Druids need a Medium Armor type

[fatherpirate]

Do keep in mind that that web armor and the dragon scale is of
little use to druids under 10th lvl or so.

It is easy to fall into the rut of only thinking in terms of lvl 20 characters.

[Brennie]

So much misunderstanding, misinformation, and derailing in this thread.

Do druids needs a buff? Yes.

Are there more important things to focus on, than druid "equipment" woes? Yes.

Should "druid oath' restrictions mean somethign more than funny flavor text? Probably, yes.

Does that mean we shouldn't also point out the problem with druid and medium armor? NO! A problem is a problem, whether its big or small, or more or less important than some other glaring issues.

Problem Synopsis: There are no randomrolled medium armor types usable by druids from levels 4 to 25. There are a very slim smattering of named medium armors, and there are non-metal light armors on the loot tables. However, for a class that boasts medium armor as one of its class benefits, having virtually none to choose from, and large level gaps between ones that are available, is simply bad planning on Turbines part.

Solution:

1) Replace scalemail with hide armor (Or just change scalemail to be nonmetal), thus giving druids a nonmetal medium armor on the loot tables that is not a rare drop ( see 2 below), and which scale with the level-locked armor types (Feycraft, etc),

2) Add darkleaf/darkscale/ironwood/darkwood/woodscale/darkironwoodscaleleaf material types to the loot tables, allowing breastplates and perhaps half plate to potentially have nonmental properties. This would not be a sufficient option by itself, as the rarity of "nonstandard material type armor" would make this unavailable to too many players. If at all possible, it might even be fun to call the half plate versions "Darkleaf Banded Mail", for nostalgia sake (plus it would mean reusable graphics !),

3) Introduce new nonmetal named medium armor at various level ranges, or retrofit some older, thematically viable, armors. Leave plenty of armor as metal base, especially ones that are already mithril or who's purposes don't align well with druid needs.

End result? Druid have some, but not all, randmrolled medium armor available to them, with some low max dex/higher base armor types available on "Rare material type" armors. And, of course, a few nice named armors are available for players who are lucky or persistant. HOWEVER, many good named armors remain outside of druid use, as well as all standard randomrolled breastplates, giving druidic restrictions some actual drawbacks.