Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 nighttree Sep 13, 2008 22:51:30	I'm new to the whole item creation arena, and trying to build a suit of armor. At level's 10 +....which actually ends up being the most usefull and why ? Enhancement bonus to AC Fortification Invulnerability (DR 5/magic) or Spell resistance.
#2 kurashu Sep 13, 2008 23:10:38	AC. If you can't be hit then you don't need to worry about about damage. Fortitication would be my next choice. Followed by SR (depending on how high it is, this is probably not worth it). Then DR X/Magic. Anything that is DR X/Magic is not worth it at all. AC's your best bet. Get a floating shield, max out that AC. Get a ring of protection. Armor with maxed out AC (get a high dex allowance and top that off as well). AC can get pretty high. Just remember than a targeted dispel or an AMF will ruin your day. Other types of bonus you may want to look into: Sacred/Profane, Luck, Morale, Compentence, Insight, and untyped. Untyped bonuses are the best, they always stack with each other unless specifically mentioned otherwise.
#3 natenate Sep 13, 2008 23:24:12	Don't bother with anything but Enhancement on a suit of armor, and not even that if you've got a Cleric handy to cast Magic Vestment on it each day. A must-have item is a Gemstone of Heavy Fortification from the Draconomicon, which should cost an extra 3410 gp to hire an NPC spellcaster to embed it on you. A suit of +1 armor and a Gemstone of Heavy Fortificaton costs the same as a +1 Armor of Heavy Fortification, so anything above +1 on your armor and you're saving a lot of cash. Plus it stays active when you take your armor off.
#4 blargney_the_second Sep 14, 2008 2:22:28	My preference for permanent defenses: #1 Concealment - works regardless of attack bonus, prevents sneak attack damage. #2 AC - no hit = no damage. Nothing wrong with that. #3 Fortification - negating sneak attack and critical hits gets rid of spikes in damage taken. #4 DR - the more attacks that target you the better this is. If I have to choose between them, I prefer to simply have bags of hps. #5 SR - this blocks buffs from allies. That's a huge strike against it in my books. -blarg
#5 tytalus Sep 14, 2008 4:45:31	Check the magic item discussion threads linked to in the "Useful Links" sticky. There's even one that discusses armor in particular. Enhancement bonus to AC AC is great, but this is only worth it if you can't convince your party cleric that a single spell on your armor in the morning (Magic Vestment) benefits him, too. At least he doesn't have to heal quite so often. In short: save your money for things that can't be replaced with a single (low-level) spell that basically lasts all day. Fortification Very useful, but gets expensive if you want reliable protection. Invulnerability (DR 5/magic) Not only is DR/magic the weakest DR in the game, but by the time you can afford it, five points is nothing to write home about. Most importantly, though, from level 10+ most opponents will have a means of overcoming it, rendering it useless. or Spell resistance. SR as an armor enchantment is horribly overpriced. Unless your DM is burying you in gold, it's impossible to get an SR enchantment that will actually prevent spells at least semi-reliably. At level 10, for example, you need SR ~20 to prevent spells from opponents of the same level roughly half the time. SR is neat, of course, but too expensive for armor. The cheapest way to get SR is the Scarab of Protection from the DMG. Basically half price of what the guidelines say it should cost. There are restrictions, of course, but if you want SR, this is an excellent option. Summary: Get AC from the spell, if possible. Spend your money either on Fortification or better even on ways to give the enemy the chance to miss entirely, such as Blurring. If you are worried about being affected by spells, go for enchants that give you immunity to the spells you fear, such as Soulfire (all negative energy / energy drain / death spells and effects) or Exalted (mind control), both from BoED. Look into the Augment Crystals from MIC, too. They are very cheap and thus can be worth it. If you want DR, check the Greater Iron Ward crystal. DR 5/- is much better than DR 5/magic. It's cheaper, too, even if it only absorbs so many points per day.
#6 eldariel Sep 14, 2008 5:43:42	AC is great if you can hit a certain threshold. Basically, you need high enough AC to hope for a relevant number of melee opponents (or others if you're pumping Touch AC) miss per each round. If you can't get it high from auxillary sources, it's not really worth it. I like to combine DR with high HP, but it's too expensive. SR is even more so - the only way to get sufficiently high SR to matter is with the Spell Resistance-spell or through racial/class features. I'd take Fortifications only if I can't get the same feature otherwise, and only Medium Forts at that. Heavy Forts are too expensive. 75% is good enough.
#7 HeavensThunderHammer Sep 19, 2008 11:27:36	This is very handy, thankyou!