The Problem With Athletics Skill and Armor Penalties

[Rhenny]

Ok I don’t usually play fighter types, but I’m playing one in the playtest. I’m also playing a Goblin rogue.

My Dwarven 18 strength fighter wears chainmail thus suffers penalty to Athletics. At 1st level, his Athletics bonus is only + 1.

My 12 strength Goblin rogue wears leather so at 1st level he also has an Athletics bonus of +1.

Thus my rogue, who may be nearly 200 lbs smaller than my fighter, has the same ability to smash open doors, grapple, disarm, trip, etc.

That seems way off.

Shouldn’t proficiency with armor mitigate check penalties for those types of actions. I can see it hurting Swimming, even Climbing, but in a way, the extra bulk/ weight might even help with bashing open doors, smashing/grappling, tripping, etc. Plus, those are things fighters should be better at.

What are your thoughts?

[Mathmuse]

The armor check penalty does not always apply.

Playtest Rulebook, Armor and Shields, page 176 wrote:

Check Penalty

You take this untyped penalty to Strength-, Dexterity-,
and Constitution-based skill checks, except for those
that have the attack trait. ...

The Athletics actions Grapple, Shove, Trip, and Disarm have the attack trait.

[Nettah]

And break open also has the attack trait. So pretty much just breaking free, climbing, jumping and swimming that the guy in the heavier armor get penalized on, which makes a lot of sense to me.

[Rhenny]

Thanks. That’s better!