Wizards in leather

[Donatello]

The wizard in my party gets better protection from hiding behind the fighter, ranger, rogue, and cleric.

I think the wizard in my campaign has been attacked in melee combat 3 times in 28 encounters because of smart tactics both on her part and the party. +2 AC, in her situation, isn't as critical as Improved Initiative and Burning Blizzard. Maybe later she'll decide to pick it up, but for now, she's not even considering it.

 

[Solodan]

As a player, I'd probably start with leather, but retrain that out by paragon levels. Two reasons, first - it is far more likely that I'll get better enchants on cloth for a wizard, and I don't want to have to wait in line for the magic leathers behind the rogue. Also, I anticipate that our group will have better dynamics and I'll have better escape spells as I progress so I no longer need +2 ac.

As a DM, if I wanted to keep leathers off the mage, I'd make sure that there is usually some magic robe available fairly easily. I'd encourage my players to not overlap in items, both weapon and armor.

 

[Baumi]

It's certainly a nice feat, but not a must have.

My human wizard (level 1) took Impr. Initiative and Language Talent and I didn't miss the +2 AC so far. Also the magic Cloth Armors Rock (flight, insubstancial,...)!

The only disappointment is that heavy Armor is nearly useless for a Wizard .. Hide Armor+Int has nearly the same AC (might even go higher).

 

[Aservan]

I find it silly that people expecting to go into combat don't want to were something a bit sturdier then robes. Also have you ever tried to hike across the wilderness in robes? Gandolf had to be an angel for that.

What I find silly is that other feats are not as good as leather armor prof. There are far to many precise hunter style feats and too few leather armors. I want feats to make me go: Neat! Not keep reading looking for one I actually care about. This is a game. It should be fun to pick feats not a tedious task of looking for one that actually makes a warlock better.

 

[The Little Raven]

Don't visualise it as leather armour, imagine it being a thick leather trenchcoat (or surcoat).

That's how I describe my eladrin wizard's leather armor. A high-collared coat, like those worn in Plunkett and Macleane and Brotherhood of the Wolf.

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

Now I can't get Judas Priest out of my head.

 

[Staffan]

Harry Dresden wears a leather duster, appropriately enchanted.

 

[Tony Vargas]

A +2 AC for a feat is a pretty good deal. Paragon armor specialization feats only give you a +1 and have non-trivial preqs. For an heroic feat it's almost a no-brainer.

It's funny, because in 3e, there was a big silly debate about putting armor enchantments on bracers or clothing instead of armor. In 4e, they not only put in Cloth 'Armor' that was outright just clothing or a robe or whatever, but they also made it a moot point by giving Leather proficiency no preqs at all.

A low STR preq, like 11 or something, would make it more of a decision for the wizard. STR is immenently dumpable for the wizard, while DEX (wand mastery, initiative) and CHA (Spell Focus) have thier uses. So, going for leather would mean declining to dump an 8 in any stat, and thus, maybe, having one of your more important stats 1 point lower. A CON preq would be meaningless, even a non-staff-mastering Wizard doesn't want to dump CON.

 

[FadedC]

I find it silly that people expecting to go into combat don't want to were something a bit sturdier then robes. Also have you ever tried to hike across the wilderness in robes? Gandolf had to be an angel for that.

What I find silly is that other feats are not as good as leather armor prof. There are far to many precise hunter style feats and too few leather armors. I want feats to make me go: Neat! Not keep reading looking for one I actually care about. This is a game. It should be fun to pick feats not a tedious task of looking for one that actually makes a warlock better.

I'll grant you that there could be a few more interesting spellcaster feats in the PHB. Keep in mind though that one of the design decisions of 4e is that all the really cool things are powers, and feats are usually just minor bonuses here and there.

 

[Stalker0]

As a recent convert to the leather armor club (my wizard retrained into it at 2nd level) I will say its one of the better feats. +2 to AC for no penalty, yes please. Definitely not the only feats out there, expanded spellbook can be good, jack of all trades is such a great feat it is the only reason for a non int using class to consider a 13 int, etc.

But as others have pointed out, right now every classes feat choices are pretty limited. So of course there are going to be some feats that seem like "must haves". We will see how the feat stands up once splatbooks release more choices.