Revising Tome Armor

[Josh_Kablack]

Why a revision to the Tome Armor rules?
or good grief, what's wrong with you?

While the concept of armor being more than just an increased defensive target number, and instead designing armor so it offers scaling ability sets unlockable by character abilities was pure genius. The goal of using that concept to increase diversity and flavor among characters was a laudable one, the initial Tome Armor from Races of War and the subsequent community effort to fill in the blanks has a number of serious failings.

• Tome is not always as clear as it should be where it replaces Core armor rules and where it interacts with core armor rules. Rather than arguing over it again, it's better to do a full rewrite which removes any grounds for argument over how to gain heavy armor proficiency and whether proficient characters have reduced movement in heavy armor or not in Tome.
• Armor Check Penalty was a bad idea and unnecessary complication to begin with. Splitting into into ACP and ASP was adding complexity purely for the sake of complexity, especially as fully two thirds of the listed armors had ACP and ASP within 2 points of each other.
• Penalty reductions per level were implemented very much like bringing back THAC0 and then adding division, subtraction and exclusion steps. Since the initial penalties were needless complexity, doing these kind of mathematical contortions was not merely adding complexity for the sake of complexity but was doing it solely for the purpose of insulting the players about being bad at math. Well I can't stand for that, not when it's so very much easier to just write "Hey, moron, you're bad at math" into the rules text.
• The stated goal of getting people to care about more than 3 types of armor was not achieved in any meaningful sense. Between so many of the armors having the exact same abilities at the levels where people actually play, many of those abilities being so minor as to be nearly worthless and the strong tendency for the relatively few good abilities to be concentrated on armors with high numeric bonuses, the list ends up with only a handful of armors most PCs will ever care about.
• A number of the heavier armors had ability sets which scale by flavor instead of function. It's highly unlikely for any Tome character with heavy armor proficiency to have the correct skill ranks to be able to use Mechanus Armor or Silk Steel Armor to full benefit. Thus these armors are only notable for specialized niche characters, and most players should not care about them.
• Despite there only being a few armors worth caring about, the total number of armors in tome is over 9000! and they are not laid out with any rhyme or reason. This results in players having to read through long lists of irrelevant information during chargen, which is fun for nobody and wastes everyone's time.
• With some viable multiclassing options and or material from the fragmentary Book of Gears, mid level Tome characters have access to better ways to get higher Armor bonuses than most armor in Tome games, meaning that armors are only useful for their ability sets.

Hopefully this revision will succeed in presenting an alternate set of Armor rules that address all of these issues satisfactorily while coming closer to the original goals.


Why Armor Check Penalties Need to Go

We're ditching Armor Check Penalty for proficient characters, instead armor gets a set of non-proficiency penalties. If you are proficient, you do not suffer any penalty for wearing armor. This includes both the actual numeric armor check penalty as well as movement reductions and arcane spell failure - all of that gets folded into nonproficiency. Thus if you're not proficient, then you take a penalty to all d20 rolls, and for each point of that penalty you both reduce all movement speeds by 5 ft (to a minimum of 5 ft) and suffer a 10% arcane spell failure chance.

Okay, but that doesn't answer why?

Because while characters in heavier armor being slower and clumsier might be more"realistic", that's not what happens with the 3e WotC rules in place, and it's even further from what happens with the first pass Tome Armor. In a WotC game, any character who can afford it is better off with a permanent Greater Mage Armor than with anything less than Half Plate, and consequently Dispel Magic becomes a better debuff than Rusting Grasp - that's not realism, that's idiosyncrasies of the spell system. In a game with Tome rules and Tome Armor 1.0, player characters can take 2 levels of Dungeonomicon Monk (which at full bab and all good saves is a reasonable multiclass for a lot of folks) or pick up a Book of Gears Defending weapon and come out at least even with all light armors and all but 3 medium armors - while Armored in Life and Defending Weapons have no Max Dex limit nor Check nor Stealth Penalties.

So we are expecting characters to actually wear a type of armor that has penalties in Tome, that armor has to start at better than a +5 bonus. Yet starting light armor at more than +5 and scaling upwards for medium and heavy armors would push things off the RNG, so it's better to just let characters who have the proficiency ignore the penalties. That way we avoid a writing bunch of Light and Medium armor that players will ignore. Again.

That this also simplifies the math each player has to do is an added benefit. The Tome 1.0 rules on armor stealth penalties scaling with BAB while armor check penalties stayed static armor resulted in such confusion that they actually made people's eyes glaze over when they were used and ended up being ignored by more than half of the Tome playerbase. ( If you're in the remaining minority: congrats, you're a smart cookie. Now go outside to play for once before you decide to start a "THACO was easy" argument and get put on everyone's ignore list)

And hey, it's not like a Cloak of Resistance ever penalized a Wizard's Spellcraft (or Chance to learn spells in prior editions) even though it increases her magical defenses, so how was it ever anything but intentional martial-class hosery masquerading as "realism" that armor impaired a knight's movement and athletics ? That was a rhetorical question, but just in case you missed it, the answer is "It wasn't"

Sadly, we do have to keep Max Dex bonus to AC, as this complication both helps to keep things on the RNG and helps to ensure that different characters will consider different types of armor instead of always always always wearing the heaviest one they are proficient with.

Furthermore, since we're ditching Armor Check Penalty, that means that encumbrance is going to become important for a number of medium and heavy armor characters again. So you're going to want to track light, medium and heavy loads for characters. If you want to keep things very simple, you can decide that armor proficiency lets the weight of your armor not count against your load limits; if you want to have heavier armor require more strength or still provide some restrictions for characters you can track it scrupulously. Either one is fine, but you should pick one and the entire group should follow it.

Now if we ditch, ACP for Non-proficiency penalty, that means that each and every armor which requires a proficiency must must must have a non-proficiency penalty. We can't be like Core with non proficient characters encouraged to run around in masterwork studded leather until they upgrade to mithral shirts, laughing at their -0 penalties the entire time. However, we totally can have "armors" that don't require proficiency, these are the genre classics of loincloths and wizard robes and they fall under Cloth armor (aka Non-Armors), all of which gets to have a non-proficiency penalty of zero, meaning that everyone can wear it, and most characters who don't have heavier armor proficiencies will.

Rethinking Light, Medium and Heavy Armor

Now since D&D is among other things, a miniatures combat game, the armor types have to represent the types of armor that are identifiable on minis. This means that I'm replacing Light, Heavy and Medium with "Cloth", "Leather", "Chain" and "Plate". Because I'll be damned for the umpteenth time if I can differentiate Ring Mail from Chain Mail or Scale Mail from Plate Mail on any fig I've ever painted ( heck 5 minutes on google turns up a rather convincing argument that you've only even heard of Ring Mail because Gygax had inaccurate sources ) I know a lot of you don't play with minis and some of you want them to go away. That's fine, you can keep calling the categories Non-Armor, Light, Medium and Heavy, it's a one-to-one correspondence. It's meant to make it easier for players at a table with minis to tell something about the defenses of the characters the figures on the table represent. So if you don't use (at least vaguely appropriate) minis, there's no difference between the terminology and you can use them interchangeably and the only confusion will be that some things don't work like Core Armor (chain shirts aren't light armor, hide armor isn't heavy armor) - but hey if you were happy with Core Armor, you wouldn't be using Tome, let alone reading revisions to Tome, so I don't have to care. Yay for apathy !

So, What are You Wearing?
making armor choices easy and yet meaningful

In an effort to fit armor types into a manageable amount of conceptual space and keep player decisions about what type of armor to kit their character out in to a reasonable selection while still offering a variety of armors that various characters should care about this armor revision lays out armor according to three variables, and players have 3-4 choices for each variable.

1. What type of armor are you wearing? This determines what type of proficiency is necessary and what the nonproficiency penalty is. There are four categories of armor: Cloth, Leather, Chain and Plate (alternately: Non-Armor, Light, Medium and Heavy), and in general characters are best off wearing the heaviest of those for which they have proficiency.
2. How much of it are you wearing? Each type of armor has three different levels of coverage. From a flavor perspective, this is whether a character is wearing an armored vest for armor, a half suit of armor or a full suit with near total coverage. From a mechanical perspective, this is simply a slider between the armor bonus that the armor provides and the maximum Dexterity bonus to AC that the armor allows. In general, characters are best off wearing armor which provides the highest armor bonus while still allowing them to benefit from their full Dexterity bonus to AC.
3. What special material or other properties does it have? This determines precisely which scaling ability set the armor gives a wearer. For each type and coverage level of armor there are exactly three options: one of which grants abilities based on the wearer's BAB; one of which grants abilities based on the wearer's ranks in a listed skill; and one of which grants abilities based on the highest level spell that the wearer can cast. In general, characters are best off wearing armor for which they can unlock the highest level abilities

Putting all this together results in a setup of 36 armors, each with their own ability set, to allow for differentiation between characters and allow different choices for any given combination of dexterity plus proficiency but where the armors are grouped according to multiple factors and most players will be able to use relatively obvious heuristics to choose a character-appropriate armor without having to dumpster-dive through all of them.

