increasing max dex bonus.

[Darth Stabber]

So I have seen numerous ways overcome arcane spell failure threads, but what if that is not the armor limit you are having issues with. I'm starting a game where on of the characters is a pixie beguiler, and her dexterity score is high enough that she can only wear leather or padded armor, but she wants the chain shirt, are their any feats, special materials, class features or ACFs that increase max dex bonus?

[Rhothaerill]

Mithril increases max. dex. by 2, as well as reducing armor penalty by 3.

A mithril chain shirt would then have armor +4, max. dex +6, and 0 armor check penalty

[Forged Fury]

Well, Mithral (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialMaterials.htm#mithral) for starters.

Celestial Armor gives a very superior +8 Max Dex bonus.

With Max Dex, it's tricky in that you're not getting something down to 0 like you are with ASF since you can usually find a variety of ways to boost your Dex. What Max Dex Bonus are you shooting for?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Races of the Wild page 168 has a table detailing armors made from special materials, most of which have a higher than normal max dex.

[DarthCyberWolf]

Celestial Armor for a +8 Max Dex (DMG, specific armors).

Then the Nimbleness enchant for an additional +1 Max Dex, as well as removing the armor check penalty (MiC).


Optionally, Greater Luminous Armor would be good but I'm not sure how santified spells would work with a beguiler.

[ericgrau]

A mithril chain shirt is the most popular and affordable option. Celestial is the best option if that's not enough. Beyond that you go armor-less and wear bracers of armor, which have no max dex.

[TroubleBrewing]

Or you can go armorless and BLOCK WITH YOUR CHEST.

Stack ability bonuses to your AC. Who needs armor when you have abilities instead?

(Mad props to Eldariel's Being Bane guide.)

[Greenish]

A mithril chain shirt is the most popular and affordable option. Celestial is the best option if that's not enough. Beyond that you go armor-less and wear bracers of armor, which have no max dex.Or gnome twistcloth. +1 AC, no max dex, no ACP.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

There was a Dragon magazine that dealt with modifications to armor and weapons. Various things like an extra +1-2 to damage or to hit and the same to armor bonus and max dex.

[NNescio]

Or you can go armorless and BLOCK WITH YOUR CHEST.

Stack ability bonuses to your AC. Who needs armor when you have abilities instead?

(Mad props to Eldariel's Being Bane guide.)

Fist of the Forest + Deepwarden for massive Con to AC bonuses?

[Seharvepernfan]

The faerun underdark book had a couple armors that went to +10 max dex, which were either snakeskin or spider silk, then add nimbleness on top of that.

That gnome twistcloth sounds like your best bet.

[TroubleBrewing]

Especially since you can cast Magic Vestment on it.

Well, maybe not you.

But you can have someone cast MV on it, I'm sure.

[Firechanter]

It's also reasonable to work out a "Celestial" property that can be applied to other armours. The DMG Celestial Armour is a +3 Chainmail that costs 22400GP and has the celestial special properties, such as a max Dex bonus 6 points higher than the usual.
Deducting the cost for +3 enhancement, those celestial properties come down to +13000GP on top of any armour you want (*). A Celestial Breastplate would have max Dex +9, a Cel Chainshirt even +10.
(However, there's not really a good reason to go the chainshirt route, as the total AC won't be higher than with a breastplate and both count as light armour.)

*) Note that this is just 9K more than a Medium Armour made of Mithral, and for that you get not only higher Dex allowance but also an emergency Fly mode.

[TroubleBrewing]

Some math, with a pretty solid point at the end

Yeah, but if you've got a DM anything like mine, he won't allow it. It's a sweet ability, and the math is pretty simple, but the Celestial property isn't actually printed anywhere.

I wish it worked like that, but most of the DM's I've gamed under would go by RAW for this one.

[Firechanter]

Haha, I love these Quote paraphrases. ^^ Yeah well, of course you need DM consensus for that.

Also, it just occured to me that if you were just after the Dex allowance, you could also barter to remove the Fly ability, which in itself should factor in at 5400GP if I calculated that right. So that would give you just the Dex/Weight/ASF improvement for 7600GP, which really is just a smidgen more expensive than plain Mithral. A liberal DM might allow that as "Angelcraft".

