&D?

This "single piece of sculpted metal" weighs a whopping 30 pounds? If so, that makes it heavier than darn near any breastplate ever manufactured in history.

http://www.allenantiques.com/Armour-Breastplates-Collection.html

See the above link for some actual weight figures for real "single piece" breastplates. Note that even the heaviest shot-proof breastplate doesn't even break the 20-pound barrier.

And it gets one two-thirds the way to the Armor Bonus of Full Plate?

I have a much easier time believing that the old D&D 3e combination of cuirass (that is, breast and backplate), helmet, and greaves adds up to a +6 Armor Bonus while weighing in the neighborhood of 30 pounds than I do accepting the same claim that Pathfinder makes for their "single piece of sculpted metal."

Can we change this, please, Paizo?

Could I get away with this?

I don't think it is thematically appropriate for Druids to have any power over metal items. Additionally, I don't care at all for the idea that the a spellcaster should be able to just snap his fingers and take away the tools a fighter needs to be effective--unless the rules also provide for the fighter to be able to do the same to the caster, like, say, cut off his hands or something. Thus, I like to ban spells like Metal to Wood and Rusting Grasp from games that I run.

I have a game coming up, and I expect at least one (maybe two) of the players to be very interested in running Druids. Would I be unreasonable in instituting my usual ban on the aforementioned spells?

I did search the messageboard archives, but all I could find were references to Heavy Armor Optimization and Greater Heavy Armor Optimization in D&D 3.5's Races of Stone.

I'm looking for similar feats that allow a heavy armour wearer to raise his armour class in official Pathfinder products. I am a fairly new convert to the game, and am not yet familiar with all the products available, since I have only the core books.

Is there anything like this out there, or am I out of luck?