How Do I Put This Thing on?
cleaning up armor proficiency

In core, characters get proficiency via class features or via feats - and that's not a big deal, because in Core, feats are limited by "fighters can't have nice things". In Tome, feats are supposed to be good, and spending one just to get medium armor proficiency just isn't worth it compared to other options in Races of War or Tome of Fiends. Even with the powered-up chainmail in this revision, Medium Armor proficiency basically boils down to "Your Armor plus Max Dex can be one point higher, and you have a few additional choices for armor ability sets" Hence, in games with the RoW version of Elusive Target on the table, Medium Armor Proficiency is a niche character option at best. That means that in Tome games, armor proficiency is nearly always only given by class. That combines with other features of Tome games to make it rare for PCs to wear medium armor and very rare for PCs to wear heavy armor - and that's a bad thing, because it means that a lot of the armor entries are wasted space.

Thus we need an armor proficiency feat that people might actually take. Now some characters do get armor proficiency through class, so such a feat needs to go beyond merely granting proficiency. Furthermore, if he goal is to eliminate armor types that are wasted, it needs to open up multiple types of armor to anyone who takes it:

Armor Mastery [Combat]:
You are skilled in wearing various types of armor.
You gain proficiency with light and medium armor
+1 BAB: You gain proficiency with heavy armor
+6 BAB: For puposes of activating armor scaling abilities: you may subsitute your BAB +3 for the number of ranks you possess in any skill or you may substitute ( 1+ your BAB ) divided by 2 for the highest level spell you can cast.
+11 BAB: You may treat the armor bonus and max dex of any armor you wear as though they were both 2 points higher
+16: BAB By mixing and matching pieces between two suits you may gain access to the ability sets of any two sets of armor you own at the same time. You are still only wearing one set of armor and therefore must choose one set of armor and max dex figures to use.

There, it's a feat some characters will want, the initial abilities open up armor categories, the +6 ability opens up scaling abilities characters wouldn't otherwise access, the +11 BAB opens up numerics for characters who are pimping their Dexterity and well, there's a top level ability that will probably never see play. (see below)

And while we're at it, have one for Shields too:

Shield Mastery [Combat]
You are skilled in fighting with a shield for defense.
You gain proficiency with shields and great shields
+1 BAB: When an opponent initiates a grapple against you, you may opt to escape by sacrificing your shield. Effectively, their grapple / grab on attempt results in disarming you of your shield instead.
+6 BAB: For purposes of activating shield and great shield scaling abilities: you may substitute your BAB+3 for the number of ranks you possess in any skill or you may substitute ( 1+ your BAB ) divided by 2 for the highest level spell you can cast.
+11 BAB: Each round when fighting with a shield, you may negate a number of AoOs against your person equal to the number of attacks you are entitled to from your BAB.
+16 BAB: You now apply any shield bonus you gain to your Touch AC

Eliminating Still More Words Players Have Zero Reason to Read
or why scaling should happen at lower levels

Tome armor version 1.0 offers an armor bonus at level 0 and then new abilities at lvl 1, lvl 5, lvl 10, lvl 15. This is bad because it means that two of the four abilities on each suit will almost never see play in actual games. It's also bad because it is just subtly different enough from the levels where scaling feats grant abilities to add the potential for confusion.

I, for one am perfectly willing to assume that characters with access to the post-Wish economy are kitting themselves out in unique personalized gear, if not artifacts, instead of looking for loopholes (tenser's transformation, divine power, etc) to unlock the final abilities offered through any suit of armor they own. Creating a mundane suit of armor with the prices listed in the Tome PDF is well within the parameters of both 3.0 and 3.5 wish, and it is plausibly within the reach of the "other effects clause" of the 3.0 version of wish and arguable from the "increase magic abilities" clause of the 3.5 version of wish that a wisher could alter, bend or ignore ability prerequisites for the abilities granted by armor -- which even with the introduction of the Tome scaling abilities-- still remains mundane equipment.

Thus in the spirit of Tome, we're going to assume that post-Wish economy characters just go right ahead and do that. If you like, write up a "universal" moderate quality for Book Fragment of Gears-style items that lets the wearer ignore non proficiency penalties and scaling ability prerequisites or something. If not, you're still in the same nonstandard game of mother-may-I that D&D games into the double digit levels always hit in 3e D&D and likely writing a bunch of your own rules on the fly - if you're having fun, keep doing that. But as for me, I'm gonna write armor that grants abilities which characters can gain by 10th level and therefore might see play in games which I am a part of. With an eye towards spreading things out to minimize dead levels, I'm going set armor up to give abilities out to optimized characters at 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th levels.

Scaling Abilities, How Do They Work?

There are three ways armor can scale, by BAB, by the number of ranks in a skill or by the highest level spell you can cast. To quote Races of War, "that's because those are the only things in the game that actually have anything to do with the level your character is in any way that we feel good about. "
Armor with abilities which scale according to BAB should be self explanatory: characters gain abilities at +1 BAB, +4 BAB, +7 BAB and +10 BAB. Armor with abilities which scale according to skill ranks should likewise be self explanatory: characters gain abilities with 4 ranks, 7 ranks, 10 ranks and 13 ranks in the relevant skill.

However armor which scales according to the highest level spell you can cast requires a bunch of explanation and some splitting of hairs for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, the astute reader will have already noticed that the primary spellcasting classes do not get new spell levels at character levels 4 or 9, so it cannot precisely follow the pattern of the BAB and Skill Rank ability sets. There's not an easy way around that, so those ability sets are going to scale by granting abilities to characters who can cast 1st level spells, 3rd level spells, 4th level spells and 5th level spells. This means that compared to other classes in other armors, wizards and clerics in max spell scaling armor get their second armor ability one level late and their final armor ability one level early. That should even out.

Next there's a surprising amount of difficulty in defining just what precisely a Spell is, and a nontrivial amount of ambiguity figuring out which level many of them happen to be, and some of the other Tome material complicates these tasks. We could just say a spell is a spell is a spell and be done with that definition. That's the approach Complete Arcane took and while it keeps things simple, it leaves the Fire Mage out in the cold and Gnomes buried, so it's probably worth the added complications to let Spell-Like Abilities count as spells for such purposes.

Moving on to spell level, there are a large number of spells which appear at different levels on different class lists. That's not so bad, we can just say that whatever level a spell is on the list you cast it from, it's that level for purposes of qualifying for armor abilities. But that leaves issues with (Sp) abilities which duplicate such spells. Gnomes get Speak with Animals, which is a 1st level spell on the Druid and Ranger list, but a 3rd level spell on the Bard list, so we're going to have to rule that for such things, the (Sp) ability in question counts as the lowest level it can be according to the PHB/SRD spell lists (or lowest level it can be in the book it appears for non core crap ). However, that still leaves issue for all the various (Sp) abilities which do not duplicate spells are are not explicitly tagged as the equivalent of an Nth level spell - like most of the Fire Mage class list. So we're going to do what I did when I revised the Fire Mage and say that such things default to counting as a spell of half the class level (or HD) where they are first gained - round fractions up. This lets a Fire Mage count as having 1st level spellcasting because they have Fire Bolts, and lets them count at having 5th level spellcasting when 9t level gives them Sculpt Flames. However, we are not quite done yet - there is an issue that some of the PHB spells are grossly overcosted and some of the fanmade classes make such spells available as appropriately leveled Spell-Like Abilities. And while it may be totally fine in the abstract to have a class which gets say Greater Dispelling, Greater Magic Weapon, Magic Vestment, Polar Ray or something similar as a Spell-Like Ability at 1st level, that can open up potentially problematic interactions with the scaling armor rules and allow characters to access much higher level abilities than they really should have. There is not a clean answer here, as it is literally impossible for me to go through the entire set of Tome Compatible Classes ( since it's an open set with new classes being added ) and nip all of these interactions. So the options are either deciding that SLAs are not Spells for these purposes or that any given MC is going to occasionally nerf one of those and decide that despite the actual listed level of the spell it only gets to count as half the class level where it is granted for these purposes.

Finally most of the spell casting armor lets a character expend a spell of a given level for another particular spell of a given level. This is a way to give armor a lot of functionality that matters to various spellcasters, but it also means that I need to lay down the ground rules for how activating such abilities works and that the SLA and spell-level issues will come up again.

This ability works as follows: you expend a prepared spell or one of your unused spells-per-day slots of the requisite level or higher, and you cast the spell the armor gives you as though you had cast it yourself, with the notable exceptions of the spell potentially being a different level from the armor than it is on your spell list and the casting time. Thus casting the spell provokes AoOs, uses your caster level and the save DC is based on your relevant spellcasting attribute. Thus casting the spell has all the same components that it would have if you cast it yourself (although personally I recommend entirely ditching material components, that's beyond the scope of an armor revision). The spell the armor grants is always cast as though it were the minimum level spell which can be expended to gain it from the armor. This means that sometimes armor scaling abilities might let you cast a spell at a lower or higher level than it appears on your class spell list - that's an unavoidable side effect of having spells which are different levels for different classes. More importantly this also means that metamagic feats which would alter the level of such a spell cannot be applied to it, because it must be cast at a level determined by the armor. However, you can apply metamagic which does not alter the spell level to such a spell. Expending a spell you have in order to activate a spell from your armor is a standard action in which you both expend one spell and also cast the spell which the armor grants. Whether you expend a spell with a casting time of more or less than one standard action, or whether the spell the armor grants usually has a casting time of more or less than one standard action - it is a standard action when you cast it this way.

