Ok, like some kind ring mail? Its too bad no ring armors have ever been found, the descriptions of them sound weird and i'd love to have a visual of what they were.
Well, it's cheap end armor. You save best stuff for show and bury warriors in their best.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
There was a BBC Robin Hood show with Connery Jr. many years ago where several of the outlaws used ring mail like this. Looked like cheap armor that would help against slashes.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I suspect the historical ancestor of studded leather is the Merovingian "broigne masclee", where you reinforced a leather jack by sewing iron rings onto it it wasn't real chain or scale because there was less metal coverage, but it did reinforce the jack and did not involve studs which would have been a liability as explained above. (unless it's a misinterpretation of chainmail and haqueton, of course... old Viollet le Duc was prone to such fancies) but I read about that thing when I wasa kid, and it stuckOk, like some kind ring mail? Its too bad no ring armors have ever been found, the descriptions of them sound weird and i'd love to have a visual of what they were. In practice it sounds like they would serve against slashing or cutting motions but not do much against a bludgeoning or stabbing action. but i guess it comes down to the diameter and density of the rings. You could have small and overlapped rings that would maybe be on par with actual chain mail... though i imagine it would be more maintenance intensive to keep it together
Precisely ring mail, I'd forgotten the term. and given a Merovingian warrior was much more likely to meet arrows or spears than swors and axes (even scramasaxes were more stabby than slashy), a protective piece that protects against piercing and less well against other kinds of atttack still makes sense... As for none having been found I don't know if that's due to decay of the support material, or to the fact the very item was but an antiquarian's fancy and a misinterpretation of data.
|
One thing that I have always thought made no sense is that special
materials like mithril and adamantine do not increase your armor class just give DR for adamantine way over priced for what it does IMO and Mithril just cuts the weight in half.
IMO this is just poor game design that has been carried over from 3.5 to Pathfinder. IMO Mithril should add 3 to your AC and adamantine should add 6 to your AC both of those materials are that much better than Iron or steel. Also IMO Magic Fortification should add 1 for light 2 for medium and 3 for heavy to your AC.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
DvS,
I basically agree with everything you said in your original post. These are things I have wondered about many times over the years, but you have a lot more knowledge on actual armors. My perfect solution is this: what if medium armor reduced your speed less than heavy armor does? Right now, they reduce your speed by 1/3. If medium armor reduced it by 1/4 - 1/6, then there would at least be a small tactical advantage for using medium armor.
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
DvS,
I basically agree with everything you said in your original post. These are things I have wondered about many times over the years, but you have a lot more knowledge on actual armors. My perfect solution is this: what if medium armor reduced your speed less than heavy armor does? Right now, they reduce your speed by 1/3. If medium armor reduced it by 1/4 - 1/6, then there would at least be a small tactical advantage for using medium armor.
If "Slow" movement was set at base 25 (instead of base 20), this would give a nice spread.
30/25/20 and 25/20/15 for "regular" and "slow" races.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
One thing that I have always thought made no sense is that special
materials like mithril and adamantine do not increase your armor class just give DR for adamantine way over priced for what it does IMO and Mithril just cuts the weight in half.IMO this is just poor game design that has been carried over from 3.5 to Pathfinder. IMO Mithril should add 3 to your AC and adamantine should add 6 to your AC both of those materials are that much better than Iron or steel. Also IMO Magic Fortification should add 1 for light 2 for medium and 3 for heavy to your AC.
No, I'm fairly certain this was a deliberate design choice kept from 3.5. The way to improve the AC bonus of your armor is by adding plusses to it. It's already too easy to make yourself unhittable if you focus AC hard enough. One more way to do it would not be a good idea, much less two.
I'd agree that the DR from adamantine isn't really worth that much in most situations, but the real advantage of Mithril is that it reduces ACP and increases Max Dex Bonus. Those two benefits are well worth the cost of Mithril in a lot of cases.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
And I was just realizing I was helping to derail the thread. We should really make a new thread if there's any further desire to discuss this topic.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
If "Slow" movement was set at base 25 (instead of base 20), this would give a nice spread.
30/25/20 and 25/20/15 for "regular" and "slow" races.
With a speed 20 race, I guess medium and heavy would drop both down to 15. You wouldn't start getting a difference until 25.