Reducing armor weight

[Jeff the Green]

My 8 STR Beguiler would really like to be able to wear some armor without breaking her back. Is there a material other than mithral that will reduce weight? It would be especially helpful if it could be used on studded leather.

[deuxhero]

Belt/gloves of strength +2 will likely cost less for the encumbrance gain/loss/whatever. Plus going by MIC, they can be stacked, for no additional cost, on any belt/gloves.

[ClothedInVelvet]

Leafweave studded leather (RotW) will get you down to 15 lbs. But that's the same weight as a mithril breastplate. What's wrong with mithril?

[deuxhero]

No light enough I'd imagine.

Checked the encumbrence tables, +2 is only a net gain of 7 pounds.

I did realize I forgot something! Eternal Wand of Extended Mage Armor!

You don't need an eternal wand's spell on your class list to use it, just being an arcane caster is enough.

[JaronK]

Muffling Feycraft Shadowsilk Leather Armor is just about the lightest you can get in non magic armor, and it even grants a nice stealth bonus. +4 Move Silently, +2 Hide, and it weighs a fraction of any other armor out there.

JaronK

[Jeff the Green]

@Deuxhero: I'm definitely using the eternal wand idea. I mostly want armor to stack on other useful enchantments anyway.

What do you think about the Easy Travel enchantment? 1,500 GP to treat a medium load as a light load, which would double my effective carrying capacity.

[Andion Isurand]

You could try Nightscale from the Underdark book (p. 66).

1,000 gp // +2 AC // +10 max dex // 0 check penalty // 5% AF // 3 lbs.
_______________________________________________

Then, if you wanted to, you could add the githcraft template (DMG2) to reduce the AF by 5% and grant a +1 bonus to Concentration checks.
_______________________________________________

In addition, there are other improvements that can be added in Dragon Magazine 358 (p 38)... including the "Caster Armor" quality (which reduces AF by 5%) ...and the "Reinforced" quality (which adds +1 to the AC, but adds 20% to the armor's weight or 2 lbs, whichever is more)

you can have up to 5 such qualities added to one item as per that article, assuming the crafter has the feat and ranks to add that many qualities to a single item

[Dexam]

@Deuxhero: I'm definitely using the eternal wand idea. I mostly want armor to stack on other useful enchantments anyway.
Check with your DM to see if they will allow this, but I believe there is an optional rule variant in Arms & Equipment Guide (D&D 3.0) that allows you to have Bracers of Armor enchanted as per the rules for normal armor. This solves the weight issue and the enchantments issues.

[Tyndmyr]

My 8 STR Beguiler would really like to be able to wear some armor without breaking her back. Is there a material other than mithral that will reduce weight? It would be especially helpful if it could be used on studded leather.

Meh. Belt of the Wide Earth, MIC. Only 8k, and doubles carrying capacity. This is likely to be more cost effective than strength boosters OR special mats.

Oh, and it also allows you to cast teleport. So...win?

[Darrin]

Meh. Belt of the Wide Earth, MIC. Only 8k, and doubles carrying capacity. This is likely to be more cost effective than strength boosters OR special mats.

Easy Travel property (1500 GP, MIC p. 10) is even cheaper. Combine that with the Belt of Wide Earth, and I think you get what would be the equivalent of a +10 enhancement bonus to Str just for carrying stuff.

[silver spectre]

My 8 STR Beguiler would really like to be able to wear some armor without breaking her back. Is there a material other than mithral that will reduce weight? It would be especially helpful if it could be used on studded leather.

If you have access to dragon magazine #358, check out the "Master's Forge" article.
It includes several non-magical features that can be added to armor. One of which lowers the weight by 20% for only an extra 200-500 Gp cost.

[Ravens_cry]

At the end of one level 1 one shot dungeon, one of the free ones on-line, there was what it called a lifting belt, it added +1 to your strength for the purposes, and only the purposes, of encumbrance. Something similar, but more pluses, could help.

[missmvicious]

A character in a campaign I'm running came up with clever idea for traveling light. She loads her backpack up with as much as she can carry, and then casts Levitate on it, then lifts it about a quarter inch higher than the appropriate height she needs to wear it properly, slips it on, and marches completely unencumbered. Of course, the effect wears off over time, but she plans on finding a wizard who can cast Permanency on it as soon as she raises the money.

I don't think you can do this to your armor on your own; I don't think Beguiler's learn Levitate (never played one, so not sure) but you could hire a wizard to do it for you. In the meantime, why not just use mage armor? It weighs absolutely nothing and gives more bonuses than Leather armor anyway.

[NNescio]

A character in a campaign I'm running came up with clever idea for traveling light. She loads her backpack up with as much as she can carry, and then casts Levitate on it, then lifts it about a quarter inch higher than the appropriate height she needs to wear it properly, slips it on, and marches completely unencumbered. Of course, the effect wears off over time, but she plans on finding a wizard who can cast Permanency on it as soon as she raises the money.

