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Metal armor or enchanted clothes? Which do you prefer? Pros and cons?
Personally, I like a little mix of them.

It's funny because that's the same character, and as princess of her country, she's perfectly entitled to wear both.

Depends on the setting. It's literally just a matter of aesthetics and how you want things to look in your game world.

Sometimes you'll want to pick one or the other to be dominant, sometimes you'll want both to exist. If you want both to exist there should be legitimate reasons for them to coexist rather than one just being inherently superior.

I do personally enjoy non-realistic armour and enchanted clothing though. Armour dresses are awesome.

Metal armor for martials, enchanted clothing for magic users.

>Armour dresses
And here I thought I was the only one that liked that aesthetic.

If the two have the same bonus, the enchanted clothes would make more practical sense because they would be easier to move around in. If we're just talking about how they look, I think I agree that a mix of both is most stylish. (Which might also be the consensus here?)

Well, presumably if enchanted clothes can be just as protective as armour, the armour can be enchanted to not encumber or restrict you to the same degree as the clothes.

>Personally, I like a little mix of them.
Same, low level enchantments as an explanation for why some armor doesn't look realistic is something I love, also lets nobles or the like have clothes that double as (usually) weak armor

If I didn't recognize the shaft of that lance and the backwards dagger, I wouldn't have known that was worst girl.

Enchanted clothes.
Armor is for people with issues.

At what point do we just have “it depends on the setting” automatically posted to any OP containing a question?

From a purely aesthetic point of view, I like the idea of a world where enchanted clothes have since surpassed armor, but armor retains ceremonial use. The same way most old uniforms are today, where they don’t see much use in combat, but their design has become symbolic and patriotic overall. The British really do it best.

Enchanted clothes.

Wearing armor implies a martial, and martials are and will always be useless shit.

>Armor is for people with issues.
Like getting minced in combat

The pervasiveness of this meme is shocking. It's only really true in D&D, and not even all editions of D&D. And I guess in a few other games emulating D&D. But it's no way inherent to the idea, intuitive or backed up by the fiction those RPG's are based on. And yet people continue to repeat it as if there's no other way of doing it.

Because these are games for smart people, mages are classes for smart people, and martials are classes for jocks. If you're a sub-80 IQ moron, then fine, playing a martial might be for you. It's entirely too plebian for the rest of us.

GO OUT AND GET A BLOODY HELMET AT LEAST!

Or you could have a necklace, tiara, or even a cute pair of earings which do the same thing but look more stylish. Magic!

>Or you could have a necklace, tiara, or even a cute pair of earings which do the same thing but look more stylish. Magic!

All of this. Magic is always better than being mundane. Every time and forever.

All is fun and play until you enter an Antimagic Field.

That's the price of fashion user

Why not go for magical armor then?

Antimagic fields are honestly a kind of boring concept anyway, at least how they're usually implemented in D&D. They're just a pretty arbitrary 'fuck you', but there are so many exceptions or ways around them they aren't even particularly good for exploring the implications of a 'turn of magic' area in a fantasy setting.

Living armor (biopunk / non-lewd) > "classic" metal armor > living armor (lewd) > skyclad with tattoo wards > enchanted clothes

could you elaborate on those exceptions and ways around them? i don't know the rules (or the edition you're talking about) and am curious.

>Antimagic
Terrible way to "balance" magic especially when it's easy to get anti-magic skills/items. This is why smitefags became so damn annoying.

>a properly-enchanted necklace has as much defensive power as full plate armor
>plate metal, meanwhile, interferes with magic
>knights use it to protect themselves from mages
>the mages, meanwhile, maximize their mobility and agility
>the female mages are almost always naked

Noice

>the female mages are almost always naked

As women should be.

The moron said just before he gouge his eyes out when he saw his mom naked.

Games where armor and enchanted clothing have the same armor value are fucking stupid.

For starters; it implies that magic is common or strong enough to make any shmuck as heavily armored and protected as an elite knight, which is retarded. The entire PURPOSE of a social hierarchy is to support the warrior class who has the best equipment and training; which is exactly the purpose of 99% of all states since the beginning of human existence.

Secondly; it also doesn't make much sense if enchanted can just be added to items like that; why couldn't a wizard add an enchantment to a piece of armor; which will then have all of its innate protection + the protection of the enchantment on top. Wouldn't that be stronger then regular cloth with its enchantment?

It's just stupid. Armor is made for a specific purpose and it looks good.

