Max Dex bonus..

[Bodah]

I've been curious about this for awhile.. how are items like Celestial armor able to have such a high max dex bonus? By the rules I can only manage to get a dex bonus up by 4 more (nimbleness enchantment, and mithral) Is there some way by the rules you can increase max dex bonus by that much? I am curious because I wanted to craft some armor with a higher max dex bonus but I dont see any rules for increasing that. If there are some guidelines some where about the cost of increasing max dex bonus I'd appreciate it if someone direct me to them.


Also I have a similar question about increasing the strength bonus to a bow weapon.. The 'mightly' quality seems to cap out at +4. Yet I've noticed that bow in the ELH that matches the wielders strength bonus at all times.. are there any rules for costs in crafting an item with a higher mighty than +4?

 

[dcollins]

It's important to note that there really aren't any hard rules for inventing/designing "new items" (although their are guidelines in some cases). Each one needs to be developed and balanced individually by the game designer (or DM for house-ruled items), just like any new feat, spell, or prestige class.

Now, "Celestial Armor" is a "special armor" for a reason. It doesn't need to follow any rules. The package of abilities, including the max Dex bonus, has been priced at what the designers think is appropriate.

Similarly, no, there aren't any rules for pricing "mighty" ability over +4. Again, an item in the ELH can have a magic ability that has been balanced by the designers without needing to follow any predefined rules for it.

I'm sure many can offer suggestions for house rules to extraopolate the prices of these items to other house-ruled "new items".

 

[Spatzimaus]

Celestial armor doesn't really match any specific combination of enchantments. I'd say that the main factor in the high Max DEX is the concept of diminishing returns; most enchantments and material bonuses are additive.
Bumping Max DEX from +0 to +2 may be REALLY valuable, since that's effectively +2 to AC. Bumping Max DEX from +6 to +8, on the other hand, isn't very powerful, since it'll only make a difference if your DEX is 24 or higher. So, once you stick the mithral bonuses onto the chainmail stats, you already have something with a good max DEX; it's not a big deal for the enchantment to raise it a bit higher.

So, the designers just fudged it. They decided to find out what sort of abilities would be fair for a +5-cost armor, and that's what they ended up with. Overall I'd say it's pretty fair; it may only be a +1 armor, but it's great for Bard-types. Note that thanks to the errata, Celestial Armor also requires the Fly spell in the creation process.