MW armor question(s)

[Belares]

I am sure this has been asked but didnt find anything recent on this question.

First off how does one even make masterwork armor? I see no skill to use.

It states in the PHB pg. 212 "Master work armor never appear except as magical armor and even then only the highest levels 16th level and above. With that said even if you want to make +2 drakescale armor it can't be done. It has to be +4 or better as +4 magic armor is level 16+.

Second let's say you do want to use MW quality in your game how hard would it be to make/find and would you care if players found it and made the armor(s) MW. I mean by 16th level not much is hard to find for heroes.

[Regicide]

Originally Posted by Belares

I am sure this has been asked but didnt find anything recent on this question.

First off how does one even make masterwork armor? I see no skill to use.

Toss a bag of gold on the ground and use the enchant magic item ritual, same as everything else is made.

Originally Posted by Belares

It states in the PHB pg. 212 "Master work armor never appear except as magical armor and even then only the highest levels 16th level and above. With that said even if you want to make +2 drakescale armor it can't be done. It has to be +4 or better as +4 magic armor is level 16+.

That's correct.

Originally Posted by Belares

Second let's say you do want to use MW quality in your game how hard would it be to make/find and would you care if players found it and made the armor(s) MW. I mean by 16th level not much is hard to find for heroes.

It's as available as non-MW armour. When your players hand the GM the list of magic items the GM is to put on the monsters, they should be telling the GM to give them MW.

MW is just a fix to keep heavy armour giving the same AC as light armour + stat. Without it, light amour + 20 base stat + ability boosts from level + demi-god gives better AC than than heavy armour can.

[Obryn]

Hi! I'll try and be helpful, rather than bitter.

Originally Posted by Belares

I am sure this has been asked but didnt find anything recent on this question.

First off how does one even make masterwork armor? I see no skill to use.

Masterwork armor is an odd duck in 4e. It basically started as a mathematical patch more than anything else, but fortunately it's gotten more interesting as of Adventurer's Vault. It's also confusing as heck - probably the most perplexing part of the entire 4e PHB.

Craft/Profession skills aren't in 4e, as such. They're considered to be part of a character's background - more for role-playing purposes and depth of characterization than for use in-game as a way to work a trade for money.

It states in the PHB pg. 212 "Master work armor never appear except as magical armor and even then only the highest levels 16th level and above. With that said even if you want to make +2 drakescale armor it can't be done. It has to be +4 or better as +4 magic armor is level 16+.

Right, but what, exactly, that means is up to the individual DM. You can run it a few different ways... I ruled that the Masterwork armors do, indeed, exist, even if they aren't sufficiently enchanted. However, they need to be enchanted to a minimum degree for them to protect more than your basic non-Masterwork armors.

YMMV. You might decide that Masterwork isn't even worth the work, and just say that every suit of armor that's enchanted is masterwork by default.

Second let's say you do want to use MW quality in your game how hard would it be to make/find and would you care if players found it and made the armor(s) MW. I mean by 16th level not much is hard to find for heroes.

It's as hard as you want it to be, but I wouldn't recommend making it tough to find Masterwork armor. (Or at least, no harder than finding magic armor to begin with.) As I mentioned, it's mostly a math fix... It's there to make sure heavy armors keep pace with light armors. Without Masterwork, by high levels Light Armor + Dex/Int will be far more valuable than Heavy Armor alone.

-O

[Belares]

Thanks for the input. When i posted this thread i didnt realize that the AV had lower restrictions on MW armor (+2 minimum levels for heavy and +3 for lighter I thought the PHB had them too). I also wasnt aware there was a difference in charts in PHB and AV as the AV included NEW MW armor types. The PHB2 has all of them combined so even though the rule in PHB was true for those MW armors it only makes sense to allow +2 minimum MW heavy armors at level 6+ magic heavy armors(and +3 for lighter).

The playability i think will be just fine and kind of fun to have something special at lower magic armor levels.