Wizards, Armour and the Collective Consciousness

[Remathilis]

Clerics in (O/A/B&X)D&D
Elves in (O/A/B&X)D&D

fighter/magic-users in AD&D 1e.

Now in Palladium FRPG and MERPS, wizards could wear non-metal armor (leather and such) but metal armor disrupted casting. (the same was true of priestly magic too, btw).

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Long time since I read it but I am pretty sure the elves in Poul Andersons Broken Sword could cast in armour. The Legacy of Gird by Elizabeth Moon has a race of human being with natural magic which does not seem to be hindered ina any way by armour. I think that several viking sagas have magic used by warrior characters with no mention of armour being a problem and the Harold Shea books have casters that use armour.

 

[Nebulous]

If D&D had a minimum Strength and Consitution requirment to effectively wear armor this wouldn't be an issue. It would also help explain why wizards can't effectively lug around 30 pound steel shields and broadswords.

Did Gandalf ever wear armor? He did twirl a magic sword around a good bit (tough ol' bugger he was )

 

[billd91]

?!? It sounded like perfectly find advice to me. After all, the specifics of magic in any game are particular to that game and any specific influences it had. If the player likes a particular rationale, that's fine. But it might not fit the game at all.

But as far as finding examples in literature... it's not all that easy to find examples in literature of protagonists who wear armor at all (much less regularly). For most of The Lord of the Rings, the only warrior in armor is Gimli (Frodo avoids most fights even though he is armored). The dwarves only put on armor once Smaug is gone in The Hobbit. Most of the company in The Sword of Shannara, if I recall correctly, are unarmored.
At the rate characters wear (or fair to wear) armor, I wouldn't consider a literary spellcaster out of armor to be particularly definifive.

 

[Chainsaw]

My apologies to NerfedWizard and everyone else. I should have at least attempted to help him create his list. I think that might have helped me avoid sounding dismissive, especially when I'm really on his side!

 

[Starbuck_II]

In the anime Slayers, many people cast spells and wear armor.
Does anime count?

 

[Rackhir]

Don't some of the spellcasters in the Black Company books wear armour? I've only read about half of one random one, but I vaguely recall that being the case.

I'm pretty sure that none of the Companies wizards wore armor, except perhaps for Silent who might have worn the equivalent of leather armor.

The Lady in the Books of the South, definitely does do magic while wearing armor. But that was also after she became "mortal".

I'm pretty sure none of the Taken did. Not sure if the Dominator wore armor, but then again both the Taken and The Dominator could stand up to small armies pounding on them with siege weapons. So armor was probably irrelevant.

I'm pretty sure Raker of the Circle wore armor when he got taken down by Raven and Croaker.

Most wizards in Fantasy seem to be sufficiently high level/powerful that they don't need to wear armor and have better magical defenses.

 

[Imban]

Not sure if the Dominator wore armor, but then again both the Taken and The Dominator could stand up to small armies pounding on them with siege weapons. So armor was probably irrelevant.

At least in the d20 Black Company Campaign Setting, Domi goes around armored in just his skin.

Which is vaguely hilarious, because that gives him something like 800 HP (he's level 75, after all) and 16 AC.

 

[Plane Sailing]

My apologies to NerfedWizard and everyone else. I should have at least attempted to help him create his list. I think that might have helped me avoid sounding dismissive, especially when I'm really on his side!

Thanks for that, I was pretty sure that was the case.

Cheers

 

[Plane Sailing]

To the original question:

I'm hard pressed to think of literary magic users who were prevented from casting when wearing metal armour.

There are lots of literary magic users who didn't wear armour, but as bild91 and Rackhir mention, it seems that was likely to be a choice (and a choice common to most of their adventuring companions too) rather than a necessity.

Cheers