More accurate to say he was a noble during baulders gate 2. Now he is a vampire who was forced to feed of rats, so he is not really rolling around in gold. Most likely that armour he stole of a guard he killed when he escaped Raphael / gale. [read my post on steam forums about Raphael being gale if your curious].
So it makes sense that his armour would give him disadvantage. Proper stealth gear is highly expensive, and rarely made of leather at all. Normally cloth with very specific weave of chain mail that was imbedded in double layer of very thick fur to remove sound via sound isolation. Likewise my impression of Astarion is that he lost all his gold anyway.
Nope. Makes no sense. He was a noble 200 years before the game. That's 100 years prior to BG1. He was a vampire spawn for 200 years prowling dark streets at night and preying on whoever Cazador had him prey on. Stealthing in noble attire is dumb.
Frankly, I still think allowing any characters to keep any gear is weird. We are teleported into coffins, essentially as prisoners WITH all our gear? It makes more sense to me if the mind flayers magically stripped us of all but our skivvies and our starter equipment is what we find in the nautiloid. Having a shield on my back in a narrow pod is strange to me. Also, this idea removes any issues with Shadowheart's armor, Astarion's armor, etc.
But then... One could assume that Astarion may have acquired said padded armor on the nautiloid after killing a noble. You never know.
