Are mages wearing armor, now that it is not verboten

[Quasqueton]

Has anyone seen wizards or sorcerers using armor or shields?

With padded, leather, masterworked studded leather, and mithral chain shirts and shields, mages can now get an extra +1 to +6 AC bonus without having an armor check penalty (even with no proficiency). And they would at most a 15% spell failure chance (mithral chain shirt and mithral heavy shield). All for considerably cheaper than an equivalent pair of bracers of armor.

I've seen one ranger/wizard take the 15% ASF risk with a suit of mw studded leather. But that's it. Granted, that was the only mage I saw ever get into melee combat.

I'm kind of surprised that more mages aren't trying this rule.

Quasqueton

 

[buzzard]

I know of two characters in Living Greyhawk in my region that are arcane casters that use armor. Both use Mithril Chain shirts.

buzzard

 

[uffinf]

We had a sorcerer/barbarian who tried wearing studded leather for a few levels but he seemed to have his spells fails more than 15% of the time.
That became an ongoing joke for the rest of the party and as soon as his mage armor spell started lasting long enough he ditched the armor.

 

[Painfully]

I have a Rogue 3/Wizard 5/Arcane Trickster 1 that wears a mithril chain shirt. It gives a 10% spell failure chance.

For a while I kept forgetting my arcane failure, but if combat was still going on I would quickly insert my roll to check. Almost always it did not cause me to miscast my spell. Now, I've gotten more accustomed to it, and remember it every time.

Outside of combat, my DM allows me to ignore spell failure. This saves the other players and the DM from having to listen to me talk about donning on/off my mithril shirt whenever I cast my utility spells like, detect magic. In effect, my DM allows me to "take 20" when casting outside of combat.

It's a good compromise. I did fizzle an opportunity with a fireball spell once, but I greatly appreciate the extra AC when up against non-spellcasters.

 

[Qualir]

I currently play a fighter 3/wizard 1 who wears mw full plate, and I am the only spellcaster in my party. My fellow adventurers always joke about my armor choice as a spellcaster, but I actually have yet to fail to successfully cast (I am beginning to believe that my d% are blessed). My armor choice is only temporary while I advance my melee skills on the way to bladesinger PrC, but it has worked out so well that I may actually choose to go spellsword instead.

 

[arwink]

We've got a dwarven wizard who uses a shield, and I've taken a wizard cohort that used a dwarven waraxe, shield and leather armor before.

The weapons choices tend to be much more common than armor, all in all.

 

[Sarq]

I play a Sorcerer/Barbarian (4/1) who spends most of his time in Lizardfolk form, (Alter Self), making use of the +5 Natural AC bonus and the granted Multiattack feat to lay waste to my enemies. Combine the above with a Shield spell and a mithril shirt and I out strip the party fighters every time.

"Time to Get Jurassic" (In party quote. Not mine! Really!)

 

[hong]

And if you play a bard or battle sorcerer (UA), you can even wear light armour without spell failure!

 

[Sammael]

I have an enchanter PC in my campaign wearing a mithral chain shirt. He had to burn a feat on Light Armor Proficiency, though.

 

[Bloodstone Press]

I played the last legs of RttToEE with a dwarf Fighter-1/wizard-10. He wore plate mail. He had an animated shield. He also had feats, equipment and magic items that reduced the spell failure chance. He still suffered a small chance of spell failure, about 5% IIRC. He used a lot of buff spells on himself to wade into combat as a front line fighter.

He had a low Strength score and had been sent to military school by his father to "toughen him up." But instead, he studied magic in secret and learned how to supplant his physical weaknesses with spells.