Now it is intended that characters should be able to trade in uses of their Spell-Like Abilities in order to cast the spell(s) such armor grants. Even though some characters are going to have at-will SLAs that allow them to cast a spell from the armor over and over, care has been taken that the spells granted by armor do not get problematic when spammed repeatedly -- this is why it needs to be a standard action to cast such spells and why some such armor abilities impose self-only limitations on the spells they grant. However, allowing this does cause us to revisit the issues about (Sp) abilities which mimic spells found on multiple lists, (Sp) abilities which are not tagged with a spell level-equivalence., and (Sp) abilities which grant fair-level access to overcosted spells. So to rephrase the suggestions for handling those from three paragraphs back in a slightly more relevant way: For purposes of expending uses to activate armor abilities, (Sp) abilities should count as the lowest level that the spell they replicate is on any PHB class list or half of the class level where it was gained. There is a chance that a MC may have to rule that some particular SLAs which duplicate specific spells counts as half the class level where it was gained, regardless of the spell level. This is because some of the listed spells are listed as much higher levels than they should be. Even though Polar Ray clocks it at 8th level in the PHB, letting someone who gets it as a fair-levelled SLA trade it for an actual 3rd level spell is actually too powerful, banned from use. See also Magic Vestment, Greater Magic Weapon, and Greater Dispelling, all of which are fine for 1st level characters to get as SLAs, but not fine to let 1st level characters trade them for 3rd, 4th or 5th level spells.

[Josh_Kablack]

It's Tables All the Way Down
aka clip and save this BB code

Armor	Armor Bonus	Max Dex	Non Prof Pen	BAB type	Skill Rank type	Spell type	Weight
*	*	*	*	Cloth	*	*	*
Skivvies	+0	+a billion	none	[/b]L[/b]oincloth (free)	Swimsuit (5 gp )	Magic Underwear (25 gp)	5 lbs.
Functional Clothes	+1	+8	none	Military Uniform (5 gp)	Camouflage Clothing (10 gp)	Top Hat, Vest and Cape (25 gp)	5 lbs.
Robes	+2	+7	none	Saffron Robes (10 gp)	Elaborate Clothing (250 gp)	Adorned Wizards Robes (100 gp)	5 lbs.
*	*	*	*	Leather	*	*	*
Curiass	+4	+6	-2	Buff Jerkin (10 gp)	Sharkskin Suit (50 gp)	Forge Leathers (25 gp)	10 lbs.
Half	+5	+5	-2	Dragonhide Armor (100 gp )	Hide Armor (10 gp)	Naga Hide (50 gp)	10 lbs.
Full	+6	+4	-2	Dragonscale Suit (250 gp)	Chitin Carapace (50 gp)	Mysterious Membrane (100 gp)	10 lbs.
*	*	*	*	Chain	*	*	*
Shirt	+7	+4	-4	Eyelet Doublet (100 gp)	Mithral Shirt (1000 gp)	Oroborous Vest (250 gp)	25 lbs.
Half	+8	+3	-4	Brigandine (250 gp)	Wicker Chain (100 gp)	Celestial Chain (1000 gp)	25 lbs.
Full	+9	+2	-4	Blued Heroes Chain (500 gp)	Reaction Chain (250 gp)	Chalk Circle Chain (1000 gp)	25 lbs.
*	*	*	Plate	*	*	*	*
Breast	+10	+2	-6	Hopelite (250 gp)	Fashion Plate (2500 gp)	Nacre Chest Plate (1000 gp)	50 lbs
Half	+11	+1	-6	Adamant (5000)	Silk Steel Armor (1000)	Demon Plate (2500)	50 lbs
Full	+12	+0	-6	Umlaut Pläte (2500 gp)	Mechanus Armor (10,000 gp)	Bone Plate (5000 gp)	50 lbs.

Shield	Shield Bonus	Non Prof Pen	BAB type	Skill Rank type	Spell type	GP Cost	Weight
*	*	*	*	Shields	*	*	*
Buckler	+1	-1	Bronze	Small Target	Crystalline
Spiked Shield	+2	-2	Steel	Main Gauche	Porcupine
Large Shield	+3	-3	Force	Hide	Darkwood
*	*	*	*	Great Shields	*	*	*
Great Shields	+5	-5	Tower Shield	Kite Shield	Bone Wall
More Great Shields	+5	-5	Ice Aegis	Kappa Shell	Psychic (aka Tower Shield of Iron Will)

Summary of Basics for those who skipped the first post:

• You receive the armor bonus to your AC when wearing the armor
• You may not add more than the Maximum Dexterity Bonus listed to your AC while wearing this armor
• Shields do not have a maximum dexterity bonus.
• There are no armor check or armor stealth penalties now, merely nonproficiency penalties and encumbrance.
• When wearing armor you are not proficient in, You apply the nonproficiency penalty to all d20 rolls you make. You also reduce all your movement speeds by 5 feet per point of penalty, down to a minimum speed of 5ft. Also, each point of penalty gives you a 10% chance of Arcane Spell Failure.

[Josh_Kablack]

Armor	Armor Bonus	Max Dex	Non Prof Pen	BAB type	Skill Rank type	Spell type	GP Cost	Weight
*	*	*	*	Cloth	*	*	*	*
Skivvies	+0	+a billion	none	Loincloth	Swimsuit	Magic Underwear
Functional Clothes	+1	+8	none	Military Uniform	Camouflage Clothing	Top Hat, Vest and Cape
Robes	+2	+7	none	Saffron Robes	Elaborate Clothing	Adorned Wizards Robes

Loincloth: Strategically placed animal skin or fig leaves ensure comics code approval.
+1 BAB: Only someone with mighty thews would wear this, thus you may roll twice and use the better result for any Strength or Strength based skill check
+4 BAB: When you use the Withdraw action, none of the squares you leave are considered threatened by any opponent you can see.
+7 BAB: Only someone with catlike reflexes would wear this: you are never surprised and always act in the first round of any combat.
+10 BAB: You have the Edge when grappling.

Swimsuit: A garment perfect for swimming in.
4 Ranks Swim: When you fail a Swim check, you are only considered to have failed it by 4, regardless of the actual result. Thus you do not go underwater from catastrophically failing a swim check
7 Ranks Swim: If you exceed the water's Swim DC by 10 or more points, you may swim twice as fast as you would otherwise. Thus you may normally swim at half your speed as a move action.
10 Ranks Swim: You do not take falling damage from falling into water that is at least 5' deep. The distance fallen does not matter.
13 Ranks Swim: You gain the [Aquatic] subtype with the amphibious special quality, thereby allowing you to breathe air and water. You also gain and a swim speed equal to your land speed (Yes you can use the 7 rank ability to try to swim at double that)

Magic Underwear: These garments offer spiritual protection both day and night
1st level spells: Expend 1st level spell for Protection from Evil (or Chaos, or Good or Law ) upon self
3rd level spells: You negate the first 5 points of damage from any critical hit or sneak attack
4th level spells: Magic Underwear enhances the wearer's affinity for doublethink, provides spiritual protection against forgiveable transgressions. Thus you can ignore any single provision of any Code(s) of Conduct you may have without suffering the usual effects of doing so. You're still boned if you violate two provisions of the same code at the same time.
5th level spells: Expend 5th level spell for Death Ward upon self.

Military Uniform: You are dressed like the soldiers in the local army.
+1 BAB: You gain a +5 circumstance bonus to any bluff or disguise roll made to pass yourself off as a member of the local army - no matter where local is or what type of troops make up that army.
+4 BAB: Your lucky flask can now save you from certain death, thus you negate the first 5 points of damage from any critical hit or sneak attack
+7 BAB: You've figured out these harnesses and how to stow your gear. Thus when you carry a medium load, you are unencumbered as though you were carrying a light load and when you carry a heavy load you are only encumbered as though you were carrying a medium load
+10 BAB: Warriors (that is characters with the Warrior NPC class) will assume that you are a superior officer in the same force that they are until you do something that demonstrates otherwise.

Camouflage Clothing: An outfit designed to blend into the surroundings, this is a favorite of hunters.
4 Ranks Hide: Opponents do not get a +4 bonus to Spot you for knowing what to look for
7 Ranks Hide: You may use a Swift action to gain Concealment for one round.
10 Ranks Hide: It's really hard to tell precisely where you are. For purposes of burst, emanation and spread effects, and for determining whether you can flank an enemy, you can choose to count as either in the square you actually occupy or in any square adjacent to that at any given time. ( If you are larger than Medium sized and therefore occupy multiple squares, you may count your position as starting or ending plus or minus one square from where it actually is for such purposes. )
13 Ranks Hide: Anyone attempting to locate you via Divination spells must succeed as a caster level check with a DC equal to 10 + your ranks in Hide or be unable to do so.

