[Proposal] Imposter's Armor

I propose that this magical armor, found in the Adventurer's Vault, have its "Armor:" line changed from "Chain, Scale, Plate" to "Any." This would increase the availability of the armor to the classes that will traditionally make the most use of it (rogues, assassins and bards). Currently these classes do not make use of heavy armor without a significant investment in both stats and feats.

KarinsDad said:

The stuff is made for heavy armor guys so that they can blend into situations where armor might not be allowed. Having Rogues and Assassins use it goes beyond the original intent.

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That is entirely possible. Everyone is justified in having their own opinions. You've got yours, and I've mine. I feel that it's entirely within reason that a Light Armor class might find use in not wearing hardened leather armor about town.

KarinsDad said:

Maybe you are thinking of a Hat of Disguise.

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I'm pretty sure I'm not. I checked the page again. It definately says "Imposter's Armor." "Hat of Disguise" is a different item from the same book. It's found on page 142, incase you'd like to see that item and how it differs from the one I'm actually talking about.

Why wouldn't Summoned Armor work? They both require a minor to activate. Imposter's armor does provide an additional benefit of any set regular clothing from my reading of it. They both function to allow someone to not wear their armor around.

Mostly for the benefit you name. Being able to break out a disguise from that one piece of armor is more streamlined than carrying around 20 sets of cloth armor.

On top of that, clothing counts as cloth armor so it would need to be removed before using Summoned Armor.

There's no mechanical reason to not allow the expansion. This mostly expands RP opportunities for Changeling PCs who are otherwise hampered until level 7. At level 7 they may, at the expense of the L+4 slot take a Hat of Disguise which creates an illusion that is easily broken by touch.

A PC taking Imposter's Armor is giving up a dozen more optimal suits of armor for something that promotes RP. I can't really see that as a bad thing.

Alright, I can kind of see that as a bad thing as the guy who lost a PC entirely due to making a choice of flavor over optimization.

twilsemail said:

That is entirely possible. Everyone is justified in having their own opinions. You've got yours, and I've mine. I feel that it's entirely within reason that a Light Armor class might find use in not wearing hardened leather armor about town.

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I'd like my Sorcerer PC to have a +2 item bonus to AC for wearing Agile Leather Armor, but unfortunately, Agile Armor is limited to Chain, Scale, and Plate.


For the purpose of wearing no armor about town, heavy armor wearers have the Imposter's Armor option. That item option was explicitly designed for them. Light armor wearers have the Summoned Armor or Hat of Disguise options (as do Heavy armor wearers as well).

If that's the purpose, then there are already options for the Light armor wearers.

If the purpose is to change the best disguise and AC item for this particular thing so that a certain class of PCs can now get it, although they didn't meet the requirements previously, then I don't see the need.

To me, this seems like a cheap way to get an automatic clothing disguise and a fairly decent AC while "out of armor" for that class of PCs that are already heavily skilled in Bluff disguise. Most of the heavy armor wearers (with the possibility of Paladins) are lousy at Bluff, so the designers gave them an out.


From a game balance perspective, the third level heavy armor guys go from AC 20 with +1 Imposter's Plate to AC 11 (plus possible Dex or Int, maybe as high as AC 12 or 13). During a surprise round and possibly part of round one, they are at a major disadvantage.

The same third level light armor guy would go from AC 18 with +1 Imposter's Leather to AC 15. The drop is not nearly as severe.

I think there is a game balance reason that Imposter's Armor is only for the Heavy armor wearers.

My hope was something more like the Glammered ability found in 3.5 where the item could be changed without losing bonuses.

Saying that I would probably still take this for my rogue. The ability to change the clothing you were wearing is a more useful ability for me for RP purposes.

I read the Hat of Disguise too and think this defeats the purpose of what I would be trying to do. It alters the total appearance and is but an illusion, no stats are changed whatsoever and upon touch the illusion can be seen through.

The Imposters Armour on the other hand is not an illusion, it changes from armour to regular clothes and loses all its benefits as armour.

As I wanted Glammer this is the closest I can get, I would still be wearing armour when needed for combat, but if I (as a changeling) alter my appearance I would be able to alter the appearance of the clothing I am wearing to complete the transformation.

I would take it even if it was only clothing and provided me no armour value whatsoever. I just want to be able to alter my clothing at will without needing to carry around ten different sets of clothes.

BloodPrincess said:

I would take it even if it was only clothing and provided me no armour value whatsoever. I just want to be able to alter my clothing at will without needing to carry around ten different sets of clothes.

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At the moment, you can wear Leather armor and just put the Imposter's Chain on over that. Change the Imposter's Chain into whatever you like and you're pretty much wearing +X Leather. Unlike Summoned Armor, Imposter's says nothing about not wearing another suit of armor and the PHB only mentions the problems of wearing two magical items in the same slot at the same time.

KarinsDad said:

From a game balance perspective, the third level heavy armor guys go from AC 20 with +1 Imposter's Plate to AC 11 (plus possible Dex or Int, maybe as high as AC 12 or 13). During a surprise round and possibly part of round one, they are at a major disadvantage.

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How is this particular bit of mechanics in any way different from Summoned Armor?

If the concern is the bluff bonus, I can alter the proposal to create a new suit of armor that does the exact same thing without the bluff bonus.

Again, this was mostly for RP support of the most poorly supported PC race in the entire game. Mechanically, I can pull of what I want without this proposal. I just think that the necessary steps are silly.

I guess a different option would be to propose a feat or something that allowed a Changeling to alter their clothes.

How did they manage in 3.x without the ability to alter their outfits?

Oh, I see your point. The only thing about that is I would need to change it from clothing to armour before going back to clothing, but as its a minor action I should be able to do that in less than 6 secs. So your saying that the Imposters Chain would cover the leather completely so it looks like i'm not wearing armour at all or would you see the armour through it? Not that it matters, the ability to change clothing is very useful for me, thanks for the idea.

twilsemail said:

How did they manage in 3.x without the ability to alter their outfits?

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I'm guessing hat's of disguise. They were pretty cheap in 3e, actually there was almost no reason for the party not to have them...