Interesting Choices and Mundane Armor

So we've established that mundane armor is the pits and that choosing armor involves zero actual choice. Simply choose the one which gives you the highest number allowed and you're set. That's boring. What to do about it?

Design Goals:

• choosing which armor to wear is hard
• reward wearing the best armor for the situation
• ruthlessly simple
• leverage the systems I already got

So the systems I have in place are armor class (how hard am I to hit), damage absorption (how hard do I get hit), and inventory (how hard is it to carry). I think we can make some hard choices for our PCs with these. I discussed Death saves in my last post, but fiddling with those feels as though it should fall into the realm of magic. Although... thinking about it maybe a helmet should be a separate thing which gives you a small bonus to your death saves? Always wear a helmet!

So here's a table with basic armor types. Now lighter armor makes you harder to hit since you are more maneuverable! huzzah! groundbreaking hacks here, folks. And heavy armor makes hitting you easier, but you get hit less hard.

Armor	AC	Absorption	Inventory
cloth	0	0	0
leather	4	0	1
chain	2	2	3
plate	0	4	5
shield	1	0	1
helm	0	1	1

This looks like it would work well in a game with flat hp and damage. If you are getting hit for d6 damage at a time, then heavy armor is better since there is still a chance to dodge and quite a significant chance that even if you are hit you take no damage. Go up against an ax-wielding giant and the measly 4 hp of damage reduction is going to make you rue the day you found your heavy plate and wish you could properly dodge!

yep, nothing there to hinder your movement

So this effort has all been to capture the distinct feel of different armors. Next is weapons.