My first house rules is armor. Rules as written is quick but requires gaining or sacrificing a skill which can get messy if players change armor mid game.
My fix is still a skill tax but more organic.
Medium armor gives a -2 die penalty to Agility in combat when fighting in medium armor. Heavy armor gives a -4 to Agility in combat when fighting in heavy armor.
A new skill is available called 'Trained in armor'. This skill negates 2 points of penalty for fighting in armor. Now the option to fight in any armor type is there with consequences and skill tax is also a thing but without gaining or losing skills for changing armor.
A few options that count as gear Shadow Amps will be available, but probably not common place. Here are a few examples.
Shadow weave: +2 to stealth in darkness.
Runed: +2 resist/defense dice against spells.
Fae Weave: +2 dice to Con.
Hardened: (heavy armor only) hardened armor always takes one less damage than is assigned to it.
