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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spatzimaus" data-source="post: 823714" data-attributes="member: 3051">I'm with the original poster here.  It really annoyed me, too; divine casters are still required to use somatic gestures, so why shouldn't armor impede them?The best logic I could come up with is that while both arcane and divine magic may have the same basic results, they are based on completely different types of energy.  Arcane magic is based on energy drawn from the elemental planes, while Divine magic is based on energy drawn from the positive and negative energy planes.The argument would be that maybe positive and negative energy flow through solid matter (like armor) far more easily, and therefore while you're still using gestures, they're less about focusing the energy involved and more about the ritualistic aspect of this.  That is, for Divine magic the exact gestures aren't as important, so you don't have to get them exactly right.Still, it's weak logic.  Divine magic SHOULD be subject to the same sorts of failure that Arcane magic is.***HOUSE RULE ALERT***So, IMC, it is."Arcane Failure" was renamed "Somatic Failure".  Three of the four branches of magic (Arcane, Divine, Natural, but not Psionic) are subject to it.Arcane magic is tied to chaos.  It's inherently difficult to control, which is why it either requires a strong force of will or very precise rituals to focus.  So, Arcane spellcasters receive the full Somatic Failure penalty for wearing armor.Natural magic (Druids and Rangers) flows easily through organic material, but is difficult to move through inorganics.  As a result, "natural" armors act as a sort of focus, helping the process almost as much as they hurt it.So, Somatic Failure is 20% higher than listed for inorganic (metal, crystal) armors and 5% lower than listed for organic (leather, wood).  At caster levels 6, 11, and 16 these improve by 5% in favor of the caster (so at level 20 it's 5% higher for inorganic and 20% lower for organic).(NOTE: this replaces the Druid's armor restriction entirely.  In addition, a Druid using a non-organic weapon suffers an additional Somatic penalty)Divine magic (Clerics and Paladins) is the reverse, focusing through inorganics but is blocked by living (or recently deceased) matter.  Use the same percentages as Natural magic, but reverse the organic/inorganic.If a caster has classes in multiple types of magic, the Somatic Failure penalties or bonuses from one type don't affect the other types.Add the "Armored Caster" Netfeat (-10% Somatic Failure) and a couple armor enchantments "Nature Focus" and "Divine Focus" that reduce the appropriate penalty by, say, 20%, and you're set.End result: Clerics and Paladins don't just immediately put on the full plate.  To make up for this drawback, Clerics, Paladins, Druids, and Rangers got minor boosts in other areas.  Druids have no need for Divine Focuses, and have no alignment casting restriction (they can cast both Good and Evil spells), and Clerics handle spontaneous casting a bit differently.</blockquote>

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