Armor for a knight? (D&D 3.5)

[BIGMamaSloth]

I'm building a knight (PHB2) right now and I need help choosing armor. A knight can wear all armor. I would like a high AC boost, while not incurring the penalties of wearing heavy armor such as armor check penalties and the like. I'm AFB right now and was wondering i anyone had good suggestions for armor?

Oh, and I'm level 6 with a budget of 20,000 gp.

[Glimbur]

There are basically three choices for armor if you want the optimal one. Chain shirt is the best light armor, breastplate is the best medium armor, and full plate is the best heavy armor. Mithral full plate throws off the equation, and there are weird armors in other books like clockwork armor and mountain plate and such.

Go with a breastplate. They're cool.

[gbprime]

What are you going to be doing that you're worried about armor check penalties?

Is that 20,000 budget JUST for armor? Because if it is... +2 Death Ward Mithril Full Plate. +10 AC, +3 max dex, -3 armor check penalty, ignore death effect, level drain, or negative energy damage once per day.

[Hazzardevil]

There are basically three choices for armor if you want the optimal one. Chain shirt is the best light armor, breastplate is the best medium armor, and full plate is the best heavy armor. Mithral full plate throws off the equation, and there are weird armors in other books like clockwork armor and mountain plate and such.

Go with a breastplate. They're cool.

Actually I've found armour with a bigger armor bonus:
The Mountain plate, +10 bonus to AC.

[Beelzebub1111]

Actually I've found armour with a bigger armor bonus:
The Mountain plate, +10 bonus to AC.
No...just no. Use Mechanus Gear from planar handbook instead. Costs helluva lot less and is not exotic.

[Adamantrue]

A combination of Mithral & the Nimbleness property from MiC would reduce the ACP by 5. After that, its just a matter of what you're priorities are.

I thought Heavy Plate was the best non-Exotic Armor, as far as pure bonus goes? Mechanus Gear beats it?

[Beelzebub1111]

A combination of Mithral & the Nimbleness property from MiC would reduce the ACP by 5. After that, its just a matter of what you're priorities are.

I thought Heavy Plate was the best non-Exotic Armor, as far as pure bonus goes? Mechanus Gear beats it?

+10 to AC, +0 Max Dex, -10 ACP, speed reduced by an extra five feet, but knight fixes that. And all for only 1750 gp!

[Andion Isurand]

Um, this is the best heavy armor...

THAALUD STONE ARMOR
Thaalud stone armor is a mighty suit of plate armor composed
of heavy stone plates held together by metal rivets and hinged
joints. The stone used is a rare variety that is very dense and
resistant to chips and fractures. The breastplate is hinged
like the visor of a helmet, so the tomb tapper can use its
powerful chest maw in battle. The armor is extremely heavy
but provides little hindrance to greater tomb tappers. It is
normally found sized for Huge creatures, but versions of
smaller size could be constructed by someone of appropriate
skill. The statistics below are for a set of the armor sized for
a Medium creature.

Thaalud Stone Armor: heavy armor; cost 2,800 gp;
armor bonus +12; max Dex bonus +0; armor check penalty
–8; arcane spell failure 40%; speed 30 ft./20 ft., 20 ft./15
ft.; weight 180 lb.

==============================

from Anarouch: The Empire of Shade

[Ossian]

So, you are a knight. You do not have to move around and back-flip, you can accept a small ACP! You are there to stand your ground, and take the hit for the wimpier members of the party. So, what you really need is a fantasy kevlar body armour, so that when the hail of arrows is raining down on the President, you can jump in the line of fire and take the arrow(s) instead of him.

How do you like that?

Dwarven Plate

This plate is made of adamantine, giving its wearer damage reduction of 3/-. No aura (nonmagical); Price 16,500 gp.

Make it a breast plate instead, add another 4,000 (come on, haggle a bit....) and it becomes +2 on top of that, so total armour bonus

Various pros:

total armour bonus : +5 (breastplate) +2 (enhancement) = +7
DR = 3
ACP: -3
MDB: +3
It is DWARVEN! You will look pro, dependable, credible, I d wager even manlier than in any other type of armour.

[Eldariel]

What you want is Mithral Breastplate. It's the heaviest armor without any significant penalties to anything. Max Dex is +5 tho so you better have some Dex if you want to get an efficient lot of AC from it. It's only ~4500 gold too. You could get a +2 one rather painlessly at this juncture.

[Socratov]

what you want is any armor of the metal variety as given by previous posters, and polish it up to inhumanly possible standards of shining so when 1 ray of light lands on it the whole room lights up :) congratulations: you have now become a knight in shining armour :smallbiggrin:

[Gwendol]

Knights typically benefit from being very mobile since they don't slow down in medium, and later in heavy armor. In other words, your choice of armor depends on what level of play you're at. Breastplate at the lower levels. Furthermore, because of the bulwark of defense ability you want reach and combat reflexes, because your enemies will trigger AoO's around you.
Get good medium armor and an animated shield.