[jmelesky]

This is outside of 3.5 proper, but in PF, Fighters have a class feature called "Armor Training":



Starting at 3rd level, a fighter learns to be more maneuverable while wearing armor. Whenever he is wearing armor, he reduces the armor check penalty by 1 (to a minimum of 0) and increases the maximum Dexterity bonus allowed by his armor by 1. Every four levels thereafter (7th, 11th, and 15th), these bonuses increase by +1 each time, to a maximum –4 reduction of the armor check penalty and a +4 increase of the maximum Dexterity bonus allowed.

In addition, a fighter can also move at his normal speed while wearing medium armor. At 7th level, a fighter can move at his normal speed while wearing heavy armor.

[Darth Stabber]

Mithril and twistcloth both seem decent options. Basically the character is a pixie LA4//beguiler 4 with dex 22, so many of these are out of her current reach. I am the DM in this game (and the only member of the group who is a forum junky, hence my asking the question and not the player), and I don't really want to use a reverse engineered specific armor property, though thank you for going the effort. At some point I may drop the celestial armor itself.

Magic Vestments is unlikely to be cast all that frequently, since the pixie will likely be a warlock//beguiler, and her one party mate is a Drow binder2//paladin2/crusader2, so not a lot of divine casting going on there. Not that a permanently invisible faerie really needs to focus on AC, but against the few things likely to have see invisible at ECL 4, it is a nice thing to have.

[theForce017]

Celestial Armor for a +8 Max Dex (DMG, specific armors).

Then the Nimbleness enchant for an additional +1 Max Dex, as well as removing the armor check penalty (MiC).


This is true but there is also a version of Nimbleness in Magic of Faerun p. 137 that raises the max dex by 2 instead of 1 but is still only a +1 enhancement

[JaronK]

Muffling Shadowsilk Leather Armor gives +2 Hide and +4 Move Silently in addition to +2 AC, and it's got plenty of max dex to work with. Shadowsilk is in Tome of Magic, Muffling... I forget where but it's 300gp for a +2 to Move Silently in the armor. That ought to take care of things.

If the player just wants more AC, then consider a Mithral Chain Shirt with Masterwork Dastanas and a Mithral Chahar-ina (those latter two being from OA). That's +6 AC, and the max dex is plenty high.

JaronK

[Darth Stabber]

I tend to avoid OA, Eberron, and FR content on principle (since we are not in those campaign settings, and a lot of the assumptions, history, and even magic don't really fit), with a few exceptions on a very limited basis (example warforged are in due to rule of cool). Thus far I have only allowed the binder section of ToM, out of disdain for shadow casters (though all characters are shadow casters when viewed in the right light), and the well known problems with truenaming (having played one I have lost the ability to taste icecream, thankfully FroYo still works).

I really don't know why the character is so concerned about AC given her greater invis at will. She said she wanted to take warlock for her other side (since she has the 4ECL of pixie paid off), both for eldritch blast, and diplomancy (she may or may not dip marshal as well). Given the issues I have taken with her character in another game (you may remember a thread a while back about an insane DN that was refusing to accept evil alignment), and wants me to do the bulk of character creation for her (I owe her a favor, so I am doing it), despite the fact that I have explained my issues with her character are strictly roleplay related.

[ericgrau]

It's also reasonable to work out a "Celestial" property that can be applied to other armours. The DMG Celestial Armour is a +3 Chainmail that costs 22400GP and has the celestial special properties, such as a max Dex bonus 6 points higher than the usual.
Deducting the cost for +3 enhancement, those celestial properties come down to +13000GP on top of any armour you want (*). A Celestial Breastplate would have max Dex +9, a Cel Chainshirt even +10.
(However, there's not really a good reason to go the chainshirt route, as the total AC won't be higher than with a breastplate and both count as light armour.)

*) Note that this is just 9K more than a Medium Armour made of Mithral, and for that you get not only higher Dex allowance but also an emergency Fly mode.

It might also be +4 equivalent armor plus a fly spell. In fact... fly 1/day is 5x3x1800/5 = 5400 gp. Chainmail is 450 gp. That leaves 16550 gp. Either it's a flat 7550 gp for the better max dex or it's +1 equivalent and there's a 550 gp misc charge. It's really good armor so i might be tempted to err on the high side. Or allow celestial armor to be upgraded.