[Kromm]

Originally Posted by MIB.6361

In the new system, I don't see any reason the barbarian wouldn't wear the best armor she could afford covering her entire body.

Nothing says a barbarian can't do that!

But a starting barbarian is likely to drop 9 points to max out Tough Skin for DR 3, paying for better than half of that with five quirks. Then she'll take Struggling [-10] and still have $500, which is enough to slap on heavy leather armor ($450) for a net DR 5 and get an inexpensive weapon (any weapon is great with ST 17+). At 36 lbs., such armor won't encumber someone with ST 17+, even with a weapon. In play, trading off such armor for something better comes at minimal "waste" in terms of cash and none in terms of character points – and Struggling doesn't limit the barbarian much unless she has no friends to buy and sell for her.

Extra money is always a possibility, but it's capped at 5 points (from quirks), so it nets $2,500. Choosing a disadvantage other than Struggling means having $1,000 + $2,500 = $3,500, which can buy heavy scale armor ($3,300) for DR 5, plus a weapon. At 120 lbs., such armor plus a weapon is hefty enough to put a barbarian at Medium encumbrance at ST 17, and Light up to ST 24. And the first time better armor is found, the 5 points traded for wealth are effectively "wasted." Plus not choosing Struggling means picking a problem that's likely to remain more limiting in the future.

There are hybrid cases; e.g., get Tough Skin 3 and trade 5 points for cash, choose Struggling because it's easily avoided later, buy segmented plate (DR 4, $2,700, 72 lbs.) for total DR 7, and raise ST enough to avoid being encumbered. Nothing wrong with that! But 5 points are still "wasted" in a sense, and there's still 36 lbs. less carrying capacity for weapons and loot.

In all cases, barbarians also have huge HP and can afford to take hits, so the armor isn't as important as it is for others . . . especially when you take into account mandatory High Pain Threshold and options like the new and improved Very Rapid Healing ("I heal the barbarian for 8 HP . . . oh, wait, with HP 22 and VRH, that's 24 HP!").

Knights are very privileged in the armor department because they can get Armor Mastery, which allows unpenalized layering and bonus DR. Trading 5 points for money to end up with $3,500 allows such cheese as segmented plate over heavy cloth, for net DR 7 and no DX penalty. Granted, all those "wasted points" and encumbrance problems pertain. On the other hand, a knight is less likely to be a cunning outdoorsman who wants to use Climbing, Stealth, and Swimming to stalk opponents, so being encumbered is less of a big deal. A knight also can't rely on HP to soak as much injury. And if the knight happens to find armor, chances are he can layer it with some of his existing armor (say, replacing the heavy cloth with mail while keeping the segmented plate, or replacing the segmented plate with lighter, higher-DR brigandine, plate, or heavy plate while keeping the heavy cloth), so there's less waste.

All told, it's largely flowery writing anyway, but there are definitely differences between "I can have Tough Skin and loads of HP, and get by with lower Wealth" and "I can have Armor Mastery to exploit the heck out of almost any armor I find."