Armored Skirt on Half Plate

[Ravingdork]

The armored skirt description confuses me and appears it is in desperate need of errata.

What does my half plate stats become when I incorporate an armored skirt? Is the following correct?

Price 20 gp; AC Bonus +4; Dex Cap +2; Check Penalty -2; Speed Penalty -5 ft. Strength +1; Bulk 4; Category Heavy; Group Plate; Traits Noisy

[yellowpete]

Almost:
- The Speed Penalty is unaffected so still at -10 ft (reduced by 5 as usual for reaching the Strength requirement)
- The required Strength modifier should be +2. Armored skirt is legacy content and thus talks about Strength score instead of the now relevant Strength modifier
- Arguably, it should stay at 3 Bulk instead of 4, as you are replacing parts of the armor with this skirt instead of adding it on top. You're making your armor lighter overall, that's the whole point of this modification. But this isn't explicitly stated so I guess RAW would be 4 Bulk still

[Ravingdork]

Well, that's not very good.

I really wanted that speed back.

Why does it say to reduce speed by 2?

[yellowpete]

It's a bit tough to parse for sure, but it says the following, parentheses mine:

"decrease the Strength score required (to ignore the check penalty and reduce the Speed penalty) by 2"

You are reducing the required Strength score by 2 (or, in remaster terms, you reduce the required Strength modifier by 1), not the Speed penalty.

I believe there is no way with items alone to get full Speed while also having a combined 6 AC from base Bonus + Dex Cap. That's the basic trade with heavy armor vs the other categories, +1 AC for -5 Speed. You need something like Unburdened Iron to get around it.

[shroudb]

yellowpete wrote:

It's a bit tough to parse for sure, but it says the following, parentheses mine:

"decrease the Strength score required (to ignore the check penalty and reduce the Speed penalty) by 2"

You are reducing the required Strength score by 2 (or, in remaster terms, you reduce the required Strength modifier by 1), not the Speed penalty.

I believe there is no way with items alone to get full Speed while also having a combined 6 AC from base Bonus + Dex Cap. That's the basic trade with heavy armor vs the other categories, +1 AC for -5 Speed. You need something like Unburdened Iron to get around it.

Dawnsilver armor would get a heavy to have a penlaty of -5, so with Strength requirements it would drop it to no speed penalty.