Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Pluto 03-08-05, 09:43 PM	Hi all, This is my first post here. It's not quite an "optimization" issue, more of a concept issue, but this still looks like the best forum for this thread. A player in my upcoming D&D campaign would like to play a Wizard of similar Arcane spellcaster, with a heavy armor. I'll probably end up house-ruling it anyway, but I'd like to know if there's a legit way to approximate this concept, especially at the lower levels. So basically what I need to know is: - Is there a way to build an Arcane spellcaster that can freely cast in full plate armor, without suffering any Spell Failure? Additional constraints: - Armor must be nonmagical, no special materials. - No Still Spell feat. If the above is not possible, how close can you get? How low can you drive your ASF in full plate? What is the heaviest armor you can wear safely? Thanks for your help!
Pallin Rahl 03-08-05, 09:49 PM	You, my friend, are looking for the Spellsword PrC. :) ...believe it's in Complete Warrior, if I'm not mistaken... Among the other useful abilities of the PrC (gotta love Channel Spell), a key feature of the PrC is that you can ignore more and more spell failure as you progress. :) ...IIRC, you can get up to ignoring around 30% arcane spell failure.
PhoenixInferno 03-08-05, 10:11 PM	A Dwarven arcane spellcaster could use the Runesmith PrC (Races of Stone) - negates all somatic components.
jedrious 03-08-05, 10:48 PM	Warmage 8 with the Battle Caster feat alows warmage spells to be cast in heavy armor
djinni 03-08-05, 11:20 PM	Warmage 8 with the Battle Caster feat alows warmage spells to be cast in heavy armor teh warmage is the best way to go, but in Frostburn the material "Blue Ice" allows the casting of [cold] spells with no failure.
The Thing in the Night 03-08-05, 11:38 PM	The runesmith is always fun to play. A buddy of mine had one, decked out in some of the ungodly armour from RoS (mountain plate or somesuch). His ememies fled in terror when he began to shake like a tin can in a blender (Oh my God, he's casting a spell!). This is really more of a pure mage option. Spellsword is a gish, which is a whole new can'o'worms entirely. For the non-dwarven pure caster, I agree that warmage is the way to go (unless you want to do something other than blowing stuff up.)
Endarire 03-09-05, 12:16 AM	Armored Arcana in one of the FR books reduces ASF by 5 or 10% each time taken. -EE
war child of the mourn 03-09-05, 12:29 AM	i know you said no special materials but if this player could make a suit of mithral mountain plate (RoS) and took warmage (CA) he would be able to cast in medium armour and the mountain plate counts as medium armour for it is made of mithral however the max dex bounus to AC will not increase neither will speed, as well as check penalty i could be mistaken though. but yes your player would get +10 to armour but no dex, although your player will have to heavy armour proficiency (PHB) and exotic heavy armour proficiency (RoS) and if you have feats to spare take both heavy armour optimization feats (RoS) to icrease the armour bonus to +12. The funniest thought of this build is that you would see a shimmering, slow moving, hunk of metal coming towards you, then he start to jiggle a little and then "OMG his casting a spell" and eveyone hits the dirt. It's great.
Vatras 03-09-05, 01:13 AM	Official ways to get it at low levels: zero. The Warmage as mentioned needs 8th level and a feat to do it, and is a very narrow caster, to the point of being useless. The Spellsword gets a reduced penalty, but you can take him earliest at 4th level and it takes him 9 levels to reach 30% anyway. Collecting feats to reduce the penalty takes a lot of feats and thats only one every three levels, so that one is probably out.
Tempest Stormwind 03-09-05, 02:30 AM	Official ways to get it at low levels: zero. Not quite. Bards, warlocks, and warmages (and battle sorcerors, if you use UA) all can avoid LIGHT armor completely at lower levels. There's a feat (Forget the precise name, I think it's Battlecaster) that can extend this, but I forget if it can be taken twice. If it can, as soon as you hit level six (or three if human), you could get around it for certain spell lists. If it can only be taken once, invest in mithral. Alternately, do the other thing -- arcane spell failure is not even a balance issue, it's just a sacred cow. You can honestly ditch it and no harm will come to you -- I'd suggest making it a flavor thing (i.e. racial substitution levels in Wizard for dwarfs) rather than a flat change, though, to try to spice stuff up. You're the DM, make rules as need be.
Piraatje 03-09-05, 03:02 AM	Mithril makes a full plate count as medium armor. Now, any bard/warlock/warmage(/sublime chord!) with the battlecaster feat can cast in that fullplate. Downside to this: all cha-based spontanious secondary casters. If you take the spellsword route, don't forget the twilight enhancement (-10% ASF). Of course, runesmith works excellent for a dwarven wizard.
Pluto 03-09-05, 10:18 AM	Thank you all for the feedback. I do think the ASF is more of a legacy from earlier incarnations of the game than an actual game balance issue. I'll definitely check out Complete Warrior and Races of Stone for the classes and feats you have listed and see if anything strikes me. Currently, however, I'm leaning more towards a house-rule road. I'm thinking of waiving away all requirements for the epic Automatic Still Spell feat, only for ASF purposes. That is, unless he also takes Still Spell the character will still need a free hand to cast spells. This will allow the character to cast in any armor at low levels, but will require additional feat investment as soon as he can cast 4th and then 7th level spells. The character is most likely going to be a very straightforward gish build from an inexperienced player BTW.
Bonzai 03-09-05, 11:07 AM	Also, a Pale master with the battle caster feat could wear the undead armor BP with no penalty.