>Anti magic is the perfect way to balance magic
Fixed your post

Alternatively, it makes perfect sense as long as you aren't asserting conditions that ensure it doesn't. You're literally just creating a context within which you're correct rather than considering that it's possible for things to be different than that.

You're totally right, but there are certain cultural connotations about fantasy games and stories.

If you want to argue that in your fantasy setting everyone can wear magical clothes that are just as good if not better then armor then sure; but you might as well everyone fights by throwing fish at each other and broken glass is the currency they all use. It lacks any kind of cultural context or obvious symbolism that we all know and use.

...Except that's not true at all? Formal outfits and so on being a kind of power in and of themselves is extremely well known symbolism, so having enchanted clothing plugs directly into that, just in a more metaphorical sense than the literal role of armour. Although in many ways ascribing that power to uniforms and icons of such things is actually a more contemporary iteration of the same ideas that armour used to embody.

I just like the idea of being able to make (usually low level) magical effects with non magical ingredients, though a set of magic clothes/jewelry would probably cost a bit more than one of armor unless you're in an area where metal is rare but [insert materials her] are common

Ok, sure, but those clothes can't stop a sword blade trying to split your body open. That's what they look like and that's what they're designed for. Nobody sees a princess in a big glowy magic robe and thinks she has AC 18. Heavily armored people should LOOK heavily armored. You're making your players relearn basic, innate concepts for no real purpose, If you've got a setting that has clothing enchantments being SO common, and SO strong that they rival metal armor you aren't playing anywhere near a traditional fantasy setting; you're playing something gonzo and strange. if that's your bag go for it, but this thread is literally "what do you prefer".

Metal clothes and enchanted armor.

But it's nowhere near as rare as you make it out to be. It's a pretty common visual style in a lot of games and only really causes the kind of dissonance you talk about when people come into it expecting or having a rigid preference for realism. Opinions are all find and good, but what you said earlier sounded very much like an attempt to say realistic armour is objectively superior to fantastical, which is just bullshit in a fictional context.

>But it's nowhere near as rare as you make it out to be. It's a pretty common visual style in a lot of games

Name ONE. I've never seen a traditional high fantasy, sword and sorcery style game where this has been the case.

Even in anime/wuxia style games 99% of the time the fighters don't wear armor but avoid blows through skill and speed, not because their robes are magically enchanted to be as good as armor.

Anime/Wuxia games and a lot of western MMO's? They don't tell you that the clothes are enchanted, sure, but they give the same defensive stats to the various sexy, fancy or otherwise non-armour outfits as they do to the armour options. And it's something people, y'know, like. Heck, they put in even less effort than OP is suggesting. They don't even bother saying why the clothing protects you, the just let you wear what you like and get the full benefit anyway.

Why not wear enchanted clothing under/over armor for the best of both?

Because if you're having enchanted clothing then you're making interesting aesthetics a priority, and you're going to shape the function of the magic to make looking awesome more optimal than concealing everything underneath heavy plate.

Conflicting enchantments if you want to add more complexity.

Dude

Those games have SCALING items, so of course a level 60 robe is going to have more protection then a level 1 rusty iron breastplate

BUT EVEN IN YOUR OWN EXAMPLE IN THE MAJORITY OF THOSE GAMES THE TANK (WARRIOR/FIGHTER) CLASSES WEAR HEAVIER ARMOR WITH BETTER PROTECTIVE STATS

Yes there are SOME exception to the rule but it is still pretty clear that armor is seen as being more protective then clothing.

AND EVEN IN THE GAMES THAT YOU ARE RIGHT the games are more about being able to create costumes/outfits instead of the raw stats as opposed to a fantasy world where your EQUIPMENT IS USED FOR ITS ABILITIES INSTEAD OF LOOKS NOT LIKE IN A GAME
Jesus.

But what if you're in an RPG and you want to use equipment for its looks?

Like, say, costumes in a superhero game?

There's plenty of precedent, it's not an uncommon thing, and it's just as valid as 'realistic' armour. You just don't like it and are mad about it.

metal armor

always armor of some kind, even if it's just a gambeson or buff coat

he's got you there!

armor was the formal outfit for many men. Look at Greenwich armor, shit would cost as much as a small castle

>Nobody sees a princess in a big glowy magic robe and thinks she has AC 18

I'd definitely argue a princess in slutwear has AC 18.

But I use THAC0.

Both depending on purpose, though I suppose I lean more towards enchanted clothing since my favorite defense system is the Line-shield from Phantasy Star, a personal forcefield portable enough to be worn on the belt or even woven into the fabric of your clothes and powerful/effective enough to replace conventional armor almost universally.

Both