Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Astarion's armor gives disadvantage on stealth

Got me there.

I still think it would be better as clothing tho ...
Even if only for my Wizard to steal and wear it. :3

Oh, I totally agree. It 100% doesn't make sense as Padded Armor. Not really. It's a REAL stretch to say he found fancy Padded Armor ever anywhere.

Real Padded Armor
Https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambeson#/media/File%3AEdward_Fiennes_de_Clinton%2C_Earl_of_Lincoln.jpg

Worn by a Lord Admiral. Not fancy and not just some random noble person.

Not quite sure why keep giving arguments after we agreed ...
But enjoy.

Maybe I'm not being clear. It's not an argument. It's me confirming that I agree with you. I wanted to show an example of the type of people who actually wore Padded Armor, and Astarion plus any noble doesn't really fit.

I see ...
My misstake in that case.

As an aside, although that's ;listed as a gambeson, I'm pretty sure that's actually a form of leather armor-some sort of buff coat to be more precise. IIRC they were often worn with a breastplate/cuirass to protect against bullets and usually had sleeves, but you see them worn without plate and without sleeves as well. Here's a similar one worn by Catalina de Erauso:
And a surviving historical example:
Very similar to the in-game leather armor it was most likely inspired by.

But really, the difference between such armor's is mostly technical, because although one is padded cloth or leather, and the other is oxhide, they fill basically the same function. They are often even tailored similarly with a similar shape, fastenings, etc. Certainly, it doesn't make much sense for one to be 'noisy' when the other is not.

But D&D is notoriously lousy with portraying historical armors, so this is par for the course. (studded leather didn't exist, ringmail (mostly) didn't exist, a lot of armor uses confused terminology basically creating two or more types of armor out of essentially the same thing.

From a gameplay perspective of course, it makes absolutely no sense to give the rogue something that negates the iconic skill of rogues. Esp because most new players will assume his base armor wouldn't penalize stealth. It's also kinda irritating in that as (the worst) armor, while also being one of the prettiest armors available, the amount of characters who can use it without penalty (in regards to either spellcasting or stealth) is low. Also, unlike with Shadowheart and Lae'zel, who's armor stays useful for quite some time, these disadvantages plus the inherently low ac make it useless essentially right out of the gate.

I repeat my earlier statement: should be clothing or at the least leather armor.