On armour prices and (anti-) bang per buck

Remove all ads!

I've been looking at armour sets I have for Imoen and Jahiera, how much they sell for and what their stats actually are. At first sight the prices don't make a lot of sense to me.

Immy's options:

Studded leather + 1: 15lb; AC6(4 vs slash/5 vs pierce); 750GP
Protector the Second + 2: 5lb; AC6(8 vs pierce); 1750GP

Jahiera's options:

Chainmail + 1: 20lb; AC4(2 vs slash/6 vs crush); 800GP
Splint mail: 40lb; AC4(3 vs pierce/2 vs crush); 15GP

Apart from their lightness, which is nice but doesn't contribute to staying alive AFAIK, both the expensive and higher rated armours appear to be marginally inferior to the cheaper ones. It seems a no-brainer to sell them and put the cash to better use.

But why are they so expensive? Is it just that they have a +1, +2 etc and the prices are scaled by that irrespective of their actual comparative effectiveness?

 

My guess is that the devs were trying to stay somewhat in line with PnP game. The +1, +2, etc.. means an item is magical in 2nd edition AD&D. There are benefits from wearing magical armour that probably do not carry over into the CRPG world as the game engines for CRPGS are much more limited than a PnP game could ever be. For instance, an etheral creature can ignore non-magical armour when attacking but the magical +1 effect could still give at least a -1 AC bonus against the attack. Though I doubt that was carried over into the BG/IWD engines.

The cost of creating a suit of +5 Leather armour is immense. It would equate to an AC of 3. But so does Plate Mail. What should be worth more? The Leather +5 of course. It has about no encumberence compared to the Plate Mail, more classes can use it, etc...

And again, in the PnP world of 2nd edition AD&D, encumberence is a bigger factor than in the CRPG game engines. Which makes magical leather much more attractive than non-magical Plate Mail.

 

I just checked the saving throws listed on the character sheet and changing the armour (or using no armour) seems to have no effect on them at all.

So it looks as if they implemented the 2nd edition price scheme for +n armour accurately, but didn't implement some of the benefits that justified those price tags?

 

Pretty much, although in some cases it's that they didn't implement some of the weaknesses and drawbacks of the various armors. The movement and encumbrance restrictions of the heavier armors for example.

Most everything else I could say has been covered already.

Such as that you can't enchant generic armor, you don't get to see that it costs more to put a +2 enchantment on leather armor than it does to put a +1 enchantment on studded leather. Not just in GP or gems, but also in EXP. Hence a higher price.