wizard in plate armor?

[wighair]

Hi, am i right to think if a wizard wears plate armour the only negative effect will be a -2 penalty on attack/reflex rolls? And to avoid this he would have to take the 5 armour prof feats to get up to plate?

 

[ForbidenMaster]

Hi, am i right to think if a wizard wears plate armour the only negative effect will be a -2 penalty on attack/reflex rolls? And to avoid this he would have to take the 5 armour prof feats to get up to plate?

And he would loose his most likely very high Int to AC.

 

[Mr. Wilson]

Don't have my books with me, but that looks about right.

There is no arcane spell check penalty in 4E.

 

[Oompa]

And he would loose his most likely very high Int to AC.

I think the AC from the armor will be higher..

So if you want to make an battle wizard that uses alot of close blasts and close bursts ( no OA ) than go ahead

 

[Protagonist]

From magic plate maybe but his int should be fairly high after the heroic tier so it will probably pay off more - AC wise - during the first tier.

However, keep in mind that -2 to attack is a rather big difference, especially during the first few levels and especially since the wiz doesn't get as many +attack boosters as other classes (implement vs. weapon).

Your reflex defense will also suffer from the -2, though I don't know how many monster/npc attacks that are likely to target a wizard are vs. reflex

 

[inati]

The check penalties apply to skill checks, not attack rolls....

"Check: You take this penalty to all Strength-, Dexterity-, and Constitution-based skill checks when you wear the armor. You don’t take the penalty to ability checks (such as a Strength check to break down a door or a Dexterity check to determine initiative in combat)."

 

[Protagonist]

The check penalties apply to skill checks, not attack rolls....

"Check: You take this penalty to all Strength-, Dexterity-, and Constitution-based skill checks when you wear the armor. You don’t take the penalty to ability checks (such as a Strength check to break down a door or a Dexterity check to determine initiative in combat)."

cf.

[...]the only negative effect will be a -2 penalty on attack/reflex rolls? And to avoid this he would have to take the 5 armour prof feats to get up to plate?

We were talking about non-proficiency

[quote="PHB p.212]
If you wear armor you’re not proficient with, it makes you clumsy and uncoordinated:
You take a –2 penalty to attack rolls and to your Reflex defense.[/quote]

 

[Mirtek]

I think the AC from the armor will be higher.

Not really.

1st level wizard with 18 Int and hide:
+3 hide +4 Int = +7 total

1st level fighter in scale:
+7 scale = +7 total

1st level paladin in plate:
+8 plate = +8

So the wizard has the same AC as the fighter in scale and is only 1 point below the paladin in plate and has a lower penalty and a higher speed than the paladin. Also the wizard in hide did not need to get 15 Str and 15 Con, which is a waste for a wizard

 

[Gloombunny]

Not really.

1st level wizard with 18 Int and hide:
+3 hide +4 Int = +7 total

1st level fighter in scale:
+7 scale = +7 total

1st level paladin in plate:
+8 plate = +8

So the wizard has the same AC as the fighter in scale and is only 1 point below the paladin in plate and has a lower penalty and a higher speed than the paladin. Also the wizard in hide did not need to get 15 Str and 15 Con, which is a waste for a wizard

He did need to get 13 Str for the hide armor, though, which is also a waste for a wizard. Better to stick with leather, if you ask me.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

The only time I can imagine heavy armor being better for and away better for a wizard is once you have acess to the best masterwork armor (when you reach a +6 enhancement bonus).

+4 Chain gives +13 AC.
So at level 16 thats a 31 AC (scale would increase this by +1 and plate another +1)

Level 16 wizard will likely have a 22 intelligence
So with +4 Leather he'll have a 31 AC (and with hide he can get +1 AC)

So generally at level 16 the wizard in leather saves a feat over the wizard in chain and has a higher AC, if he wants more he's wiser to just get a hide proficiency to boost AC and he won't have a speed penalty unlike the guy in chain.


Level 26 wizard with +6 Chain (+18 AC) will have a 41 AC

Level 26 wizard will likely have a 25 intelligence so in +6 leather he'll have a 37 AC.

So 1 feat for +4 more AC at mid epic levels isn't a bad deal for the wizard. It'll also be much easier to have a 13 str by then too.

But at lower levels sticking with leather is clearly the best answer.