Good armors for high-dex Barbarian?

[AddizAbeba]

Hi,

My group has a Half-Orc barb with a orcish Double-bladed axe (house-ruled weapon familiarity) and a dex of 17 and some über two weapon fighting feats.

He is level 10 now, and still walks around in his "studded leather +2 of silent moves and hiding". I'd like to give him something better as part of a treasure.
He likes to use his overrun feat as well.

Does anyone have any good suggestions (aside from the obvious extra pluses)? I'd like him not to lose his dex bonus to AC, and of course not his barbarian bonuses.

I really only have access to the core books, but am interested in nice stuff from elsewhere.

 

[Runestar]

If he is willing to suffer a reduction in speed and penalties on his sneak checks (which apparently, he is fairly interested in boosting), mithral fullplate is easily the best armour a barb can have. Its max dex cap of +3 meshes well with his dex of 17, and it offers the best AC. Else, a mithral breastplate may work just as well. Just be sure to eventually give him gloves of dex to further improve his AC.

Nimbleness (+1, MIC) gives the armour +1 max dex and -2 ACP. Hellforged armour (+1000gp, DMG2) further improves ACP by -1. So your +1 hellforged mithral fullplate of nimbleness has an ACP of 0. I am not really aware of any barb-specific armour properties.

 

[Thurbane]

This might be nice...

Mithral Full Plate of Speed: As a free action, the wearer of this fine set of +1 mithral full plate can activate it, enabling her to act as though affected by a haste spell for up to 10 rounds each day. The duration of the haste effect need not be consecutive rounds.

Speed while wearing a suit of mithral full plate is 20 feet for Medium creatures, or 15 feet for Small. The armor has an arcane spell failure chance of 25%, a maximum Dexterity bonus of +3, and an armor check penalty of –3. It is considered medium armor and weighs 25 pounds.

Faint transmutation; CL 5th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, haste; Price 26,500 gp.

 

[irdeggman]

Remember that mithral makes the armor be treated as 1 category lighter for purposes like a barbarian's increased speed.

So mithral full plate is treated as medium armor (so he gets his +10 movement) which counters the speed penalty of the armor so that in exchange for better AC he no moves at the same speed as a non-barbarian.

from the FAQ:

Is a character proficient with light armor, such as a
rogue, considered to be proficient with mithral breastplate?
What about a character proficient with medium armor,
such as a barbarian—is he considered proficient with
mithral full plate armor?

The description of mithral on page 284 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide is less precise than it could be in defining how it interacts with armor proficiency rules. The simplest answer— and the one that the Sage expects most players and DMs use— is that mithral armor is treated as one category lighter for all purposes, including proficiency. This isn’t exactly what the Dungeon Master’s Guide says, but it’s a reasonable interpretation of the intent of the rule (and it’s supported by a number of precedents, including the descriptions of various
specific mithral armors described on page 220 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide and a variety of NPC stat blocks).

Thus, a ranger or rogue could wear a mithral breastplate without suffering a nonproficiency penalty (since it’s treated as light armor), and each could use any ability dependent on wearing light or no armor (such as evasion or the ranger’s combat style). A barbarian could wear mithral full plate armor without suffering a nonproficiency penalty (since it’s treated as medium armor), and he could use any ability dependent on wearing medium or lighter armor (such as fast movement).

The same would be true of any other special material that uses the same or similar language as mithral (such as darkleaf, on page 120 of the EBERRON Campaign Setting).

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

There's some good stuff in MIC, though I've never found anything to help with overrun.* I'll name some things from that book, if you don't mind them not helping with overrun.

*Actually, there's Mobility, a +1 bonus ability that can be put on light armors and gives you the feat. Would the +4 to AC count on the AoO's overrun provokes?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

In addition to Mithril, check out Oriental Adventures. As I recall, some of them have better ACs and Max Def bonuses than some of the ones in the PHB- and coupled with Mithril...

As I recall, there is also something called "Spidersilk" armor, but I don't recall its details.