Wizards in leather

[lukelightning]

I never understood why leather armor, a chain shirt, or even a breastplate (anything that didn't disrupt the motion of the arms and hands) would disrupt spellcasting.

I always thought of Hennet the sorcerer in the 3e books. Leather armor? Bad. But I guess it's ok to wear clothing that looks like 47 leather belts buckled all over your body.

And the 3.5 shield rules are nuts. You only need one hand free to cast a spell; you can carry a shield in your other hand, but the moment you actually stick your arms through the loop, *zap* arcane casting failure.

 

[slacknhash]

I think 13 CON as a prerequisite may be house ruled. 13 STR instead is just mean

Yeah, but surely meanness is a prerequisite for any GM worth his or her salt?

 

[James McMurray]

As an adventuring wizard, I have to say that it's a great feat.

 

[theNater]

There are a few kinds of cloth-only armor enchantments that might be better for wizards than enchants available for leather. Notably Bloodthread, Ghostphase, and Mantle of the Seventh Wind.

For wizards working from the back lines, where AC attacks are relatively uncommon(compared to the front lines), those effects may be more valuable than the AC bonus. If this is so, we may see wizards wearing leather early, then switching to the lighter armor when they become more confident in their magical defenses.

 

[Mengu]

Best wizard feats for heroic tier are (in no particular order):

Armor Proficiency Leather
Improved Initiative
Action Surge/Hellfire Blood
Toughness
Skill Training/Jack of All Trades/Alertness
Any energy damage feat you might qualify for

From this limited list, it's not too surprising Leather will typically be one of the earlier feats. Untill we see some variety with splat books, the only feat difference between wizards will be the order in which these feats are taken

 

[hudarklord]

Re: those who asked why armor should cause arcane casting failure, in DragonQuest used to say (a la the fairie weakness) that wrought iron interfered with magic. So mages could wear plain leather, but more heavily metalic armors interfered with casting.

When I first built my 4E Wizard I was gonna pick Jack of All Trades and Expanded Spellbook. When I came to the conclusion that Expanded Spellbook wasn't that useful at 1st level, I went looking for something else -- another roleplaying Feat: Linguist.

After trying a sample combat, I really needed defense, so I sold out my "Jack of All Trades" for Armor Proficieny: Leather.

I also looked at Improved Initiative. The fact that others have similar ideas, makes me feel like the system kinda railroads you down specific paths of development even though it doesn't claim to.

Lee

 

[Tellerve]

Man, apparently I'm the only one that likes Expanded Spellbook. I always wanted to play wizards that got all the spells I like my choices!

But I agree, Leather armor does seem like a grand idea.

Tellerve

 

[Otterscrubber]

I don't have a problem with wizards wearing leather armor. If I was expecting to go into combat, I would probably put something on other than a bath robe. Unless it was combat with the Swedish Bikini team......

 

[James McMurray]

Man, apparently I'm the only one that likes Expanded Spellbook. I always wanted to play wizards that got all the spells I like my choices!

I got expanded spellbook, but I have yet to use any of my third choice spells. I'll be trading it out next level for Resounding Thunder or Combat Sense (I may be misremembering the name, I mean the one that's 2d20 keep the highest for init).

 

[Rith the Wanderer]

I love expanded spellbook too...I actually like to switch out my dailies to play with them how they work. After I've made my thousandth wizard and understand exactly how each spell is going to work in combat, I'll stop taking it. But as of now I get a lot of use out of it.