Top Hat, Vest and Cape: The classic magician's outfit is of great use for misdirection
1st level spells: While wearing these, you may use Prestidigitation as an at-will spell-like ability.
3rd level spells: You may make a Sleight of Hand check as a swift action at no penalty. Additionally the DC for retrying a Slight of Hand check does not increase for you.
4th level spells: You negate the first 5 points of damage from any critical hit or sneak attack
5th level spells: Expend 5th level spell slot to summon a rhinoceros as though with Summon Nature's Ally V. You may only have one such rhino in existence at any given time.

Saffron Robes: Loose orange clothing favored among monks, mendicants and medical students.
+1 BAB: You are immune to any language-dependent effect, whether you can understand the language or not. Maybe this is due to you mastery of koans, maybe you don't know the meaning of that word, or maybe you use semantics as a weapon.
+4 BAB: Whenever you drop an opponent you gain 5 temporary HP.
+7 BAB: You may take an additional swift action each round.
+10 BAB:As a swift action, you may take an additional 5' step.

Elaborate Clothing: Formal Gowns, Full Dress Regalia, Royal Robes, etc. The point is that these are expensive and wearing them shows that you are someone important
4 Ranks Diplomacy: You sure look important, thus you receive a +2 circumstance bonus to Intimidate, Perform and Gather Information Checks.
7 Ranks Diplomacy: It's easy to hide all sorts of useful things in this garment, thus you receive a +2 circumstance bonus on Disable Device, Escape Artist and Sleight of Hand checks
10 Ranks Diplomacy: Any intelligent opponent whom you have not yet personally attacked (nor otherwise dealt damage to) this encounter must succeed on a will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your HD + your Cha mod) each time they make an attack roll with you as a target. If they fail this save, they think better of it and the attack automatically misses.
13 Ranks Diplomacy: It's amazing how effective this getup can be as a decoy. If an effect would Daze, Entangle, Grapple, Nauseate, Panic, Paralyze, Petrify, Pin or Stun you, you may use an immediate action to become immune to that effect, but doing so destroys this garment.

Adorned Wizard Robes: With pointy hat and constellations, this is a must for the studious wizard. Beard and bells sold separately.
1st level spells: You may use Mage Hand as an at-will spell-like ability. Additionally, you may a expend a 1st level spell for Mage Armor
3rd level spells: Expend 3rd level spell for Dimension Slide (unaugmented version)
4th level spells: Expend 4th level spell for Minor Creation
5th level spells: Expend 5th level spll for Legend Lore

[Josh_Kablack]

Armor	Armor Bonus	Max Dex	Non Prof Pen	BAB type	Skill Rank type	Spell type	GP Cost	Weight
*	*	*	*	Leather	*	*	*	*
Curiass	+4	+6	-2	Buff Jerkin	Sharkskin Suit	Forge Leathers
Half	+5	+5	-2	Dragonhide Armor	Hide Armor	Naga Hide
Full	+6	+4	-2	Dragonscale Suit	Chitin Carapace	Mysterious Membrane

Buff Jerkin: classic cured leather armor that covers the most vital bits in the torso while allowing movement.
+1 BAB: As an immediate action, you may reduce the damage from an attack which would otherwise reduce you to zero or fewer hit points. Instead of being knocked out from the damage, you are left with a number of hit points equal to your BAB. You may only use this ability if you had more hit points than your BAB before you were attacked.
+4 BAB: You gain DR 5 / Piercing
+7 BAB: You retain your dexterity bonus to AC and may make attacks of opportunity while Flat-Footed
+10 BAB: You may ignore the max dex bonus of this armor.

Sharkskin Suit: A flashy vest made from an aquatic beast. This garment attracts attention to itself and away from your words.
4 Ranks Bluff: You may feint in combat as a swift action and you take no penalties for feinting against nonhumanoid nor animal intelligence opponents.
7 Ranks Bluff: You gain DR 5 / Piercing
10 Ranks Bluff: As an immediate action, you may substitute the result of a Bluff check for a Will saving throw against any [Mind-Affecting] effect.
13 Ranks Bluff: You lied about the max dex bonus of this armor, it is now unlimited for you

Forge Leathers: A thick leather apron, and gloves enchanted to help protect the wearer from alchemical and laboratory accidents
1st level spells: While wearing this you do not need to make a Wisdom check to avoid scroll mishaps when you fail to activate a scroll of higher caster level than your own. Also, you may use Mending as an at-will spell like ability.
3rd level spells: You gain DR 5 / Piercing
4th level spells: You may expend a 4th level spell for Lesser Globe of Invulnerability
5th level spells: You may expend a 5th level spell to invoke Mage's Private Sanctum, as if you had cast the spell yourself. You may only have one such effect active at a given time.

Dragonhide Armor: You wear the tough bits of a dragon to cover your squishy bits.
+1 BAB: You gain Evasion. ( If you already have Evasion, then this upgrades to Improved Evasion )
+4 BAB: You gain DR 5 / Piercing
+7 BAB: You may use Remove Fear as an at-will spell like ability.
+10 BAB: whenever you Jump, you may increase the distance jumped by up to 5 foot (1 square) per point of BAB you have.

Hide Armor: You wear armor made from the skin of a particularly thick-skinned beast.
4 Ranks Survival: You are ignored by Animals until you attack them and you cannot be detected by Scent
7 Ranks Survival: You gain DR 5 / Piercing
10 Ranks Survival: As an immediate action, you may negate the effects of a (Ex) ability that is triggered when a creature hits you with a claw or bite attack. Thus you may foil a crocodile's Improved Grab, a dire ape's Rend, a wolf's Trip, a weasel's Attach and similar abilities.
13 Ranks Survival: Anyone attempting to locate you via Tracking or divination spells must succeed at a level check with a DC equal to 10 + your ranks in Survival or be unable to do so.

Naga Hide: Leather made from magic and the shed skin of an ugly mythological beast.
1st level spells: Expend 1st level spell for Charm Person
3rd level spells: You gain DR 5 / Piercing
4th level spells: Expend 4th level spell for Poison
5th level spells: You ignore the max dex bonus of this armor

Dragonscale Suit: You wear the toughest bits of a dragon over your entire body.
+1 BAB: You gain Energy Resistance equal to your BAB against the type of energy appropriate to the dragon whose hide this armor is made from
+4 BAB: You gain DR 5 / Piercing
+7 BAB: You are immune to fear effects
+10 BAB: You gain DR 10 / Magic

Chitin Carapace:  Made from the exoskeleton of an Ankheg, or similar giant arthropod, this armor offers great protection and tends to make the wearers look like humanoid mantises.
4 Ranks Climb: You are ignored by Vermin until you attack them and you cannot be detected by Scent
7 Ranks Climb: You gain DR 5 / Piercing
10 Ranks Climb: You gain a Climb speed equal to your land speed
13 Ranks Climb: You gain a Flight speed equal to your land speed (perfect maneuverability)

Mysterious Membrane: This is a suit of armor created by skinning and tanning the hide of an Invisible Stalker, Phantom Fungus, Will o' the Wisp or similar creature which is naturally invisible.
1st level spells: You do not appear to be wearing armor, you receive a +5 circumstance bonus to Sleight of Hand Checks made to conceal items in this armor's invisible leather and you may freely use class features, feats and other abilities as if you were not wearing armor while wearing this.
3rd level spells: You gain DR 5 / Piercing
4th level spells: Expend 4th level spell forGaseous Form upon self
5th level spells: Expend 5th level spell for Seeming

[Josh_Kablack]

Armor	Armor Bonus	Max Dex	Non Prof Pen	BAB type	Skill Rank type	Spell type	GP Cost	Weight
*	*	*	*	Chain	*	*	*	*
Shirt	+7	+4	-4	Eyelet Doublet	Mithral Shirt	Oroborous Vest
Half	+8	+3	-4	Brigandine	Wicker Chain	Celestial Chain
Full	+9	+2	-4	Blued Heroes Chain	Reaction Chain	Chalk Circle Chain

Eyelet Doublet: A bunch of metal rings affixed to a leather vest, this is a favorite among archers
+1 BAB: You negate the first 10 points of damage from any critical hit or sneak attack
+4 BAB: you gain DR 5/bludgeoning
+7 BAB: As a swift action, you may take an additional 5' step.
+10 BAB: As an immediate action you may cause a ranged attack which would normally hit you to miss instead.

Mithral Shirt: Popular amongst halflings, this scales with ranks in move silently
4 ranks Move Silently: You negate the first 10 points of damage from any critical hit or sneak attack
7 ranks Move Silently: You gain DR 5/bludgeoning
10 ranks Move Silently: Whenever a foe's attack or ability would cause you ability damage, you instead suffer an equal amount of hit point damage.
13 ranks Move Silently: Whenever you roll any skill check, you may make 2 rolls and use the better result.

