On the topic of Half Plate Armor.

[Metaleficent]

It's weird to me on several levels that while looking through both older editions of D&D and both the Arelith Wiki I realized that Half Plate was heavy armor and not brought down to medium. From what I understand it... such a thing as been done unofficially for a bit until the introduction of 5 Edition D&D (which might be one of the few things it does right in my book) where it was lowered to medium and given a +2 dex max bonus. Before that, there was no good reason to buy it over other items and... for what? Some weird game design point where you teach the player "hey these options suck so don't try working with them, just replace them"? Poor design only done for aesthetic purposes...?

Like, why does it feel like everyone is pushed to always and only use one specific armor as a strength based martial class?

Or am I just weird for wanting a good compromise armor for the medium armor section?

[Good Character]

On Arelith, it allows build diversity. It expects the character to invest +1 DEX minimum into gear on a 8 DEX statline while also not allowing clerics to be the end-all for melee builds.

In other words, a matter of tradeoff. Do you want the immediate, easy AC or do you want to have chunky stats given like on the Templar Armor?

[Cabarcos]

In NWN2 and D&D Online, if I'm not mistaken, the Chainmail Armor is light and Mithril Armors have an increased Dex bonus. I suppose that due to engine limitations you can't easily change that kind of things in nwn.
In my mind Mihtril is supposed to be very light, so I always miss that when I see Mithril equipment in the server.
In the Lord of the Rings Frodo wore it inside his clothes, and no one took notice until he was stabbed.