Scale Mail Armour Check?

[Wik]

Scale Mail, a Heavy Armour, has no Armour Check Penalty. Is this a typo, or what?

If it's not, I'm houseruling in a -1 penalty, at least. It should be higher than chainmail's penalty, though. Shouldn't it?

What's the logic behind this?

 

[Zurai]

Read the description of the armor. It's intentionally better. Only two classes in the game come with scale proficiency (both Defenders); everyone else needs a feat to use it properly, and that feat carries some pretty irritating stat requirements for most builds.

 

[charlesatan]

What Zurai said. Chain is supposed to be inferior to Scale.

 

[erik_the_guy]

4th edition isn't all about realism, it's about balance. Scale is better than chain and has higher requirements. In real life maybe scale is more cumbersome than chain, but in D&D for issues of balance and simplicity this is how they made it.
I agree that its a little off of realistic, in fact the tiny penalties to movement and armor check penalty in 4th ed are mostly unrealistic. But now fighters are more fun to play than 3rd edition, because they are no longer completely immobilized by their armor.

 

[VannATLC]

In RL, scale is *not* More cumbersome than Chain.

I've worn both, for different things, at different shows.
If you are strong enough, Scale is simply better.

Hence the no armour check penalty, and the feat requirement for most classes.

Because chainmail is generally just a hauberk, and the wearer absorbs all the weight on the shoulders, its a lot more draining to wear.

 

[hong]

Scale is good so that, when WAR draws his scale-wearing warriors like he always does, people won't automatically categorise them as 1st level noobs.

 

[Dark080matter]

Scale is good so that, when WAR draws his scale-wearing warriors like he always does, people won't automatically categorise them as 1st level noobs.

This, plus it offers two very distinct choices at the "true" Heavy Armors end of the scale. Plate is simply tank-like, with significant [-2!] Skill penalties (that don't go away even with the Specialization feat) and a huge (for 4e) -1 move that likewise can't be escaped. While it might seem like a bad trade for the all of +1 AC bonus Plate offers over Scale at all of the same crafting levels, go check out the Plate-only magical enhancements. Go ahead, do it.

Conversely, Scale offers the serious heavy warrior type the option of having his cake and eating it too with a Speed penalty that can be Specialized away with a sufficiently high Dex modifier (which is pretty easy to obtain really, if you care enough about your Reflex defense and aren't needing Intelligence for any attack stats). This is clearly an important option to have so that a mobile, skillful Defender is legitimately possible within the system.

I think it's important to distinguish that, as others have said, Chainmail is simply deliberately inferior to these two choices. It's the entry level Heavy Armor for the Leader classes, with the expectation that a Leader who's really into the melee side of things is going to qualify pretty easily for Scale Armor Proficiency anyway.

 

[Gloombunny]

If it's not, I'm houseruling in a -1 penalty, at least. It should be higher than chainmail's penalty, though. Shouldn't it?

Nope!

What's the logic behind this?

Realism! Sometimes heavier, more-protective armor is less cumbersome and fatiguing to wear simply because of superior construction. Remember how masterwork armor in 3.5 had a lower check penalty? It's the same principle. Some types of armor are just plain better than other types.


Also, game balance. It's not like the 4e armor rules overall make any sense in terms of realism, even if the scale/chain comparison sort of does.

 

[WOLead]

Don't rule out Chain so easily. While inferior in both AC and has -1 to skill check and speed as a penalty, the Chain only Magic Armors are nothing to scoff at. 2 Deal with healing, better for Leader types. One deals with buffing a targeted defense by 2 until the end of an encounter. So you can decide whether that 2 goes into AC, Will, Fort, or Reflex depending on the most common attack the encounter you are in has. The last choice is Eladrin Armor. Despite being chain type armor, it has no skill or speed check penalties. Also gives a boost to teleportation distance depending on the Enhancement.

My Feytouched Warlock is forgoing the other armors for the Eladrin Chain.

 

[Rowsdower]

WOLead, thats a great idea.
I hadn't noticed you can grab chainmail if you just have training in leather armor, for some reason I was thinking you had to have hide armor training first.
Since I made a feypact warlock also with the requirements for hide, I'll instead pick chainmail when I can grab that armor.