Oroborous Vest: Each link in this mail is individually cast as a perfect ring. The chain is linked together by cutting and then mending each and every ring. This time-consuming process makes for a vest which has no weak links at all.
1st level spells: Negate the first 10 points of damage from any critical hit or sneak attack
3rd level spells: expend 3rd level spell for Vigour (See spell Compendium) upon self only
4th level spells: expend 4th level spell for Spell Immunity upon self.
5th level spells: expend 5th level spell for Iron Body -- and as per these rules revisions you get to ignore the asf and acp clauses of that spell, so go nuts. Wind instruments are still verboten for no damn reason.

Brigandine: Layered chain and leather, this armor combines the best features of both.
+1 BAB: for each and every effect where it matters, you may decide if this armor counts as metallic or not.. Thus you can declare it immune to Rust Monsters, Rusting Grasp, Heat Metal and then turn right around and benefit from the Magnetist Strengthen Metal ability or somesuch.
+4 BAB: you gain DR 5 / bludgeoning and piercing (thus you only take full damage from weapons and natural weapons which deal both bludgeoning and piercing damage - such as the morningstar and bite )
+7 BAB: You may use your flatfooted AC for your Touch AC
+10 BAB: You gain Mettle (If you succeed at a Fortitude partial or Will partial save, you take no effect rather than the partial effect)

Wicker Chain: A curious mail woven of plant fibers, this enables a properly skilled wearer to float on the wind like a seed pod.
4 ranks Balance: You are ignored by Plant creatures until you attack them and you cannot be detected by Tremorsense
7 ranks Balance: Whenever you fall you always land on your feet and any falling damage you take is nonlethal damage.
10 ranks Balance: You gain the Power Slide ability of the Jester.
13 ranks Balance: You gain a Flight speed equal to your land speed (perfect maneuverability)

Celestial Chain: A favorite armour of the forces of Good, this is also worn by some in the legions of Awesome.
1st level spells: you gain DR 5/evil and all of your attacks are treated as [Good] aligned
3rd level spells: Expend 3rd level spell for Fly upon self.
4th level spells: Expend 4th level spell for Holy Smite, Batman
5th level spells: Expend 5th level spell for Mass Cure Light Wounds

Blued Heroes' Chain: This mail is made of fine links that provide excellent protection and are specially treated to resist wear.
+1 BAB: You may add your BAB to the save against any effect which would damage, destroy, or remove this armor.
+4 BAB: You may convert the first 10 points of lethal damage from any attack into nonlethal damage.
+7 BAB: You gain Evasion, or if you already have evasion, it upgrades to Improved Evasion
+10 BAB: You gain Mettle (if you succeed at a Fortitude partial or Will partial save, you take no effect rather than the partial effect)

Reaction Chain: This armour gives you the ability to read the attacks of enemies and respond to them.
4 ranks Sense Motive: You are never surprised nor flat-footed and always act on the first round of any combat.
7 ranks Sense Motive: Hitting you with a melee attack is now an action which provokes an Attack of Opportunity from you. To clarify: the hit against you resolves first, and then, if you have an attack of opportunity for the round left, you may use it against the opponent who hit you.
10 ranks Sense Motive: As an immediate action, you may gain 10 temporary HP
13 ranks: Sense Motive: You may take a move action as an immediate action.

Chalk Circle Chain: Each link in this chain is a prepared magic circle which has been put into shrunken stasis just before the final activation, making for especially effective protection against creatures from other planes.
1st level spells: You negate the first 10 points of damage from weapons or natural weapons of [Extraplanar] creatures
3rd level spells: Expend 3rd level spell for Magic Circle against Evil or Chaos or Good or Law
4th level spells: Expend 4th level spell for Dimensional Anchor
5th level spells: Expend 5th level spell for Dismissal

[Josh_Kablack]

Armor	Armor Bonus	Max Dex	Non Prof Pen	BAB type	Skill Rank type	Spell type	GP Cost	Weight
*	*	*	*	Plate	*	*	*	*
Breast	+10	+2	-6	Hopelite	Fashion Plate	Nacre Chest Plate
Half	+11	+1	-6	Adamant	Silk Steel Armor	Demon Plate
Full	+12	+0	-6	Umlaut Pläte	Mechanus Armor	Bone Plate

Hopelite Armor: Bronze Breastplates worn by the Spartans, who as we know from the movie were manly men who did one-armed, dick-hanging out pushups with naked men on their backs in order to defend their imperial ruler king from the threat of those homosexual lobbyists Persians and any culture which might include diversity in place of blind military hero-worship. After all, their victory at Thermopylae laid the foundations for modern Republicanism democracy right down to the way the Thespians are denied credit and the desire to war with Iran
+1 BAB: You gain DR 5/ Cold Showers Iron
+4 BAB: It's not about how long your spear is, it's how you use it: You may attack with thrown weapons out to ten range incements instead of the usual five and you don't suffer any range increment penalties whatsoever for the first five of those.
+7 BAB: You're really against anything touchy-feely, thus you may use your flatfooted AC in place of your Touch AC.
+10 BAB: You are immune to both moral outrage and cognitive dissonance. Thus you gain Fire and Sonic immunity.

Fashion Plate: An armored chestpiece than can be instantly re-accessorized in a number of ways to serve as an appropriate defense against many attacks. Serena may have done it first, but Erza made it sexy.
4 Ranks Disguise: As an immediate action, you may gain Acid, Cold, Electricity, Fire or Sonic resistance 10. You retain this resistance until you use an immediate action to select a different one or shed the armor.
7 Ranks Disguise: As an immediate action, you may gain DR 10/Piercing, DR 10/Slashing or DR 10/Bludgeoning. You retain this DR until you use an immediate action to select a different one or shed the armor
10 Ranks Disguise: You gain SR equal to 10+your ranks in Disguise
13 Ranks Disguise: As an immediate action, you may redirect an attack against you to any creature in your threatened range, friend or foe. You may not redirect an attack to the creature making the attack.

Nacre Chest Plate: Fashioned from a single giant bivalve, this armor ranges from enameled white to iridescent mother-of-pearl.
1st level spells: You gain DR 5/Epic
3rd level spells: Expend 3rd level spell for Water Breathing
4th level spells: Expend 4th level spell for Freedom of Movement
5th level spells: Whenever you are the target of [Light] spell or effect, you may redirect it at another target within range. Please note that this only applies against effects which specifically target you, not against effects which target areas, even if you happen to be in such an area.

Adamant Plate. Or if your prog-rock preferences run the other way, you can call it XTC plate.
+1 BAB: You gain DR 5/Adamant.
+4 BAB: You gain Acid, Cold, Electric, Fire, and Sonic Resistance 5.
+7 BAB: You may use an immediate action to make an attack of opportunity which would otherwise hit you miss
+10 BAB: You gain fast healing 10.

Silk Steel Armor: A garment of blackened steel plates woven together with silk from monstrous spiders, this platemail actually enhances the wearer's mobility
4 Ranks Ride: When you charge, you may move up to 20' further than you would otherwise be allowed to.
7 Ranks Ride: You and any beast you ride gain DR 10/Critical Hits
10 Ranks Ride: you get a +5 bonus to offset the penalties for using a skill faster than normal or while moving at a faster than normal pace (list includes: moving at full speed while balancing; accelerated climbing,, hide or move silently checks made while mosving faster than half speed half move, speed swimming (in the epic rules system) and other crap I need to look up yet);
13 Ranks Ride: You gain a +4 synergy bonus to Balance, Climb, Jump, Tumble and Swim Checks. If you are mounted, you mount also gains these same bonuses

Demon Armor: Crafted from the very soul of a demon, this armor grants the wearer powers of evil and confusion
1st level spells: You gain DR 5 / Magic and Good and all of your attacks are treated as [Evil] Aligned
3rd level spells: Expend 3rd level spell for Haste
4th level spells: Expend 4th level spell for Modify Memory
5th level spells: Expend 5th level spell for Song of Discord

Umlaut Pläte: Nothing is as heavy metal as this. Nöthing.
+1 BAB: You gain DR 5/-
+4 BAB: Your DR increases to 10/-
+7 BAB: Your DR increases to 15/-
+10 BAB: Your DR increases to DR 20/-

Mechanus Armour: This clanking mass of gears, levers and belts is steered as much as it is worn. Really a semi-animate proto-construct from the Plane of Gears, this armor occasionally emits puffs of steam or spurts of oil, and it has been known to keep fighting after the wearer was dead. This armor scales with your ranks in Craft, and it doesn't matter what type of Craft - each owner brings what they know best to maintaining improving it, which makes each suit very distinct.
4 Ranks: You are treated as the more beneficial of your normal size or as one size category larger. Thus you may wield larger than usual weapons, you have greater carrying capacity, you may have increased natural reach and you receive size bonuses to grappling, disarming, resisting trips and the like, but you don't suffer attack or AC penalties and are not subject to squeezing restrictions. Your ability scores are not modified at all.
7 Ranks: You gain DR 10/Epic
10 Ranks: You gain fast healing 5. Any damage done specificly to the armor self-repairs at the same rate.
13 Ranks: As an immediate action you may choose to defer suffering the consequences from any single attack or effect for one full round. If you like you can then use another immediate action then to defer those consequences for another round and so on. Just remember that's one single effect and you only get one immediate action per round.

