Monk's Belt help

[Lonely Tylenol]

Well no duh, you gave him wild Hide armour for heaven's sake ! Hide armour is hands down the worst armour type possible... spending a feat on heavy armour proficiency for fullplate isn't uncommon, or failing that, even an ironwood breastplate is better than hide.

How did turning into a dire bear raise his touch ac by 6 ?

I'd like to know the answer to that question too. I read it as keeping it exactly the same. The extra bonus from Dex is offset by the size penalty, and wisdom stays the same. No other bonus applies to touch AC.

Also, yeah, if you're going to make a comparison, go for at least an ironwood breastplate. Hide is garbage unless you're 1st level and can't afford anything better. Dragonhide full plate is actually reasonably priced...for some reason. And even with Natural Spell, he's probably got enough feats for heavy armour. However, I'd resist making Heavy Armour Proficiency a baseline condition for comparison. More of a "option 3", considering the feat requirement.

 

[Nail]

For the druid, the shield doesn't have to be animated to be effective, even in wildshape. IN fact, a wild shield is better.....no ACP.

......anyway, it looks as if only the druid (rather than the Clr, or Ftr, or Pal, or,...) benefits from the Monk's Belt...but, as others have pointed out, it depends heavily on the type of armor the druid gets to wear. Hide +1 ain't where it's at.

 

[monboesen]

I did adress the touch AC mistake already, it is as pointed out 19 in humanoid or wildshaped form. Thats still 9 points better.

For the druid, the shield doesn't have to be animated to be effective, even in wildshape. IN fact, a wild shield is better.....no ACP.

But the animated shield is cheaper. The Wild one will provide 1 less AC for the same price.

As for the dragonhide breastplate.

One dragon produces enough hide for a single suit of masterwork .... breastplate or suit of full plate for a creature four sizes smaller.

Thats straight from the SRD.

So our 11th level druid must have somehow aquired the skin of a COLOSSAL dragon. Thats either a Great wyrm Red dragon, Great wyrm Silver dragon or a Wyrm/Great Wyrm Gold dragon. Sorry but thats not bloody likely to ever happen, at least not in my game. Those big bad boys don't just fall over dead when sneezed at. There sure ain't going to be a market trading in Collosal dragon hides anytime soon either.

I'm guessing the somewhat cheesy ironwood approach is more likely. That means a Ironwood breastplate which I also covered in that comparison. That leaves druid1 and druid2 with the same AC. But druid1 has a far better touch AC and his armor is always on and never cause penalties or movement reduction, has both hands free and so on. In addition he has saved 10.000+ gp.

Still a very good deal.

In fact comparing to regular armor is not really the right thing to do. The closest thing the to monks belt is a deflection bonus to AC. Deflection bonus applies in the same situations (I think). Our druid1 at 11th level would have to burn (7*7*2000) 98.000 gp for a comparable deflection bonus. Thats 59.000 gp saved.

The 15th level one would have to spend (9*9*2000) 162.000 gp for a comparable +9 deflection bonus, He just saved 113.000 gp.

So AC deflection bonus by SRD is very expensive. Could it be that I'm not the only one who thinks touch AC and easy to wear armor is worth something ?

 

[Diirk]

Darkwood shield also has no acp btw (special material in DMG). Also because its animated not wild, it can benefit from additional properties down the track, such as fortification, elemental resistance, etc.

 

[monboesen]

......anyway, it looks as if only the druid (rather than the Clr, or Ftr, or Pal, or,...) benefits from the Monk's Belt.

Thats no reason to let an item be cheap or too good. You don't price magical items for the value they have for people who could or would not use them. The price must be fair exactly for those characters/classes who will benefit the most.

 

[Nail]

Like the Headband of Intellect for the Ftr, right?

It seems to me like the uber-ness of the druid is outclassing the magic item, nicht wahr?

 

[monboesen]

I totally agree that the druid is to good in its current incarnation. Especially with natural spell, wild armors and whatever other items it takes to power up the wildshaped forms.

I don't really get the headband thing. The value of the headband is based on the value that it would have for a Wizard. He gains at least as much as a fighter gains from a belt of giant strength. So its only fair the cost is the same.

 

[KarinsDad]

Thats straight from the SRD.

So our 11th level druid must have somehow aquired the skin of a COLOSSAL dragon. Thats either a Great wyrm Red dragon, Great wyrm Silver dragon or a Wyrm/Great Wyrm Gold dragon. Sorry but thats not bloody likely to ever happen, at least not in my game. Those big bad boys don't just fall over dead when sneezed at. There sure ain't going to be a market trading in Collosal dragon hides anytime soon either.

Also from the DMG

Dragonhide Plate 3300 GP

This is full plate which apparently is not as hard to acquire as you state, otherwise, it would not be a mere 3300 GP.

 

[monboesen]

And that’s pretty strange don't you think?

Rather contra dictionary with the special materials section. Except of course if the going rate for killing a great wyrm is a lot cheaper than I would think.

In fact it’s laughable. Just how many colossal dragons will a given world have. Enough to provide a stable source of dragonhide breastplates and full plates.

Looking at that Great wyrm reds stats I don't even think there are any people in my homebrew capable of killing one.

All in all that’s a perfect example of the fact that not all things in the books are really thought through or consistent. You have to apply some common sense to the rules. The first question that pops into my mind is why it takes a dragon the size of a baleen whale to make on human sized armor.

At the risk of being repetitive. Please note that even with that dragonhide breastplate (I’m not going to use the plate armor as it costs a very valuable feat) the two druids have the same AC. But the monks belt one have used less gold and have a much better touch AC and all the other benefits lined up in my former posts.

 

[Diirk]

However you also had a starting wisdom of 17+... this won't always be the case. For example, in the campaigns I play in, we use a 28 point buy, and any stat being over 16 is very rare... in fact most of the group stick to 14s as the most cost effective, even for casters. And while heavy armour does cost a feat, if you're only using core rules (as a lot of campaigns tend to do) that isn't always too big a sacrifice. Especially if you're human.

While a monks belt is a very good option for a druid, its not necessarily the best option. Especially when you keep in mind that bracers of armour/monks belt won't work in all forms, although thats mostly a lvl 16+ thing.