Let's fix Armor of Speed without turning it into Boots of Speed...

[Hejdun]

I was not so much miffed by the armor bonus, though that was part of it.

Most of it was an extra partial action, for every 6 seconds, of every second that you wear the armor. It's like an infinite haste, and seeing as how haste is only one round a level, that's saying something. It's effectively casting a level 7 spell (persistant haste) on you once per day. I didn't really like that, so I just gave it the Boots of Speed fix.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Perhaps. But consider the possibility that, as a minor artifact, such a suit of armor would have greater pre-requisites to create. It might require a new feat, "Craft Minor Artifact," among other things.

Most likely, I think that, like intelligent items, creating a minor artifact would alter the price of it, perhaps by adding a flat cost, perhaps by altering the creation tables themselves.

The ELH will have rules on breaking the caps, but the items so created won't be artifacts.

 

[CRGreathouse]

You can have Mage Armor and it will stack. You could have this on a buckler and have minimal chance for arcane spell failure.

I don't know why you'd lose it flatfooted. It's a haste bonus, not an armor bonus.

You can stack it with mage armor, sure, but that restricts you to a +4 armor bonus. I covered this in my second point (though I said bracers). Sure, mages won't care... but they don't get quite as much out of the haste as the fighters do (unless their enemies typically start out within 10 feet, they lose multiple attacks when they charge in; partial charging and then full attacking changes a 1-attack round into a 4-5 attack round).

You lose the haste bonus when flatfooted just like you lose dodge bonuses. See the spell description.

 

[bmcdaniel]

You can also stack it with

It also stacks with Magic Vestment (and someone with +8 armor can easily afford to have Magic Vestment cast at 15th level to get the full +5 bonus). It probably also stacks with a bunch of other magic items and spells found in various supplements and whatnot.

IMHO a +4 Haste bonus to AC is worth *at least* a +5 armor bonus.

If you disagree though, may I suggest that for the Speed enhancment you remove the +4 Haste bonus and simply replace it with a +4 armor bonus. That way you won't have to worry about it. And I note that you are already talking about changing it anyway.

BM

 

[CRGreathouse]

Re: You can also stack it with

It also stacks with Magic Vestment (and someone with +8 armor can easily afford to have Magic Vestment cast at 15th level to get the full +5 bonus). It probably also stacks with a bunch of other magic items and spells found in various supplements and whatnot.

IMHO a +4 Haste bonus to AC is worth *at least* a +5 armor bonus.

If you disagree though, may I suggest that for the Speed enhancment you remove the +4 Haste bonus and simply replace it with a +4 armor bonus. That way you won't have to worry about it. And I note that you are already talking about changing it anyway.

If you really want to tone it down, make the bonus (for haste and weapons of speed) limited by the max Dex cap (-1 Dex penalty + 4 haste w/full plate = +1). This drastically limits its usefulness to fighters and clerics, though.

Good point about magic vestment - though that's a problem with all armor qualities.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

The ELH will have rules on breaking the caps, but the items so created won't be artifacts.

CR, is there a place where all the info regarding the Epic Handbook is gathered? This thread has gotten me interested in seeing what sorts of things will be included in the ELH.

 

[CRGreathouse]

CR, is there a place where all the info regarding the Epic Handbook is gathered? This thread has gotten me interested in seeing what sorts of things will be included in the ELH.

There's the ELH FAQ:
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/er/er20020210a

As for that specific piece of information, I read it very recently but can't source it at the moment. Sorry.

 

[green slime]

Anybody capable of purchasing/creating an Armour of Speed would also Maximize the benefits.

I believe +7 equivalency is probably about right.

A +1 Adamantine Full plate armour of speed with an extended Magical Vestment (15th CL) still has room for further enhancements (+2, or more when ELH arrives...).

Calling (+1, free action to don IIRC) and Quickness (+1, increases speed 5) strike as me as rather good combos.

Even without the MV it still has a huge Armour bonus of +14-+15 (+8, +2 or +3 natural armour enhancement-I can't remmember which, +4 haste bonus). The extra 10,000gp for the adamantine is peanuts at this level.

I also think that permanent magic items should be affected longer from a targetted dispel against them (say 1d4 minutes, rather than 1d4 rounds), as it is now its a tactic that isn't getting used. At least in my games.

 

[UofMDude]

Permanent haste just strikes me as wrong. If I were to ever put that in my campaign it would probably have some nasty side effects (ala super aging).

My preference would be to simply replace armor of speed with this:

speed (+1 or +2): grant an extra normal move/move-equivalent action every round while the armor is worn. This extra action does not stack with that gained from the haste spell.

Very useful, still "speedy", but not overpowering.

UofMDude

 

[Corwin]

speed (+1 or +2): grant an extra normal move/move-equivalent action every round while the armor is worn. This extra action does not stack with that gained from the haste spell.

Wow. I really like this. Having it provide a MEA (in stead of the typical partial action) is a creative solution. But, even then, I think the +3 is about right.

So: Armor of Speed (+3 equivelant) = extra MEA. Does not stack with haste or speed weapons, etc.

Very nice. Well done Mr. UofMDude.