2nd level mage armor

[Magnus]

IIRC, Concealment prevents sneak attacks, making blur very useful when fighting rogues.

that's news to me. i know that more than half cover does ... didn't know about concealment. you sure about that?

It's not as good as mirror image most of the time but I still think it is useful. Twenty percent is 1 out of 5. Seems okay to me.

one chance out of 5 to get hit is one thing (mirror image) but 1 chance out of 5 to be missed seems way too risky to me

 

[GuardianLurker]

is it just me, or is Blur a complete WASTE of a spell. i mean, 20%??? what's the good of that? that's 1-4 on a d20! how many mages would really trust their lives to the hope that an enemy would roll that badly? waste of a spell slot if you ask me ... oh ... wait ... you didn't, did you ... nevermind me.

Remember that the 20% blur miss chance is independent of the AC, so the actual result is slightly better than an actual +4 increase to your AC (which is nothing to sneeze at).

 

[Obese Squirrel]

Perhaps instead of focusing on increasing the AC bonus, have something different.
Like +1/1 damage reduction for a short period of time.

Maybe have a different type of AC bonus as mentioned previously.
As a divination spell perhaps, you get a +2 insight bonus to your AC.

 

[trentonjoe]

Perhaps instead of focusing on increasing the AC bonus, have something different.
Like +1/1 damage reduction for a short period of time.

I think that is an excellent idea too!

I think that may be a higher level spell than 2nd though. Don't barabarians and dwarven defenders get this as a call special ability?

How about as a third level spell something thatcauses DR of +3/3
and both the numbers would increase every 6 levels so at 12th level it went to +4/4 and at 18th it was +5/5?

 

[Magnus]

Remember that the 20% blur miss chance is independent of the AC, so the actual result is slightly better than an actual +4 increase to your AC (which is nothing to sneeze at).

slightly better if you have mage armour on as well. which is exactly what i've been saying. if you have to add another spell to make it "slightly" better than the one, it's a waste of a slot.

... but that's not what this thread is about, is it ... i'll shut up now

 

[apsuman]

Perhaps instead of focusing on increasing the AC bonus, have something different.
Like +1/1 damage reduction for a short period of time.

Maybe have a different type of AC bonus as mentioned previously.
As a divination spell perhaps, you get a +2 insight bonus to your AC.

Not a bad idea, however...

I initally wanted to make a spell that would give the caster a mage shield that would act like a shield but stack with mage armor. Then I thought of those poor sorcerers with their small number of spells known and having to have two spells to make a suit of force armor. So, I wanted to make a single spell that would would do the same.

So I imagined a suit of force armor (with or without a shield) with an AC bonus of +6 (or more) but I did not know what spell level it should be.

I did not want to make a spell of such a high level that there would be no value in knowing the spell.

g!

 

[trentonjoe]

So I imagined a suit of force armor (with or without a shield) with an AC bonus of +6 (or more) but I did not know what spell level it should be.

I did not want to make a spell of such a high level that there would be no value in knowing the spell.

g!

There was a 2E spell, ghost plate or something, that give the caster an armor bonus of +7 for a round per level. It was a third level spell.

I think it was in the Forgotten Realms Hardback. I'll try to find it if you are really interested.

 

[apsuman]

There was a 2E spell, ghost plate or something, that give the caster an armor bonus of +7 for a round per level. It was a third level spell.

I think it was in the Forgotten Realms Hardback. I'll try to find it if you are really interested.

\

Thanks, but no.

I really just wanted input on how strong to make a second level spell.

Given that mage armor has a range of touch, and a duration of 1hr/level, and a +4 AC bonus, i figured that if i limit mage armor II to a second level spell, with a range of personal, and possibily limit the duration to 10 minutes/ level, it should certainly be greater than +4, but how much higher?

I am beginning to think that I should simply make the first spell mage armor give a d4 + 1/ 2 levels, or better yet, make it 1d4+2, and let the caster empower it.

1d4+2 would be average of 4.5, empowered to a third level spell it would be 6.75.

double empowered to a fifth level spell makes it average or 8 or 9 (depends on how you round), with a range of 5, 8, 9, 12

 

[trentonjoe]

How about:

1/round per level
personel only
+6 to AC


That seems okay to me for a 2nd level spell.

If this is for a sorcerer the duration isn't a problem he/she can just recast it when it runs out.

 

[Cabral]

is it just me, or is Blur a complete WASTE of a spell. i mean, 20%??? what's the good of that? that's 1-4 on a d20! how many mages would really trust their lives to the hope that an enemy would roll that badly? waste of a spell slot if you ask me ... oh ... wait ... you didn't, did you ... nevermind me.

Blur grants the creature touched one half concealment making them immune to sneak attacks and all attacks against them suffer a 20% miss chance. That 20% miss chance is effectively a 20% increase on your AC most of the time. And since it's not a personal spell, you can cast it your pals. A fighter with an 16 Dexterity, +5 Full Plate and a +5 Large Shield would have a base 23 AC that would be effectively 27 while blurred. This is a fairly extreme example, but not as extreme as is possible. The point is, the higher your base AC, the more useful blur is.

Additionally, if your attacker only misses on a roll of a 1, blur's 20% miss chance effectively requires the attacker to roll a 5 or higher to hit you. (Conversely, an attacker who only hits you on a 20 is not adversely affected by blur)

As for the improved mage armor[/] spell, I am tempted to say +4 armor bonus +1 deflextion bonus per 2 levels. (Deflection bonuses don't stack, correct?) but that may bit a bit much for a 2nd level spell (maybe a 3rd level spell?)... Another possibility is shield and mage armor in one spell ...