Bracers of Armor obsolete?

[frankthedm]

Am I missing something?

Yep, whether or not the DM will approve that armor property. You did a very good job making the argument that it should not be approved.

 

[Menexenus]

Ahh, the DMG specifically lists the Mithral Chain Shirt as being 10 pounds. And I have never read an exemption for armor or shields in the weight saving property of Mithral, would you care to quote where it says otherwise?

On page 243 of my 3.0 DMG it says, "Nonarmor or nonshield items made from mithral weigh half as much as the same item made from other metals." This wording explicitly excludes armor and shields from mithral's weight reduction properties.

Still, when I look directly at the listing for Mithral Shirt, you are clearly correct.

So, the OP is right! There is very little reason not to use this new cheese and throw away your Bracers as useless relics of a backward technology.

(I guess that's one of the reasons why my group has always been Core-Rules-Only...)

 

[Legildur]

This wording explicitly excludes armor and shields from mithral's weight reduction properties.

I don't think that you are reading it literally enough. It exludes armor and shields from the half weight reduction, but does not preclude other weight reductions (as evidenced by the specific items already referenced, such as the chain shirt, which is reduced by more than half).

 

[KarinsDad]

On page 243 of my 3.0 DMG it says, "Nonarmor or nonshield items made from mithral weigh half as much as the same item made from other metals." This wording explicitly excludes armor and shields from mithral's weight reduction properties.

This is not exclusion text. It is inclusion text.

Mithral items that are not shields or armor are half weight. This does not state what mithral shields and armor weights are. What are the weights of mithral shields and armor?

Elven Chain: 20 pounds (50%)
Mithral Shirt: 10 pounds (40%)
Mirthral Heavy Shield: 5 pounds (33%)

The equation appears to be 50% rounded down to a number evenly divisible by 5 pounds.

 

[Victim]

Anything that escapes from the Book of Exalted Deeds should be considered very carefully.

 

[ohGr]

The monk, on the other hand, is going to wish he spent his cash on the bracers.

But yes, for arcane casters there is very little reason to ever get bracers of armour.

 

[Jdvn1]

Anything that escapes from the Book of Exalted Deeds should be considered very carefully.

Apparently it's also in the PHB2, though. That's a more reliable book.

 

[Land Outcast]

Maybe I'll sound like an ass but...

Why make an enhancement to reduce ASF?
We've aready got mithril, and -many- spellcasters are not meant to use armor,
why would we have this then?
Even more, we've aready got things that enhance as-if armor, bracers of armor.

And, want to be an arcane armored spellcaster?
Be a spellsword!

One of the most salient important abilities of this class is consumed by an armor enhancement:
Want to wear a magical chain shirt? take 5 levels of spellsword
OR
get a mithral twilight chain shirt....

[/rant]

Sorry, I needed to get it off

 

[KarinsDad]

Apparently it's also in the PHB2, though. That's a more reliable book.

You mean as a munchkin's dream book?

 

[Jdvn1]

You mean as a munchkin's dream book?

You don't think the PHB2 has some good options? BoED, IMO, is a horribly balanced book, and is more of a munchkin's dream. It's the only book I wholly disallow.