Good non-magical armor for anti-magic hero?

[aboyd]

I'm putting together a BBEG who has been imbued with "anti-magic essence" and thus radiates a small aura where his own magical armor won't confer bonuses. He's fairly powerful -- not a god, not even a demigod, but certainly the kind of guy who could afford to invest in permanent anti-magic.

He runs a town of about 3000 citizens, heavily martial, heavily lawful, mostly good. There is no rogues' guild in town, because the guards have been that successful at enforcing law.

So, this guy who runs the show... he needs armor, or my evil, evil, players will come along and kill him good.

I can use core + Complete books + PHB 2 + En World critters books + Tome of Horrors 3.5 revised + MIC + Spell Compendium + Denizens of Avadnu.

Maybe there is a chitinous shell that could be built into awesome light armor or something?

 

[aboyd]

Also, anyone know of feats that convey Extraordinary abilities? Those would work through the anti-magic field.

 

[Shin Okada]

As magics don't work, non-magical armor made of special material will be the obvious way to go.

Depend on the BBEG's fighting style, either Mithral or Adamantine will be the good start. If non of the melee PCs are using thrusting weapon, Susalian Chainweave in Complete Warrior can be another option.

You did not list up Draconomicon but if you can use the book, you can make an armor/shield with slight energy resistance (dragoncraft armor/shield).

Regarding Ex abilities,

What kind of abilities do you want? Most of the feats, especially those related to melee fights, are non-magical. What is the class of the BBEG and how will he meant to fight?

 

[aboyd]

Thanks!

I haven't classed him yet, as I want to be free to select a class with lots of "(ex)" abilities, if necessary. So that's monk or barbarian, but monk doesn't match with the BBEG's heavily armed & armored sensibilities. Rage is nice.

I also took note of the "Justicar" prestige class in Complete Warrior. An extra 3d6 of "damage" every strike, in exchange for declaring each attack non-lethal. That's not too shabby.

He's likely lawful neutral.

I like Combat Expertise for the +5 to AC after an attack. I like Armor Specialization for the DR 2/- (in PHB 2). I might skip it if I get that Adamantite armor so that I don't have to burn a feat.

Speaking of burning feats, I was thinking of the Faster Healing feat in Complete Warrior -- it's never going to come into play, but how else does the guy heal wounds? Right? He can't use a potion, as far as I can tell. So it's just a roleplay element.

I would be fine with a straight fighter class, and I would just soak up as many feats as possible. My campaign gives a few extra feats to the fighter, so at level 16 (his level) he'll have 3 more feats than a core-rules-only fighter would.

 

[Shin Okada]

How wide is that anti-magic area? It seems obvious that spells and other magic attacks can't hurt him. But is that area wide enough to suspend opponents' magic items? If not, that BBEG may be in trouble as PC combatants get ability bonuses and he doesn't.

Anyway, I don't think Monk is the way to go. The class is largely multi-ability dependent (thus need a lot of magic items) and actually has a lot of (Su) class features.

Still, Stunning Fist is a nice trick when fighting without magic. You can let him use this by giving appropriate feats, even if he is not a monk.

As you are using PHB II, Melee Weapon Mastery feat seems to be an easy choice. Weapon Focus + Weapon Specialization + Melee Weapon Mastery = +3 to attack and +4 to damage.

Sneak attack is always nice if the BBEG has a lot of tough minions. If not, Skirmish ability of Scout class can be more useful. You can combine this with Bounding Assault feat. Also, there is a feat called Improved Skirmish in Complete Scoundrel.

Or, if the PC party is composed of popular races, Ranger can be another option. You can always take Favored Enemy (Human), (Dwarf), (Elf) and such.

With Swift Ambusher feat in Complete Scoundrel, you can make a really nice Ranger/Scout.

When making a BBEG and he can have many feats, I always give him Steadfast Determination feat (PHB 2). Even if this feat does not raise one's will save much, it will prevent him from dying from massive damage or being stunned when rolling natural 1 on his fort save.

 

[Starbuck_II]

A Soulknife can keep his magic weapon in an antimagic field (Wisdom check each rd). There is a feat for a shield in Ebberon books.

So if BBEG was one he could have decent AC. (maybe multiclass to a a Fighter for Heavy armor proficiency).

 

[Nebten]

Look at Races of Stone for the exotic armors. Of course Tower Shields. Make what you want Adamantine. Then out of RoS & PHB II there are feats that increase armor bonuses and abilities. If he's pure fighter, I'm sure he'll have enough feats to cover all that.

If you decide to go the ex-barbarian route, he won't be able to rage if he's Lawful.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

A Soulknife can keep his magic weapon in an antimagic field (Wisdom check each rd). There is a feat for a shield in Ebberon books.

So if BBEG was one he could have decent AC. (maybe multiclass to a a Fighter for Heavy armor proficiency).

There are also Soulknife bladeshaping feats in Dragon #341- using the same prereqs as the ones from CompPsi- that give you the ability to reshape it into any (one) weapon- including a polearm- or a shield.

The polearm option raises this question- would the tip of a polearm (be it masterwork, reshaped mindblade or standard magic item) extend outside of his field? And if so, would that enable him to use its magic for offense?

There is an OA PrCl called Shou Disciple that lets a PC meeting its prereqs use FoB with any weapon.

Also from OA is the Sohei- a class that has elements of the Paladin and Barbarian. Its Ki Frenzy is similar to Rage, and its a divine casting class.

If you go with a Stunning Fist build, the feat Ring the Golden Bell from DCv1 lets the user deliver a blow from his IUC at (short-ish) range for the cost of one SF use...and any effect that can be delivered by IUC goes along for the ride.