Dungeon Dilettante
Posts: 1
Joined: Sunday, 11th March 2012, 21:33
HO and Mi armour aptitude look quite low
For instance, Deep elves, the masters of spellcasting, are at +4 for it. Naga, being sneaky and without feet, get +5 to stealth. Obviously, you can't directly compare those aptitudes, they represent vastly different things. Another defensive aptitude, dodging, has it's zenith at +4 with spriggans.
Yet a quick look at armour aptitudes show that most races are outright bad at wearing armour, with few exceptions. The supposed goto for heavy melee, minotaurs, can't wear helmets (important mainly for the abilities, resistances and stat boosts you'll be missing, rather than the actual AC, but nonmagic characters have to depend entirely on their items to provide those), and the next best, HO, boasts only a disappointing +1, the same as kenku, who are definitely a hybrid race.
Is there a reason overall armor aptitudes are so low, or is having high armour aptitudes more gamebreaking than other aptitudes?
As an addendum, shield aptitudes tend to also be low, with the best available at +1.