Playing it more as a Dark age early viking age would suit our playstyle. Downgrading armour is a great idea :)
What about making armour more variable. Like have 1d4 - 4d4 armour(Maybe even more for later periods.), while having a d8 as a shield die? So if a character is caught in a bad situation while not wearing armour, they are pretty screwed. but if they are dressed for battle in full byrnie and a large shield they would be more of a tank. But the enemy could still hit them in a weak spot of the armour. Hence the variability of the die roll instead of a flat armour rating. Also, more and more data shows that shields were used more actively as a defence, not just as a Passive block. so giving it the possibility of absorbing 8 damage would reflect that. So armour dice are d4s damage is d6 and shield is d8. This leaves a lot of room for variability. Average for 4d4 is 10, and the average of a 1d8 is 4.5 so 14.5ish damage reduction. While the potential is as low as 5 damage reduction or as high as 20.
IDK. Just a thought.
This lack of fragility in D&D is why I'm considering leaving the system all together. Low level characters are vulnerable. But past lvl 5 characters just seem to pop back up as if nothing happened. Hey a giant smashed you into the ground. You were at minus a bazillion HP, but your buddy cast a healing spell that gave you 1 hp and now you are back in the fight. It's a bit cartooney.
Love it! Can't remember if this is a thing already but tutoring could maybe be an option as well. Pay X amount of £ to increase 1 point from level 15-20. Or maybe a tutor grants one extra chance to succeed in a skill advancement roll. In real life being rich usually helps right xD