Swim skill/armor prof feats

[Infiniti2000]

Hellefire, you make a good point and you are right in your desire to correct the (obvious) typo in the Armor proficiency description.

Having said that, understand that most people have never even read the Armor Proficiency description, much less read it before the Swim skill (or other skills). Also, understand that this typo is very non-trivial so if your players argue it then they really have way too much time on their hands.

As for some more constructive feedback, suggest to your wife to consider a mithril shield. The armor check penalty will be gone and no feats will be needed. Even if she starts out at 1st-level, she should plan to get a mithril shield eventually and thus not spend a feat on proficiency. This works for light armor, too. Mithril will also help with arcane spell failure.

As for errata, Andy Collins has some links:

http://p198.ezboard.com/fgameschat19968frm10.showMessage?topicID=538.topic

(I would give a link, but Firefox cannot seem to use the link button while typing this message.)

 

[Hellefire]

Thanks Infiniti!

One of the random items the group found a month or so back was a darkwood buckler, which I realized was pretty useful for my wife's sorceress once I started looking into the various rules on armor. I'll make sure she knows about mithril as well. Thanks for the info!

Aaron

 

[irdeggman]

A couple of things.

On Table 4-2 (pg 63) of the PHB there is a note by the swim skill that states that double the AC penalty applies. (This is in the 1st printing as well as later ones).

As far as errata goes - guess what folks we have yet another case of "stealth errata".

The Special Edition PHB (that leather bound one) has the following sentence added to teh armor proficiency (light) feat Benefit.

"Double the normal penalty applies on Swim checks."

This is realy, really getting annoying.

 

[moritheil]

As for some more constructive feedback, suggest to your wife to consider a mithril shield. The armor check penalty will be gone and no feats will be needed. Even if she starts out at 1st-level, she should plan to get a mithril shield eventually and thus not spend a feat on proficiency. This works for light armor, too. Mithril will also help with arcane spell failure.

Indeed. If it's just ACP that concerns you, a masterwork buckler will have no ACP.

If your wife is really interested in playing an armor-wearing mage, the Battle Sorcerer variant may be worth a look.

 

[Hellefire]

Ah hah! I don't have the $950 leather bound version. Thanks for finding that for me!

Thanks for the tip Moritheil - where can I find the Battle Sorcerer - I think she is looking for something just like that.

Aaron

 

[irdeggman]

Ah hah! I don't have the $950 leather bound version. Thanks for finding that for me!

I paid $30 on e-bay. Precisely because I had "heard" that it had included errata not posted - I just had know idea that there was this much. IIRC this is like the 3rd item we've found recently (another one under swim is how long you can hold your breath {twice your Con score and not the one time Con score in earlier printings})

Thanks for the tip Moritheil - where can I find the Battle Sorcerer - I think she is looking for something just like that.

Unearthed Arcana pg 56.

You could try the Warmage (Complete Arcane pg 10) - an arcane spellcaster with armor proficiency and no ASF for that armor but focuses on evocation type of spells.

Other arcane casters with armor proficiencies and no ASF for them:

Bard
Beguiler (from PHB II)
Duskblade (from PHB II)
Hexblade (Complete Warrior)


Those are just a few I've found

 

[Hellefire]

Thanks for the list of alternate classes. At the moment I don't have PHB II, and she's mainly trying to tweak her existing sorceress some (atm 5 sorceress/3 dragon disciple). I'll pass on the ideas to her for later though. Thanks again!

Aaron