[bum3]

Originally Posted by Danth [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Rangers don't wear chain because Druids wear leather (chain is still metallic, so it has the same objection to a Druid that plate armor has), they wear chain because it's easier to put on and take off and hence it's more suited to loners who travel out in the wild a lot. The Knights wear plate harnesses because they're (dismounted) cavalry and expect to partake in battle mostly in the presence of allies who can help with little things like buckling all those hard-to-reach straps. Warriors are heavy infantry and wear the best armor for the same reason. Clerics wear full armor because they derive ultimately from fanciful depictions of "battle priests" such as Cardinal Richelieu showing up on the battlefield wearing armor. It probably wasn't real, but that even late middle age minds thought it'd have been pretty cool is enough to justify it in a fantasy video game.

I don't know why Bards wear full armor, realistically they're the ones who should've been another chain-type class. I guess they like the fashion and having the large flat surfaces to paint in bright colors.

If you want to be REALLY pedantic, probably no-one should be wearing full plate armor because it hadn't been developed yet during the high medieval technological period that Norrath basically simulates. The advent of full armor was contemporary with other late medieval advances such as the gradual adoption of gunpowder weapons. It started appearing towards the end of the 1300's and really came into its own during the 1400's and beyond--age of exploration era, basically. In the high medieval period, think 1100's or 1200's, you'd be looking at mail armor or at best a coat-of-plates.

Leather armor shouldn't exist either, as it has virtually no historic counterpart. Studded leather is basically a fantasy invention created because the folks who made D&D didn't realize what brigandine armor was and mistook it for "studded leather" rather than the riveted plate it really is. Light armor took the form of gambesons or similar garments. "Banded" armor may not have existed either, the term crops up once or twice in period sources.

There's today's useless trivia.

Danth

Except there are no mountable beasts... so unless they are riding Centaurs... then i'm all in.