Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Heavy armor is needed on Act 1

it would be really great if we could choose the starting armor for fighters And clerics like in the PHB. I want to be able to dump dex without being squishy in the beginning. And having Chainmail from the beginning would really help strength builds. that or please make the first trader sell some good heavy armor because there is none until almost the end of the 1st act. there are a lot of strength weapons but no armor for strength builds. and not everyone can afford a 14 on dex, especially the main characters that could use it for charisma.

Yeah, it's awful that there isn't a single +1 Heavy Armor still in EA.

There are items for everyone else, but Heavy Armor still hasn't been given anything and there are classes who can equip this. Larian typically does item distribution based on their Origin classes, however.

None so far are made for Heavy Armor and thus there has been 0 effort to cater to these characters.

Thankfully the modding community delivers where Larian does not...Starting Equipment. Note: I haven't tried the mod yet, since I use a different one for my starting equipment.

While we shouldn't have to rely on mods for basic features, it's the best option we have for now.

Nice find. I think I'm going to give that mod a go later.

Is there even a single normal Plate (or Splint) in EA?

LZ can wear heavy armor. I'm not sure this is anything to do with origin characters.

Has anyone made the heavy armor in the Grymforge? Is it any good?

Placing a Chain Mail in the tiefling smith's store seems like a trivial thing to do.

Makes you wonder why they didn't. It's almost like they intentionally don't let you have it so there is another "gear upgrade" a little bit later. But they're not giving you Ring Mail either for starting equipment.

Grymforge Heavy Armor is a Splint Mail.

Shrug. It gives a 17 AC, no dex bonus. It has something called backlash that makes whoever hit you suffer from the "reeling" condition. For three turns, I think.

Reeling means that the attacker has a -1 on future attacks, as long as the condition persists.

The armor looks good.

What do you mean, none?
Im quite sure that i looted this from one of Thugs inside Dank Crypt.

https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Ring+Mail+Armour

They specified "good" heavy armor. Ring mail is, unless you have negative dex, worse than most medium armors.

Curiously, if ring mail is so bad (and I agree that it is bad)... why have it in the game?

I don't just mean why have it in BG3. I mean why have it in DnD?

Seems like there should be some options for a character when it comes to armor, but as far as I can tell there's always one best type for each category. As a player of BG3, I find it frustrating--even if only aesthetically--that all of my armor wearing characters pretty much have to wear the same stuff through every playthrough.

A high dex character can get away with light armor. Otherwise, it's scale mail until the gith armor becomes available.

Ring Mail can be worn as starting armor by characters who have Heavy Armor proficiency but less than 13 Strength and no Dex. That's about it.

I'm hoping the next edition will make armor and shields a bit more complicated again. I also don't like how investing in 16 Dex doesn't give you any defensive benefit with Medium Armor and you're better off with Heavy anyway.

That is a great question. I have no idea...it's not significantly cheaper than medium armor and it still gives Disadvantage on Dex checks, so it's not better than medium armors in any respect. I suppose it doesn't require a strength score to wear, but I see no situation where a character would have <13 strength AND low enough dex that they'd decide to wear heavy armor.

The armor system in 5e is meh. For the most part, it is linear - just get the best armor in your category that you can afford. I'd like it if there was a bit more detail and variation in armors, with different armors having different benefits and drawbacks.

Well... it's useful when you take the "Medium Armor Master" feat into account, since that feat allows you to apply a DEX mod of +3 instead of just +2.

But yes, the armor system is overly simplified and was much better in D&D 3.x.

I had same question about Hide Armor ... wich gives you just 1 more AC than litteraly any Light Amour in game. :-/
https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Hide+Armour

Starting gear, as it was allready mentioned seems like fair (and basicaly the only) possibility ...
Shame our Druids in this game starts in their own special looking Light Amor.

Which Fighter is going to waste a feat just to be on par with Heavy Armor they could already use anyway? Especially since you also have to invest in 16 Dex for MAM.

The potential Stealth benefit is the only carrot. I don't like how you're railroaded into going all-in on either Str or Dex, and Medium Armor is obsolete in the middle. Would be cool if high Str AND Dex was somehow viable as well as a more defensive and versatile build. Say a High Elf Fighter with high Str and Dex at the cost of lower Con.

5e could potentially just expand on the Str requirements already present in the system. Heavier armors still allow dex (with diminishing returns) but require more and more strength to wear and/or make use of.

A unified system could be something like: Every armor has a Str requirement (at least 10), and you can add up to [Str Score - Str Requirement]/2 points of your Dexterity modifier to your AC. E.g.,
- Light armors would have base Str requirements of 10, and thus would work as normal w.r.t. Dex bonus.
- Breastplate could have a Str requirement of 13, giving AC=14+[allowed Dex]. A character with 15 Str and 14 Dex could add 1 point of dex (15-13)/2=2, whereas a character with 17+ Str could add both points of Dex.
- Plate could require Str of 17. You'd only be able to add any Dex with a Str score of 19+
- Massive Plate could require Str of 19.

Idk, just some random thoughts.

Speaking mainly from a PnP point of view: It depends on how I envision the character in question. For example, my PnP ranger is using a chain shirt. Why? Because that's how envision him, even when betters armors exist.
Besides... clerics, druids, rangers and barbarians may be using the feat as well (especially if they're variant human and can take it at level 1). Not everyone is interested in min/maxing, so there are plenty of uses for the feat even as a fighter.