Why is Arcane Spell Failure a "Sacred Cow".

[Uller]

(I've already arrived at a house rule, so I don't want to discuss that...just history and why?)

By "Sacred Cow" I mean that it appears to me that the designers wanted to keep armored arcane spell casters still reasonably rare.

First, a little history:

OD&D: Mages couldn't wear armor. Why? They just couldn't. It was the rule. Elves could, though.

1e/2e: Magic-Users couldn't wear armor and cast spells. Something about the metal in the armor disrupting the spells(even leather?). Even Elf F/MUs couldn't wear armor(although many DMs allowed it, especially ones like me who stared out playing OD&D). Somewhere in there we saw the advent of Elven Chain which allowed the wearer to cast spells while wearing armor, but MUs still couldn't wear armor.

3e: In keeping with the spirit of 3e(D&D is no longer in the business of telling players what they _can't_ do...mostly anyway) instead of saying Wizards and Sorcerers couldn't wear armor, a few obstacles were placed in front of them: Arcane Spell Failure checks and the lack of armor proficiencies. They also placed a few ways to get around these obstacles:

1) You can always take proficiency in the armor you'd like to wear or multiclass to get the appropriate feats.

2) There are spells and magic items that can raise your AC making actual armor unnecessary.

3) Mithral armor will reduce(slightly) Arcane Spell Failure. Mithral Chain Shirt would still have a 10% chance of failure.

4) Still Spell Feat allows you to cast a spell(at a higher level) without a chance of failure.

All well and good...however, it is made clear that Arcane Spell Failure rolls _cannot_ be modified in any way(talking core rules here...don't know about splat books). Dexterity, Concentration skills, Masterwork items, enhancement bonuses cannot change the result. So I'm wondering...Why? It appears to me that it is one of two reasons(or both):

1) Unarmored mages are a "sacred cow" of D&D and fantasy in general. Merlin, Gandalf, etc didn't wear armor, why should you?

2) They provided enough ways around spell failure that providing another would make it too easy.

My problem is that I don't _like_ the options provided. What if you picture your character as a Half-Orc Barbarian X/Sorcerer X(roughly equal levels of each) who wears Scale Mail armor, carries a huge two-handed mace and is able to cast(non-still) spells. Shouldn't you have some opportunity to negate spell failure(albeit with some cost)? Such a character would not be happy relying on Mage Armor and Sheild spells(wasting critical spell slots) or Bracers of Armor and such. Gron the Demon-Master wears _ARMOR_ not wussy bracelets! Still spell takes up a precious feat AND weakens many of my spells! Ouch. How come The Faithful of Pelor can cast spells while wearing Full-Plate and carrying a Lg Stl Shield without penalty, but all Gron wants is Scale Mail, yet 25% of his spells fail?

So anyway...am I the only one the feels like the rules as the are now are rather limiting to armored spell slingers to the point where they are almost unplayable?

FYI: The house rule that I am going to use is avoiding spell failure is a check against DC 2 modified by Dex and Armor Check Penalty so it is still very hard to overcome, but not impossible(plus I've added a couple feats)...But that is for the House Rules forum...I want to talk about the "Why?" not how to fix it...

 

[Zappo]

Gron can't have everything Gron wants. If arcane casters could wear armor, that would increase their power quite a lot by removing one of their nastiest disadvantages. Mithral armors are costly, rare and not that effective; mage armor spells use up precious spell slots; the still spell feat increases spell level; bracers of armor are costly, rare and not as good as a good armor.

I'm not saying that there isn't a "Gandalf & Merlin" factor, but I also don't think that the restriction can be removed without harming the game balance.

 

[kengar]

I don't know about it being a sacred cow, but I have always assumed it to be a game balance issue. Spellcasters who can wear armor and still be just as effective as without can potentially be too powerful. Sorcerers and Wizards at low level are fairly weak, once they get their 3rd - 4th level spells and up, they are among the more powerful classes in the game. A lack of AC without using up spell slots is a good way to keep the wizard and the fighter on relatively equal footing.

