The Price of Armor

[Saint]

We recently started to design our first characters - and one of my players wanted to make a knight. I hadn't looked at the pricelist prior to our character building and noticed, that Armor seems kinda cheap in Tri-Kazel. Especially the full plate armor comes at 3 Frost Daols, which equates to roughly 50 smoked fish (6 Ember Daols) or 100 pints of beer.

Is this intentional? At the moment it is not that unreasonable, that every peasant militiaman could afford himself a full plate armor, which seems very odd. (and every fighter player character can buy one easily)

I'm thinking of multiplying the cost of full plate by about the factor 10, which would make plate armor rare and something that only rich nobles would afford.

[Gully]

It cost the same as a horse, and its not the shinny gold leaf stuff, but average quality. A militia member makes about 2 frost a month ... So if he doesn't eat and pay rent he could afford plate armor in a month and a half. All seems fine to me. But of course feel free to modify as you feel appropriate.

Edit: Also, I wouldn't want to be chasing thieves and drunks in plate armor, which the militia most likely does.

[Clovis]

Gully gave a rather good answer on this one: a starting warrior (who therefore probably has a "Hazardous Profession") gets 30 Azure Daols to spend on equipment, which means that he would have to remain entirely naked to afford Plate armor! To get such high-quality protection, a starting character has to take the "Financial Ease" Advantage.

Now, don't forget that an average militiaman probably makes between 8 and 10 Ember Daols a day, the most part of which he has to spend on food, lodgings, and various amenities (such as alcohol, tobacco or new clothes). Therefore, to be able to afford such armor, a city guard would have to save money for entire months, and live very frugally during such a period!

As a consequence, I think 3 Frost Daols seems like a reasonable sum for plate armor, since it makes for quite a small fortune!

[kjetilkverndokken]

Seems about right, in a way.
it all depends on how much iron there is to mine, how easy it is to extract and how many smiths that can make the armor.

Mail was very expensive in the medieval age to give an example, most soldier only had leathers or bolted leathers, maybe with rings.
Plate was extremely expensive, mostly only worn by nobility.

Also do not forget that Plate is very intensive when it comes to keep it clean, and repairing it. So even if mr. standard militiaman saved up for one, he probably would not be able to afford the maintenance cost of it afterwards.