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Eladrin Armor, found on page 230 of the PHB has the following as one of it's properties

This armor has no speed or skill check penalties

Now, it's clearly not RAW, but I have a hard time not seeing it as obviously making the armor "light".

Are there any strong arguments on how it would make the armor too powerful?

It makes me think of the Mithril Shirt from 3.5.

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This would probably be a little too powerful, for the cost of a feat (Armor Proficiency: Chainmail) it would grant classes that normally use Leather or Hide armor a +4 - +8 to AC (depending on level), most feats that boost AC seems to usually only give a +1 or +2.

In general classes that use light armor are able to have an adequate AC with some combination of Int/Dex modifiers and/or class features that boost AC. Changing Eladrin Armor to count as light armor would allow these classes to still get those bonuses while also getting the increased AC of Chainmail.

For reference these are the bonus Leather, Hide and Chainmail give at various levels:

Leather
1-15 +2
16-25 +3
25-30 +4

Hide
1-15 +3
16-25 +4
25-30 +5

Chain
1-10 +6
11-15 +8
16-20 +9
21-25 +10
26-30 +12

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    \$\begingroup\$ For further comparison, note the superior armor Ring Mail, which is Chainmail that counts as light armor (plus some other small bonus), but lowers the AC bonus of the armor by 3 to compensate. And this requires a special feat to use at all, even if you're already proficient with chainmail. \$\endgroup\$
    – Michaellogg
    Jan 21, 2016 at 20:19
  • \$\begingroup\$ Hmm. Good points. Negating the whole Ring Mail thing does seem a bit unbalanced. I mainly was thinking about how the armor was limited to only Chain. Ring Mail is a good option I suppose, but I was hoping to have the classic elven/mithral armor. ie, as strong as other armor, just lighter. Perhaps losing the Teleport ability.... Thanks guys! \$\endgroup\$
    – mykepwnage
    Jan 21, 2016 at 20:54

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