Sure they were trying to make the 3e wizard fit the "Gandalf" model a bit; but that's high fantasy for you. Arcane spell failure % is an attempt to give a concrete explanation as to why wizards don't wear armor.

BTW, did you mean DC 2 or 20? v. what? Spellcraft skill? Will?

 

[cloaker]

I think you are completly wrong, and I think the rules now are very good.
Mr Pelor can walk around in a FullPlate and Large Shield, but he cant cast a Fireball and kill 10 creatures in one shot, he cant Polymorph the Wyvren whos eating the fighter into a spider, and he cant Teleport to anywere in the planet, and.... etc etc etc

Arcane magic is "stronger" in its own way, and a mage has to pay a penalty for having such an arsenal of spells.
Dont forget that Mr. Pelor will mostly waste his spells in cures and he isnt a very good fighter.

If you want to reduce the % of arcane spell failure, I think there is an armor bonus you can put that reduces the % in 10 or 20%.
Its in Magic of Faerun or in Masters of the Wild.
Its very good and cheap (+1 bonus). Put it in your campaign, if u think armored mages are ok.
Mage Armor + Shield + high Dex is a very high AC, probably higher than the fighter. Dont want mage armor ? ok... shield is still one of the best 1st level spells, with a good dex (16) youve got 20 AC + any magical items u have, seems nicely armored for a mage dont u think ?

 

[Voadam]

I think it is a sacred cow issue, both in fantasy and D&D history, But also so that clerics have something to them niche wise. Arcane casters can not cure or cast in armor, why? so that clerics can have something that is only theirs. If you have a sorcerer fighter in platemail casting detect magic and light, well then you are a cleric equivalent but not religious.

Flavor wise, clerics and divine magic cheats, and armor causes failure for somatic components similar to skill check penalties. Why cleric somatic components are not affected is a glaring inconsistency.

 

[KnowTheToe]

Wizards don't need armor and would be way overpowered if they bolstered high armorclasses. I agree that it would be nice for flavor, trade in a ceratin amount of spells per day, say, cast the amount of spells per day as if you were a few levels lower. No wizard would want to do that, they love their spells and armor is not something they need.

I personally love the halforc Sorcerer/fighter concept, but you have to use light armor and take the chance your spell fizzles out. Spell failures make fun RPing opportunities.

 

[Voadam]

The fighter sorcerer/wizard in heavy armor works, you just need to get still spell and sacrifice about two levels worth of spell casting power to up all your prepared/spontaneously cast spells stilled or get variants without somatic components. You will end up being a less effective spell caster than a normal multiclassed one so while it works it is not a particularly effecient trade off for AC.

 

[Zappo]

Wizards don't need armor and would be way overpowered if they bolstered high armorclasses. I agree that it would be nice for flavor, trade in a ceratin amount of spells per day, say, cast the amount of spells per day as if you were a few levels lower. No wizard would want to do that, they love their spells and armor is not something they need.

That's almost exactly what happens if you take the Still Spell feat and apply it to all your spells which have somatic components.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

It is not that big a deal to remove the arcane failure chance if you rewrite the spell list.

As is a wizard that has a chance to prep is not at any meaningful disadvantage to an armored grunt in his "effective AC".

I am not talking about just Shield, but Blur, Displacement, Invis, Imp Invis, Fireshield, Prot. vs. ____, etc.

The wizard is plenty hard to hit if he uses his spells.

A 1st level Wizard who casts Mage Armor and Shield almost certainly has the highest AC in the party.

If you want to give the Wiz/Sor easy access to "always on" defense, you have to tone down his offensive spells.

 

[Xarlen]

The Spellsword in some splatbook offers a class ability that slowly lowers arcane failure. Considering the other powers of the class, it'd be a good choice for Gron. Gron want spell in weapon to effect target?

If you want to be able to cast in armor, then you need to either A) Sacrifice something else, or B) Work your tail off for it. This means feats/skills and other pre-reqs for PrCs.