Bone Plate: A must for the serious necromancer.
1st level spells: You are ignored by nonintelligent Undead creatures until you attack them and you cannot be detected by Lifesense nor similar abilities which detect living creatures or lifeforces.
3rd level spells: You gain DR 10/Silver
4th level spells: Expend 4th level spell for Fear
5th level spells: You are Immune to Cold and Electricity

[Josh_Kablack]

This post reserved for


Shield Info

Shield	Shield Bonus	Non Prof Pen	BAB type	Skill Rank type	Spell type	GP Cost	Weight
*	*	*	*	Shields	*	*	*
Buckler	+1	-1	Bronze	Small Target	Crystalline
Spiked Shield	+2	-2	Steel	Main Gauche	Porcupine
Large Shield	+3	-3	Force	Hide	Darkwood
*	*	*	*	Great Shields	*	*	*
Great Shields	+5	-5	Tower Shield	Kite Shield	Bone Wall
More Great Shields	+5	-5	Ice Aegis	Kappa Shell	Psychic (aka Tower Shield of Iron Will)

[Josh_Kablack]

This post includes the disclaimer that so much as I have any say over it, anyone here is free to do whatever they want with this material. You may freely repost this elsewhere, rewrite it, modify it, use in your games, publish for mad profit, etc.

This post may be edited to add in other material deemed necessary later, and there is some editing needed above, but I'm Done and replies after this post will not interfere with formatting or flow.

[Hicks]

I would be remiss if I did not point out that expending a 1st level spell slot on prestidigitation, or expending any spell slot for a lower or higher level spell effect, is a terribad idea. Good job on everything else though.

[Josh_Kablack]

I would be remiss if I did not point out that expending a 1st level slot, or expending any spell slot for a lower level spell effect, is a terribad idea.

:Urrr:

That is hardly a critique I was expecting, but it's not even close to true in any way which matters here. If we're talking in pure hypotheticals, then yes trading an unspecified 3rd level spell for an unspecified 2nd level spell is an outright bad trade and nobody should ever do it, since you can totally do more with a 3rd level spell slot than you can do with a 2nd level spell slot.

However people in actual games totally prepare and cast things like Shadow Conjuration, Rary's Mneomic Enhancer, Mord's Lucrubration - all of which exist solely to give wizards access to more or different lower level spells than the level at which they are prepared or ways for sorcerers to have a more diverse spell selection than their spells known allow.And players are not necessarily making "terribad" choices when they cast those spells. Because there are situations in games where a particular given 3rd level spell is outright inferior to a particular given 2nd level spell, or even 1st level spell.

For a quick example: Stinking Cloud may rock overall, but it's of minimal use if you are fighting against undead, and probably detrimental if the fight is in such confined quarters that the entire party is likely to be in the area of effect. So while you'd really like to have Command Undead against the pair of Vampire Spawn in the closet with you, trading Stinking Cloud for Protection From Evil is a still a reasonable tactical choice in that encounter.

The "expend a spell for other spell" armor is effectively letting wizards and clerics spontaneously cast a few spells which they don't specifically need to prepare, or it's effectively letting sorcerers and other spontaneous casters access spells which they didn't select as spells known, or it's letting the pseudocasters like the Fire Mage gain a few additional tricks in place of always using the same SLAs. In every single case it is adding options for the character wearing it. Is a 1st level wizard seriously trading in Color Spray for an extra use of Prestidigitation? Almost certainly not. Is a 5th level wizard? Unlikely, but just maybe. I mean she could want her zero level slots filled with multiple copies of Light or Detect Magic while she goes dungeon crawling, and having the ability to trade an unused 1st level spell to sudden-clean something is a viable fallback if there's an unexpected social encounter in the ruins. Is a first level Cleric going to trade in Cure Light for Prestidigitation? Unlikely, but they don't actually get access to that cantrip otherwise, so they'll think about it more than the wizard. Is a 1st level Fire Mage trading in a use of Fire Bolts for Prestidigitation? Heckz yeah, unless they can get a better trade in out of another armor they qualify for.

Now I will admit that this revision is in draft state and some of those options may be useful in situations which are so specific and occur so rarely that the ability is really flavor only and unlikely to see use in play. If you want to suggest balanced and thematic alternatives for such things, I will be happy to listen and make improvements.

[Hicks]

The problem is not that you are trading a higher level spell slot for (limited) versitility, but that it is prestidigitation and you are giving up real spells like sleep or color spray or charm person to cast what ammounts to a flavor ability.

The part about bone plate that is broke as fuck is giving a great wizard battlefield control spell, fear, that specifically gets more powerful the more you cast it and letting clerics cast it two levels earlier, spontaniously.

Your point about it being like Shadow Conjuration or Mnemonic Enhancer is flawed, as Shadow conjuration does not have a lone, single lower spell level effect but nearly 17, more if using the spell compendium, and the minimum possible number of lower level spell effects provided by Mnemonic Enhancer is 13.

[Prak]

One of these days, I really want to play a sentient, animate suit of armour. There aren't a lot of stories to tell about it, but the couple there are seem like fun.

[Koumei]

My only complaint (so far) is that nobody gives a flying fuck about lowering critical hit damage by 5. Because at level 1 that means mister greatswordius deals 15 instead of 20 damage and you're just as comatose/dead for a Con 12 Wizard (if he was frgoth fnagnar you care even less because he's in a Rage, and if it's a great axe, the amount of fucks you give is like half of zero).

Then at level 6, say, Johann Ula-Inka-Tallen-Hallen-Svansson-Ragesson is hitting you for 42-5 = 37 damage, and you're going from 35 (Wizard with +3 Con) to naptime. If it were a greataxe, then again, you're double dead no matter which way you cut it.

And so on and so forth. Never mind Assassins, Mounted Lancers, Scythers and other things that are specifically built to, if all goes well, deal ALL OF THE DAMAGE. Even the basic instance of an angry man with a big sharp thing is still "you are so KOed/dead that your armour is nothing more than loot for him".

[Red_Rob]

Whilst I agree with the sentiment, there are a few things that I found a litte "WTF!" about the presentation:

So we are expecting characters to actually wear a type of armor that has penalties in Tome, that armor has to start at better than a +5 bonus. Yet starting light armor at more than +5 and scaling upwards for medium and heavy armors would push things off the RNG, so it's better to just let characters who have the proficiency ignore the penalties. That way we avoid a writing bunch of Light and Medium armor that players will ignore. Again.

As every Tome light armour has +5 or less AC I assume you mean here that players only ever use Medium or heavier armour.

That means that in Tome games, armor proficiency is nearly always only given by class. That combines with other features of Tome games to make it rare for PCs to wear medium armor and very rare for PCs to wear heavy armor - and that's a bad thing, because it means that a lot of the armor entries are wasted space.

So if PC's don't use Light armour and its very rare to use heavy armour, Medium armour is the one everyone uses, right?

Hence, in games with the RoW version of Elusive Target on the table, Medium Armor Proficiency is a niche character option at best.

Wait, what?
So your argument is that no-one ever wears armour in Tome games because armour proficiency is too hard to get? Which is untrue by the way, if you are assuming that people will take a 2 level Monk dip to get a crappy +5 Armoured in Life bonus why not a level in Tome Fighter to get every armour and weapon proficiency, along with a reroll each turn? On the whole, I disagree with the assertion that giving up either levels or one of your 8 item slots is a minor cost for a few more points of armour, and most characters I've seen won't do it. What they will do, however, is stick with the armour proficencies their class gave them, which leads to Wizards in robes, Rogues in leather, Samurai and Barbarians in Breastplates and Paladins in Full Plate. I would argue this is a feature not a bug.

I'm not sure making armour proficiency remove all spell failure and skill penalities is a good idea, especially with a feat that says "You can wear every armour at first or second level", as the correct choice for every character then becomes to wear heavy armour. Seriously, a heavy breastplate just becomes the only option for a mage, which seems fucked up.

[CatharzGodfoot]

Hey, Josh. I've argued about Tome armors with you before, but this definitely had to be done.

I agree with your decision to remove ACP. I bitched about it before, but ACP from encumbrance should be sufficient. If you're really fucking strong & therefore unencumbered in heavy armor, you shouldn't take an ACP.

I also like where you're going with some of the news armors. The sharkskin suit is a thing of beauty.


I do still have some ideological complaints, of course.

