New Magic Armor Property (Talismanic)

Talismanic

This armor has a distinguishing mark or crest on it. Upon command, the armor disappears, leaving behind only the distinguishing symbol as a talisman or pendant. The same command word allows someone wearing or holding the talisman to immediately don the armor in its original state.

Faint transmutation; CL 5; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Shrink Item; Price +2750gp.

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Opinions? Suggestions? Comments about what you'd do if a DM gave you a set of talismanic dragon scale armors in distinctive colors with matching cheezy command words and the ability to cast enlarge person on yourself 1/day?

did you already halve the price because it uses two item slots?
(Necklace and Armor)

jaker2003 said:

did you already halve the price because it uses two item slots?
(Necklace and Armor)

Click to expand...

Nope, it doesn't use two slots...it's worn on the body and you can turn it into a useless bauble that has a string for ease of carrying. It is not intended to interfere with the use of the amulet chakra.

I’d make multiple versions of this for light, medium, and heavy armor, with increasing costs.

Putting on light armor takes one minute, taking off light armor takes one minute, and the only penalties for wearing it all the time would be social penalties in situations where armor is not usual—like going as a courtier to a social event.

Medium armor takes four minutes to put on, one minute to take off, and the armor check penalties are high enough (even after masterwork) that there’s a significant benefit in being able to turn it on and off at will. (Want to swim? Climb? Jump? No problem!)

Heavy armor takes four minutes and another person helping to put on, 1d4+1 minutes to take off, and has armor check penalties that are high enough to be a real pain, not to mention that the penalties are high enough that sleeping in the armor makes you fatigued.


Finally, note that the heavier armors with this enhancement will begin to look interesting to casters with arcane spell failure chance. Sure, it takes a standard action to turn the armor on or off, but a +8 armor bonus is nothing to sneeze at. And once you run out of spells for the day, you might as well get all the defense you can.