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Why is Arcane Spell Failure a "Sacred Cow".
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<blockquote data-quote="Uller" data-source="post: 224289" data-attributes="member: 413"><p>(I've already arrived at a house rule, so I don't want to discuss that...just history and why?)</p><p></p><p>By "Sacred Cow" I mean that it appears to me that the designers wanted to keep armored arcane spell casters still reasonably rare.</p><p></p><p>First, a little history:</p><p></p><p>OD&D: Mages couldn't wear armor. Why? They just couldn't. It was the rule. Elves could, though.</p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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:</p><p></p><p>1) You can always take proficiency in the armor you'd like to wear or multiclass to get the appropriate feats.</p><p></p><p>2) There are spells and magic items that can raise your AC making actual armor unnecessary.</p><p></p><p>3) Mithral armor will reduce(slightly) Arcane Spell Failure. Mithral Chain Shirt would still have a 10% chance of failure.</p><p></p><p>4) Still Spell Feat allows you to cast a spell(at a higher level) without a chance of failure.</p><p></p><p>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): </p><p></p><p>1) Unarmored mages are a "sacred cow" of D&D and fantasy in general. Merlin, Gandalf, etc didn't wear armor, why should you?</p><p></p><p>2) They provided enough ways around spell failure that providing another would make it too easy.</p><p></p><p>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?</p><p></p><p>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?</p><p></p><p>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...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Uller, post: 224289, member: 413"] (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... [/QUOTE]
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