• No armor should ever scale to spell slots. Everyone has a BAB (although it may be low). Everyone has the ability to invest points in any skill (although it may be cross-class). But only a very select cadre of classes have access to spells, and those don't come with standard levels like skill ranks and BAB.
  So, every armor that uses spell slots should be shifted to an appropriate skill. Bone Plate should go back to knowledge (gods & undead). Nacre plate should use BAB or Swim or Knowledge (nature) or Sense Motive. Forge leathers should key off Craft. And so forth.
• Scaling armors were a great idea, but it turns out that forcing them all to have the same number of abilities adds tons of unnecessary cruft to the game. All the bullshit DR values and random bonuses just make life harder, and give you more chances to make a severely over- or under- powered item.
  So, you should just cut out the forced or crappy abilities. You won't get something at every breakpoint, but you also won't have to deal with getting something at every breakpoint.
• Some armors should probably be magic items. If you make a suit of armor out of Pure Joy, it's a moderate (or major) magic item. Because one way to make a moderate (or major) magic item is to craft it out of Pure Joy.

In conclusion, I'm going to have to read over all of this more carefully and then probably steal it.

[Josh_Kablack]

The problem is not that you are trading a higher level spell slot for (limited) versitility, but that it is prestidigitation and you are giving up real spells like sleep or color spray or charm person to cast what ammounts to a flavor ability.

With a night to sleep on it, I'm feeling less defensive. You're right and there's no damn reason it can't just hand out Prestidigitation totally at will. Ditto for Mending on the Forge Leathers

The part about bone plate that is broke as fuck is giving a great wizard battlefield control spell, fear, that specifically gets more powerful the more you cast it and letting clerics cast it two levels earlier, spontaniously.

Okay, there's a point in there about letting people trade in slots for a spell that's level 3 on the Bard list solely to make it sorta fair when bards get it. Hence I swapped it to 4th level, making it no different than a Sorc who picks it as a spell known or a necromancer who memorizes multiple copies.

However you're factually wrong about both clerics getting it earlier (it's not even on the cleric list) and about it getting better the more you cast it. Sure it makes a victim Shaken even on a successful save, and being shaken twice makes you Frightened, and a third time makes you Panicked. However the Shaken duration on a save is 1 round, so unless you have a way to throw another fear effect as less than a standard action or a partner helping you, it's never going to stack.

You cast it, enemy saves is shaken. I round later, it's been a round, duration of shaken has expired, you may cast it again, if the enemy saves again he gets to be shaken again instead of escalating to frightened.

Now there are some combos that let this stack in Tome (Blitz +11, Dreadful Demeanor 4 ranks, Koumei witch's Evil Eye etc), and that is pretty gosh-durn effective when you can pull it off. But as the spell has the tags Necromancy, Mind-Affecting and Fear, there are a whole slew of counters available (above and beyond the usual spell counters of SR, silence, dispelling and positioning): being a Knight, being a Paladin, being a construct, ooze, plant, undead or vermin, having an ally who can cast Remove Fear, wearing either of the Dragon leathers I listed above.

So at least to me, that seems "on par for 7th level combo with Tome material" instead of "broke as fuck"

My only complaint (so far) is that nobody gives a flying fuck about lowering critical hit damage by 5.

That is precisely why it is an ability handed out for wearing underwear.

Anything at all which takes a proficiency reduces such damage by 10 points, and does so as a first level ability - which is at least turning a 1st level greatsword or battleaxe crit back into a normal hit and on average negating the first three dice of sneak attack, and even against insta-gib stuff like samurai scythe Kiai! 10 points is still the difference between "down, needs cure badly" and "all the way dead, go through pockets for loot""

[Josh_Kablack]

Hey, Josh. I've argued about Tome armors with you before, but this definitely had to be done.

And while we are bound to disagree on several things, you're generally pretty good at catching me when I'm spouting BS

I do still have some ideological complaints, of course.
[*] No armor should ever scale to spell slots. Everyone has a BAB (although it may be low). Everyone has the ability to invest points in any skill (although it may be cross-class). But only a very select cadre of classes have access to spells, and those don't come with standard levels like skill ranks and BAB.
So, every armor that uses spell slots should be shifted to an appropriate skill. Bone Plate should go back to knowledge (gods & undead). Nacre plate should use BAB or Swim or Knowledge (nature) or Sense Motive. Forge leathers should key off Craft. And so forth.

Now this is a criticism I expected, as it is an entirely new direction, and the amount of hair-splitting rules contortions over spell levels and SLAs necessary to make the idea work close to my original intent is rather more than I would like it to be.

You're right about the uneven levels being a potential issue, and there may be additional issues that show up in play but my overall take is that if you want to revert them back to skill-based armors, it shouldn't be too hard for you to do that - either swap out the granted spells make them usable on a cool-down timer or something.

However, I have to disagree with your claim about spellcasting prerequisites being problematically exclusive. Of the 11 "Core PC Classes" listed in the Tome0.7rev139PDF, there are exactly 4 (Barbarian, Fighter, Knight, Monk) which do not get any spells nor spell-like abilities in the first 5 levels. Of the 22 "Additional PC Classes" listed in that PDF, there are 6 which do not get any spells or spell-like abilities in their first 5 levels (Ninja, Sohei, Swashbuckler, Thief Acrobat, and Totemist) - And from that list the Sohei's ability to scribe and activate spells from scrolls makes them arguable. So we're looking at at least 23 out of 33 available classes without counting such exploits as "being a gnome" or "multiclassing". So assuming that the available classes in the PDF are a representative sample of the classes people actually play in Tome games, it's likely that more than two-thirds of characters will have at least some access to my spell-level armor as it currently stands. And that's about how many are going to have access to the higher-level BAB abilities in the first 10 levels (where I actually care about the game), so I don't think it's inherently problematic. Yeah, Fighters don't get to benefit from Spell Scaling armors at all, and yeah 9th level Assassins only get the first 2 abilities from Spell Scaling armors when Wizards are getting all 4 Spell Scaling Abilities, But conversely, the 10th level wizard is only getting the first 2 abilities from BAB armor, the 10th level assassin is getting the first 3 and the 10th level fighter is getting all 4.

[*]Scaling armors were a great idea, but it turns out that forcing them all to have the same number of abilities adds tons of unnecessary cruft to the game. All the bullshit DR values and random bonuses just make life harder, and give you more chances to make a severely over- or under- powered item.
So, you should just cut out the forced or crappy abilities. You won't get something at every breakpoint, but you also won't have to deal with getting something at every breakpoint.

This is a highly valid concern, and the only real rebuttal I can give is that hopefully my working from a more rigid and narrow design skeleton here and my great curtailing of the number of purely numeric bonuses has resulted in better balance and fewer abilities too crappy to bother tracking.

I'm also still open to suggestions for improving any particular abilities you see as "forced" or "crappy". Yeah, there has to be a point where I say "it's the ability you get for being 1st level and having underwear on, so don't expect much", but it should at least be worth the space it takes to write on a character sheet.

[*]Some armors should probably be magic items. If you make a suit of armor out of Pure Joy, it's a moderate (or major) magic item. Because one way to make a moderate (or major) magic item is to craft it out of Pure Joy.

Heckz yeah. This was part of my flavor justification (see first post) for limiting the scaling abilities to the first 10 levels. Once characters have access to the post-Wish economy they are kitting themselves out in moderate or major items instead of caring about the abilities granted by mundane armor.

[Hicks]

I'm glad you changed it. The reason that a heavy armor allowing a creature to trade a third level spell slot for Fear is was broke was that arcane spellcasters need to be at least 7th level to cast the spell and are not proficient with heavy armors, while 5th level clerics are proficient with heavy armors and could expend a third level spell slot for a spell that fucking kills people.

But the point is moot because you fixed it. Thanks.

[Surgo]

Heckz yeah. This was part of my flavor justification (see first post) for limiting the scaling abilities to the first 10 levels. Once characters have access to the post-Wish economy they are kitting themselves out in moderate or major items instead of caring about the abilities granted by mundane armor.

There's a certain lack of variety in the moderate and major magic items, especially the ones that aren't weapons. Do you think you could introduce a few examples for what these sorts of armors would look like?

[Josh_Kablack]

There's a certain lack of variety in the moderate and major magic items, especially the ones that aren't weapons. Do you think you could introduce a few examples for what these sorts of armors would look like?

Due to the issues in perceptions of the post-wish economy and the incomplete state of book of gears, I wouldn't even want to start such a project. But I'll throw out a few suggested 11th+ level defensive abilities based on what some critters in the MM already get

Hardness 10, 15 or 20 works like DR that nothing bypasses, but also counts vs elemental and raw magical damage.

Golem-like magical immunity, that's infinite SR vs all but like 3-4 spells, (sp) and (su) abilities one of which inexplicably becomes beneficial to you.

Immunity to wide swathes of effects - for example being immune to mind-affecting, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, critical hits, sneak attacks, nonlethal damage, ability damage, ability drain, energy drain, fear, sickness, fatigue, drowning, thirst, starvation, is actually a slightly shorter list than you get just for being undead. Throw a freedom of movement on top of that to laugh off slow, web, entangling, grapples and solid fog and you've probably got something a wish-economy character might consider minimally acceptable to put in one of their eight item slots, at least if it's attached to something that's also providing and enhancing a decent armor or shield bonus.

