New magic item - Mage Armor!

[S'mon]

Or 'force armor', if you prefer.

If, like me, you don't like how 3e stopped high level characters wearing armour, try this idea, inspired by 1e/2e magic armor and by my desire to see Thrin, God of Cavaliers, wearing armor in the forthcoming Immortals Handbook!

Mage armour is created when a Wizard takes a masterwork suit of armor and enchants it so that most of its mass becomes incorporeal, it becomes as light and comfortable as normal clothing while giving enhanced protection, and is effective against incorporeal creatures. It gives an Armor bonus to the wearer equal to at least the mundane form of the armour +1, and costs the same as bracers of armor, with which it is identical in all respects, save that it is created via the 'craft arms and armor' feat, and optionally you may allow magic bracers, eg of archery, to be worn with it, but then not other vestments/armor etc.

Mage armor +1 (eg shirt or loincloth): 1000 gp
Mage armor +2 (padded): 4000 gp
Mage armor +3 (leather): 9000 gp
Mage armor + 4 (studded): 16000 gp
Mage armor +5 (scalemail or chain shirt): 25000 gp
Mage armor +6 (breastplate or chainmail) 36000 gp
Mage armor +7 (banded or splint) 49000 gp
Mage armor +8 (half plate) 64000 gp
Mage armor +9 (full plate) 81000gp

() denotes the best type of armour it can be based off, you can have +9 leather mage armor if desired. Using higher quality armor as the base merely reduces the cost of the additional magic substances required. Also, in an anti-magic shell it becomes regular armour or clothing of the type enchanted, which could be handy.

Prerequisites: Craft arms and armor, mage armor spell, caster level is 2X the armor bonus.

Thoughts? Was this too obvious to mention?

 

[kreynolds]

which could be handy.

Actually, that would be very unhandy. In an antimagic field, wouldn't you then suffer the full armor check penalties, max dex bonuses, and arcane spell failure chances, since its magic is now suppressed?

 

[S'mon]

Re: Re: New magic item - Mage Armor!

Actually, that would be very unhandy. In an antimagic field, wouldn't you then suffer the full armor check penalties, max dex bonuses, and arcane spell failure chances, since its magic is now suppressed?

Yup. You're right - I recall one time in 1e rules Thrin (Upper_Krust) was fighting Vanya, the Thyatian goddess, and losing - she had up an a-am shell, in his heavy dragonscale armour he only had a 6"/60' move and was unable to escape, she squelched him like a bug! Odin had to pay up a huge ransom to get him back and promise never to interfere with Mystara again!

Still, it's a question whether the +8 full plate armor bonus outweighs the penalties you mention - you can't cast spells in an a-m shell so the arcane spell failure chance isn't much of a worry.
The speed loss might be a good reason to stick with a chain shirt, though, or even lighter armour if you have a very high DEX.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to using this in-game and recapturing some of that 1e flavour! The PCs in my game already fought a high level fighter-rogue who was wearing a 'shirt of mage armor', a silk shirt giving a +4 Armor bonus, so it's not a big stretch.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Re: Re: Re: New magic item - Mage Armor!

Hi Simon!

Yup. You're right - I recall one time in 1e rules Thrin (Upper_Krust) was fighting Vanya, the Thyatian goddess, and losing - she had up an a-am shell, in his heavy dragonscale armour he only had a 6"/60' move and was unable to escape, she squelched him like a bug! Odin had to pay up a huge ransom to get him back and promise never to interfere with Mystara again!

Okay before I get started lets just clarify that Thrin had already been injured fighting a score or so of 20th-level Mystaran NPCs - so wasnt at full strength when Vanya entered the fray and got lucky with a couple of critical hits.

Still, it's a question whether the +8 full plate armor bonus outweighs the penalties you mention - you can't cast spells in an a-m shell so the arcane spell failure chance isn't much of a worry.
The speed loss might be a good reason to stick with a chain shirt, though, or even lighter armour if you have a very high DEX.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to using this in-game and recapturing some of that 1e flavour! The PCs in my game already fought a high level fighter-rogue who was wearing a 'shirt of mage armor', a silk shirt giving a +4 Armor bonus, so it's not a big stretch.

I sort of had a few ideas towards the same end:

1: "Second Skin" Salient Divine Ability (requiring 'Divine Armour Mastery'* SDA prereq.)
*I think its called.
2: 'Arcane' Armour Special Ability - to ignore spellcasting penalties
3: 'Shadow' Armour Special Ability - to ignore Dex limitations

 

[kreynolds]

Re: Re: Re: New magic item - Mage Armor!

Still, it's a question whether the +8 full plate armor bonus outweighs the penalties you mention - you can't cast spells in an a-m shell so the arcane spell failure chance isn't much of a worry.

It can outweight the penalties in the case of a targeted Dispel Magic, or worse, Greater Dispelling, or even worse, Mord's Disjunction. That won't leave your attacker lacking in the area of magic like an antimagic field or cone will, but your armor will now be suppressed for a few rounds. You can still cast spells, but that's gonna be a bit difficult in that heavy armor.

Granted, this type of situation probably wouldn't come up much but these are the kind of things I think about.