Heavy armor question

[Atalius]

Hi all, sorry for the basic question I have never played martial character before and am looking to play one next week. I will be wearing Full Plate and noticed it said -10 ft penalty to speed, does that mean I go from 20 ft base to 10ft? This sounds harsh and paralyzing.

[Mer_]

If you have the required STR to not get the check penalties, you reduce the speed penalty by 5.
If the 20ft speed means you're playing a dwarf, you also have a level 1 ancestry feat that lets you completely ignore armor speed penalty.

[WatersLethe]

If you meet its strength requirement, you reduce the speed penalty by 5. Later on you can get various speed increases or special armors that reduce the penalty further.

[aobst128]

That's correct. However, if you meet the strength requirement, you reduce the penalty by 5 feet. Dwarves also have access to unburdened iron which can ignore the penalty entirely.

[Mathmuse]

The table of armor stats has a column labeled Strength, which is 18 for Full Plate. The armor rules say the following about that entry.

Core Rulebook, Equipment chapter, page 274 wrote:

Strength

This entry indicates the Strength score at which you are strong enough to overcome some of the armor’s penalties. If your Strength is equal to or greater than this value, you no longer take the armor’s check penalty, and you decrease the Speed penalty by 5 feet (to no penalty if the penalty was –5 feet, or to a –5-foot penalty if the penalty was –10 feet).

Thus, if a character with Speed 20 feet and Str 18 dons full plate their speed takes only a -5 penalty to reduce the speed to 15 feet.

In addition, Dwarves are the most common ancestry with speed 20 feet, and they can take an ancestry feat that removes the speed penalty entirely, Unburdened Iron dwarf feat 1.

[Claxon]

Also keep in mind full plate is so expensive you can't even afford it at level 1, so you have some time to actually get into a position to reduce the penalty. You're not going to start of the game with it.

[25speedforseaweedleshy]

remember mithral armor are also a thing

pretty sure heavy armor with 0 penalty for speed are possible

[Claxon]

A quick glance says they are.

Mithral (in PF2) reduces speed penalty by 5 ft. All heavy armors appear to have a speed penalty of 10ft, but with the required strength rating it also decreases speed penalty by 5ft.

Now, it is worth mentioning standard grade mithral armor becomes available as a level 12 item. It SUCKS to wait 12 levels to get, but if you have the strength rating and get mithral you end up without a speed penalty.

[Cordell Kintner]

It also costs 2400g on top of all the runes you need for it. That makes a +2 Resilient Mithral Full Plate cost 3800g, which is a LOT at level 12 (About 22% your estimated net worth).

[HammerJack]

And, of course, mithral is Uncommon, for however much or little that matters at your table.