Gaze attacks. Enemies within 30 ft (or similar distance) of you can get turned to stone forever (or meet a similar fate) without you even needing to take an action.

Regeneration with uncommon bypass methods. Not merely are you fast healing to a degree that's meaningful in combat time, you're only taking nonlethal damage, and enemies have to put you down for long enough to strip your items or it won't even count.


Now the thing is that some of these just flat-out render PCs immune to what are supposed to be level-appropriate challenges, even for the teen levels, so there's a case to be made that they don't belong in PC hands at all. But if you are accepting that characters are entering a game state where they can acquire anything which can be made or accomplished via wish as a trivial matter, then you are accepting that such characters will have every single spell which can be made permanent, +5 inherent bonuses to everything, whatever version of polymorphing or magic jar cheese you haven't vetoed by houserule, as well as Mind Blank and anything else where the duration can be extended to at least "most of the day" up all the time as essentially freebies, and any item that they are expected to care about has to add capabilities aside from or on top of those.

[CatharzGodfoot]

Alright, I'll see about tweaking things to by own dark skill-based desires...


A Review of the Armors Themselves

Yeah, so every 2nd-level character (and most above that) that isn't proficient with armor is going to be wearing a loincloth.
[*]Not being surprised is way more useful to spell casters than being able to spontaneously convert to mage armor, continual flame, etc.
[*]The AC bonus on a saffron robe is worthless to a monk, and the abilities are much less generally useful.
[*]Military garb is only useful as a disguise, unless you're wearing heavy armor over it (with the appropriate feat).
[*]Full casters don't get SoH, so nobody uses the magician's outfit.
[*]Wizard's robes and elaborate clothing are both niche and not going to be worn except for special occasions (which is fine for elaborate clothing).
[*]Props to magic underwear for enshrining Mormon "garmies"!


In the light armor arena, dragonhide and dragonscale armors: why.jpg
They differ in AC and MDB by only one point, they provide identical abilities until 10th level, and probably look about the same (I assume that the scale armor comes from much bigger scales than the hide). At least make dragonhide armor key off of Jump instead of BAB.
[*]Nagahide armor exists to give 1st level clerics and druids charm person (but has to exist because of the name). Will 'o Wisp armor exists to give mid-level druids and clerics improved invisibility. I don't know how I feel about this.
[*]Everyone else with light armor proficiency who isn't fighting a creature with a known elemental subtype will be using something along the lines of 'defending weapon + loincloth'.


Which brings be to medium armor. First off, the ringmaileyelet doublet's sneak attack resistance unaccountably pisses me off. Not a lot to say about this category, it only takes off at level 7 unless you're maxing out Sense Motive.


Heavy armor is where the really neat options live. And it's where clerics and druids laugh all the way to the bank, because they get to look awesome and kick ass.
[*]Demon armor gives DR 5/good and magic at first level. Bam! Then it gives out haste.
[*]Bone armor gives out lifesense and then DR 10/silver, and then a nice wizard SoD.
[*]Mechanus armor has gotten even better. Holy shit. This is the go-to armor for people with heavy armor proficiency who don't cast spells or don't need haste. It's icing on the cake that the armor (appropriately for power armor) actually helps you carry its weight better. I foresee lots of blacksmiths in your future.
[*]Special mention to anyone with maxed Disguise and heavy armor proficiency (Soldiers?). Fashion plate kicks ass, but is absurdly niche.

[Josh_Kablack]

Alright, I'll see about tweaking things to by own dark skill-based desires...


A Review of the Armors Themselves

Yeah, so every 2nd-level character (and most above that) that isn't proficient with armor is going to be wearing a loincloth.

Probably right. Have nerfed somewhat. Hopefully this makes other options more viable.

[*]The AC bonus on a saffron robe is worthless to a monk, and the abilities are much less generally useful.

True for AC, unsure about abilities. I have dropped the self-damage from the +7 BAB ability, but I am actually a little worried that the additional swift-action per round could potentially synergize too well with tome monk fighting styles.

[*]Military garb is only useful as a disguise, unless you're wearing heavy armor over it (with the appropriate feat).

I'm honestly not sure if this is a problem or not. Is "outfits the PCs tuck in a Bag of Holding and save for a specific purpose" too narrow for a non-armor?

[*]Full casters don't get SoH, so nobody uses the magician's outfit.

Only the 3rd level spell ability triggers off of SoH, the others are general-purpose - if maybe too weak to matter.

[*]Wizard's robes and elaborate clothing are both niche and not going to be worn except for special occasions (which is fine for elaborate clothing).

Gave some powerups to Wizard robes.

In the light armor arena, dragonhide and dragonscale armors: why.jpg
They differ in AC and MDB by only one point, they provide identical abilities until 10th level, and probably look about the same (I assume that the scale armor comes from much bigger scales than the hide). At least make dragonhide armor key off of Jump instead of BAB.

Fair point, I've tweaked the ability sets to try to differentiate further, as keying off of Jump would requiring swapping armors around in my grid.

[*]Nagahide armor exists to give 1st level clerics and druids charm person (but has to exist because of the name).

I don't actually see that as a problem ( At least not worse than charm person existing in its current form and the associated diplomancy exploits )

Will 'o Wisp armor exists to give mid-level druids and clerics improved invisibility. I don't know how I feel about this.

That might synergize too well with their other stealth abilities, such as Silence or wildshaping into small forms with move silently bonuses. However, this also needs a real 1st level ability, so probably best to power up the first ability and nerf that to some other illusion-esque or ripped from Emporer's New Clothes ability. Not sure what though.

[*]Everyone else with light armor proficiency who isn't fighting a creature with a known elemental subtype will be using something along the lines of 'defending weapon + loincloth'.

Hopefully nerfing the loincloth will mitigate this. That said, some of the light armor is going to have live in an uncomfortable land of only very low or very high levels, since once PCs have enough gold for Defending weapons and the like, they will get an armor bonus that way and pillage the nonarmors for ability sets. And they can be expected to do that right up until the point where they need the item slot for a better weapon. Upgrading the light armor bonuses enough to prevent that makes the medium and heavy armors go all the way off the RNG.

Which brings be to medium armor. First off, the ringmaileyelet doublet's sneak attack resistance unaccountably pisses me off.

Pisses you off in that negating crits is too minimal an ability, or pisses you off that losing 3 average dice of sneak attack is a bit of a rogue-hose? Or something else?

It might be a viable alternative to replace it with a lethal to nonlethal damage conversion (the Blued Heroes Chain +4 ability) but I worry about the math and accounting making that one more common would entail.

Heavy armor is where the really neat options live.

And if Heavy armor proficiency is supposed to be meaningful, that's intended.
See also: proliferation of touch attacks in Tome games.

And it's where clerics and druids laugh all the way to the bank, because they get to look awesome and kick ass.

Ur, you have a point about clerics, but Druids only get medium armor proficiency -- although the text about metal armor prohibition and the Ironwood spell do offer enough ambiguity to make an argument here it looks to me like those refer to the material prohibition.

[*]Special mention to anyone with maxed Disguise and heavy armor proficiency (Soldiers?). Fashion plate kicks ass, but is absurdly niche.

Trickery domain clerics.

[CatharzGodfoot]

Which brings be to medium armor. First off, the ringmaileyelet doublet's sneak attack resistance unaccountably pisses me off.

Pisses you off in that negating crits is too minimal an ability, or pisses you off that losing 3 average dice of sneak attack is a bit of a rogue-hose? Or something else?

The idea that having armor made out of holes protects you from critical strikes and sneak attacks pisses me off. It's not a balance issue, and it's a really minor flavor issue. Although the DR granted should probably be mitigated by piercing rather than bludgeoning.


Oh, and I've been looking at how Armor Mastery works. High level armor masters will probably be using nagahide Mechanus armor or nagahide fashion plate.

[Chamomile]

I note there doesn't seem to be any traditional knight-in-shining-armor style full plate. Is this intentional?

EDIT: For that matter, there's not a whole lot of mundane armors in general. Regular old chainmail and studded leather and such.

[CatharzGodfoot]

This has been motivating me to do my own take on scaling armors. Here's an example:

Code: Select all

    { name: 'workman\'s leather'
    , description: 'This soft leather armor is covered with pouches of all shapes and sizes. Tools for working fine mechanisms pop out of the gloves when you flex the fingers.
    You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Disable Device checks for having a masterwork tool when wearing this armor.'
    , types: ['light', 'mundane']
    , AC 3
    , weight 20
    , cost: 50
    , scaling: 'skill'
    , skill: 'Disable Device'
    , abilities: [ 'Your armor contains a tool for every occasion. If you take the time to retrieve it, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to any skill check for having the appropriate masterwork tool.'
                 , 'You can carry up to a light load in the pouches of your armor.'
                 , 'You can fit your armor with any trap that is not an architectural element (no collapsing ceilings!); trying to steal from or grapple you triggers the trap. If you don't have something unique built into your armor, by default it will be a CR 1 poison dart trap that uses your attack bonus.'
                 , 'Quick access to your tools reduces the time needed to disable a trap to a move action.'
                 ]
    }