Hi! Me and my players have been wondering about wearing multiple armors. I saw some drawn characters in the books (like the fighter ine the CRB) that wear, for instance, a breast plate on top of a chain mail. We had a particuliar way to calculate it : You add the two ACP -1, you take the worst max dex -1 but you add the two armor bonues. The main (and only) reason why we wanted to try this, is because we basically think it is awesome to have a mercenary with a chain shirt and leather armor (ACP = -3, bonus = +6 and Max dex = +3) then someone with a breast plate. It also gives great options to someone who may only wear light armors.
Here are the for and against I've gathered so far with my friends:
For:
1- It works like a natural armor, meaning that you normally have to get trought the armor AND natural armor when you strike. Here you have to get trough two envelopes of armor, which is basically the same.
2- You can do it in real life, so why wouldn't we be able to do it in Pathfinder (BTW I'm into LARP and I've tried)
3- The GM may always put some boundaries like "no more then two armor at the time" or that kind of home rules.
Against:
1- It is unfair for those with the capacity to wear heavy armor : a full plate is easily matched by a breastplate and a chain shirt (total bonus = +10 instead of +9)
2- It is not in the rules so it is not cool
3- Some armor already have some kind of underwear protection (in real life) that can be compared to a quilted cloth and that counts in some armor's bonus (such as breats plate, full plate, half plate and some chain mail). Adding another armor (that counts as 3 armors) is just insane).
What do you think?
Have you looked here?
Hi! Me and my players have been wondering about wearing multiple armors. I saw some drawn characters in the books (like the fighter in the CRB) that wear, for instance, a breast plate on top of a chain mail. We had a particular way to calculate it : You add the two ACP -1, you take the worst max dex -1 but you add the two armor bonuses.
I think this is a dangerous avenue. You will run into situations where armour 'X' will not be used because the combination of armour 'Y' and 'Z' is better, less restrictive and cheaper. Two +1 enchantments are cheaper than one +2 enhancement. I can also see this becoming quickly out of hand in extreme cases (+5 plate mail over a +5 chainmail over a +5 gambeson).
In addition, these combo are more or less already assumed to exist (as you mentioned). While it may not be explicitly stated, chain mail or plate mail already assumes an arming doublet or gambeson underneath. Some metal armours assume chainmail underneath, although WotC's 3.5 was more explicit in their descriptions.
However, I see the attraction of portraying several layers of amours. My solution to this was to treat combo as a different armour category altogether. Chain shirt + studded leather = scale mail. Breast plate + chainmail = half plate etc. Watch for pit-falls of under-pricing and "optimal" combo. Take best enhancement bonus, keep full plate as pinnacle of protection.
[edit] either that or use DracoDruid's generic armours houserule and fluff it as you want.
'findel
I thought it was a given that plate armor came with a chainmail shirt underneath.