The Blacksmiths boy who didn't bother to learn from his father

[213]

i think plate should be reduced, but fabric and other armor types should be more sturdy. however when you do meet plated opponents, they should be very robust. also yees the cost of plate armor is not high enough, and also now you get way more groschen so it offsets the price as well. the realism of the game is, relative to everything else, vastly superior. but it’s not perfect and there are still contrivances.

a realism mod should reduce the amount of plated bandits, enhance the armor protection of all armor, but especially plate, increase the utilization of polearms, make a full suit of plate armor somewhere in the 20kg range if not more instead of what it is now. someone in henry’s station and position essentially being an emissary/messenger/spy for his lord really shouldn’t be wearing anything else than basic frabic, chain, and some type of simple plate components on his arms and legs. but yeah it would be too prohibitive and cause an outcry if only high status npcs could wear plate. just make it prohibitively expensive

[Boru9]

Now that I think of it, Henry doesn’t start at zero: At the very beginning, you get to choose your initial stats during the dialogue with Henry’s mother. You can be more of a good-for-nothing blacksmith’s son who spends his days practising speech in the tavern or you could be starting with a decent level of strength (or other things) depending on your choices. And as for the craft, Henry knows how to use the grindstone unlike other peasants and even at maintenance level 0, he can do a very decent job on a blade. Who’s to say that sharpening wasn’t his primary duty during his apprenticeship? Since maintenance also governs fixing fabric and other things, it makes perfect sense for it to start at 0.

[Jeza]

Well if you manage to make it work for you that’s good. And , sure Henry could be a poor apprentice and not very good at maintenance or very strong if he’s lazy, I completely agree with that.
But he still should have at least a couple of points in strength and maintenance in my opinion, and then depending on your initial choices (worked at the forge = he’s a dedicated apprentice = has more strenght, that makes sense) he could be very strong or just a bit above average but having other talents.
But for me to feel it’s realistic he would still need to be at least that bit above 0 because lazy or not he would have worked enough to get more strength than say a trader.
At least that’s how it feels for me.