Levitate has a crap duration for out-of-combat uses (1 min/level), and you can't Permanency (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/permanency.htm) it. And even if you can, a Handy Haversack (2000 gp) can be gotten earlier and is likely to be cheaper as well, since 2nd level spells on the Permanency table cost 1000 xp to persist, which would translate to an additional cost of 5000 gp.

Moving a levitating object horizontally is also kinda suspect in the rules. And if you drag it like a balloon, you better hope your DM doesn't pay attention to inertia.

Furthermore, if you are just going to use a spell to carry loads, you might as well just use a Floating Disk. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/floatingDisk.htm)

[JaronK]

Seriously. Floating Disk exists for this very reason (as does, you know, a donkey). Heck, I had one Shadowcraft Mage character that used Extended Greater Floating Disk with a tiny castle tower on it which he sat in side for protection. 9/10ths cover, baby!

JaronK

[Curmudgeon]

Check with your DM to see if they will allow this, but I believe there is an optional rule variant in Arms & Equipment Guide (D&D 3.0) that allows you to have Bracers of Armor enchanted as per the rules for normal armor.
It's not a rule variant, it's not optional, and no DM checking is necessary; it's just a regular rule. From page 130:
A character who has the Craft Magic Arms and Armor and Craft Wondrous Item feats, as well as mage armor and all the other prerequisites necessary, can add the armor special abilities shown on Table 8–6 in the Dungeon Master’s Guide to a set of bracers of armor. This works in 3.5 as well as in 3.0, with one addition: you can add exactly the same armor enhancements with Body (robe) items as Arms (bracers) items; see the new item creation rules in Magic Item Compendium on pages 233-234. They just formalized the mechanism used to craft armor bonuses into Robe of the Archmagi (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#robeoftheArchmagi) and Bracers of Armor (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#bracersofArmor).

[missmvicious]

Yeah, but you'd have to understand the context of her character. She's like the Swiss Family Robinson of spell casters who loves to create magic items.

I performed a major overhaul on the rules for crafting magic items so a you have a high percentile chance of gaining XP rather than sacrificing it. I know why the XP sacrifice rules exist in the game, but I just don't see how doing something over and over again can cause you to lose experience. Anyway, because of this, she's created a character who doesn't really engage in combat unless she absolutely has to, because she has put as many ranks as possible into crafting. So she's a support player. As part of her role-playing XP (she doesn't really get much combat XP), she creates all these goofy magic items, but some are quite useful.

Thanks for telling me Levitate can't be made permanent. I'll have to remember that when she attempts to do it. And no, I don't take inertia into consideration because of the "floaty" nature of Levitation and the weight limit associated with the spell. I doubt, even for her character, 100 lbs. floating gently in the air is going to be enough trouble to topple her unless she goes from a full run to a dead stop, which hasn't happened yet.

[NNescio]

Yeah, but you'd have to understand the context of her character. She's like the Swiss Family Robinson of spell casters who loves to create magic items.

Then that's not being clever. That's trying to reinvent the square wheel.



I performed a major overhaul on the rules for crafting magic items so a you have a high percentile chance of gaining XP rather than sacrificing it. I know why the XP sacrifice rules exist in the game, but I just don't see how doing something over and over again can cause you to lose experience.
Houserules should always be mentioned in online discussions. And your suggestion is likely to be irrelevant since other people are not likely to have the same house rules.



Thanks for telling me Levitate can't be made permanent. I'll have to remember that when she attempts to do it. And no, I don't take inertia into consideration because of the "floaty" nature of Levitation and the weight limit associated with the spell. I doubt, even for her character, 100 lbs. floating gently in the air is going to be enough trouble to topple her unless she goes from a full run to a dead stop, which hasn't happened yet.

Try swimming or walking through water with a giant float attached to you. You'll see what I mean.

[missmvicious]

Try swimming or walking through water with a giant float attached to you. You'll see what I mean.

LOL. I don't have to try it; I'm seeing it in my mind, and it's quite amusing.

[TurtleKing]

JaronK has already mentioned this a little. Thje Shadow Silk can greatly reduce the weight of the armor if it is Padded 2.5 lb, Leather 4 lb, or Hide 5.5 lb. That is roughly a fourth of the weight that those armors are usually at. You also get a +2 to Hide and Move Silently. The ASF has non impact on a beguiler with the Armored Casting. They also add a +2 Max Dex bonus for each one.

[Thurbane]

Meh. Belt of the Wide Earth, MIC. Only 8k, and doubles carrying capacity. This is likely to be more cost effective than strength boosters OR special mats.
The Tooth of Savnok (ToM) is pretty handy, too. Gives the dwarf-like ability to not be slowed by armor or encumbrance.

[TurtleKing]

The Shadow Silk special material only adds 1,250-1,750gp to the cost.