Quick-Escape Interlocking Plate of Calling...what?

[Palanan]

I have a prospective player who's worked up a dwarven paladin of freedom for my approval. The campaign will be starting at fourth level, and there will be long voyages across deep ocean, so he's spending most of his WBL on the above-named armor combination.

I tend to play druids and other lightly-armored folk, so the permutations of heavy plate are beyond me. The Quick-Escape and Interlocking features would seem to be mutually exclusive, but I know very little about armor, either in 3.5 or the real world. Can this combo be used without any great contortions of common sense?

[deuxhero]

RAW yes if there isn't an exclusion listed in rules.

Honestly not sure why he just doesn't get something that lets him swim in it instead of getting it off in water and retrieving easily.

[Person_Man]

I'm not sure about the answer to your specific question, but IIRC Stormwrack and maybe the Magic Item Compendium have an armor enchantment called Buoyant which removes the armor check penalty for Swim (or something similar).

Anywho, as someone who DM's for a campaign based on island hopping, I suggest that you just hand out extra treasure to your players to resolve the problem. Magic armor which acts like a diving suit, a Ring of Continuous Water Walking, a magic plant that lets you breath underwater, Boots of Swimming, etc. It sucks when a low Tier build has to waste precious character resources (Feats, gp, etc) just to avoid drowning, especially when Druids and anyone with access to Alter Self can just change into an aquatic animal or race.

If you allow homebrew, you might want to suggest that he just play a Magitech Templar (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176276). I created the Underwater Adaptation Magitech Upgrade specifically for a player in the above situation, and he loved it.

[Palanan]

Okay, thanks for the guidance and the suggestions. As long as it's okay by RAW then I'll allow it, but I'll see about finding him a better alternative. He's budgeted over 4000 for that armor, out of 5400 starting gold, and I agree that's a bit of a raw deal.

Also, Person_Man, I'd be interested to know a little more about your island-hopping campaign. Right now I'm planning for the campaign to have equal parts terrestrial and nautical action (but very little actually underwater) and I'd be interested to know how you manage voyages between islands.

[Alabenson]

I can confirm that the listed combination is perfectly RAW legal;
Quick-Escape is an armor extra from Arms and Equipment Guide that let's him remove the armor as a standard action. (In case you're wondering, someone else can activate it in combat with a DC 30 Disable Device check)

Interlocking Plate is an exotic armor type from Races of Stone that is essentially Full Plate that gives him an extra +2 AC if he doesn't move more than 5 ft. in a given round (note that he'll need to spend a feat on either Exotic Armor Proficiency or Dwarven Armor Proficiency to benefit from this)

Calling is an enhancement from Magic Item Compendium that lets him teleport his armor onto him with a command word.

I hope this helps.

[Person_Man]

Also, Person_Man, I'd be interested to know a little more about your island-hopping campaign. Right now I'm planning for the campaign to have equal parts terrestrial and nautical action (but very little actually underwater) and I'd be interested to know how you manage voyages between islands.

Print off a map of ancient Greece and Rome (or whatever ancient society you find interesting). Assign different races to each of the various factions that you read about in history based on what you think is interesting. Elven Athenians, Spartan Dwarves, Gnomes from Ithaca, Lizardmen from Persia, whatever. It's better to be vague, and only fill in the details you need for the immediate adventure. Start the players on a small island, with no way to leave, in some sort of situation that forces them to all be together. (I used recently captured slaves). Players must work together to resolve your railroaded plot (free the slaves, or takeover as the slavers), and have some sort of meta story (I used the plot hook of finding the ancient artifacts that allowed Alexander to briefly conquer much of the known world) introduced but not resolved.

When it ends, have an NPC ask them what kind of adventures they find interesting. (Finding the artifacts, being elected general of their home city, slaying mythical creatures, whatever). Coincidentally, he knows of an island where that might just be happening. And did he mention that he used to be a sailor?

Have someone show up with a boat, and a reason for hauling the PCs around. Do not make the players invest any resources in Profession (sailor) or in buying a boat or anything related to being on or in the water. Just give them the stuff they need/want, otherwise it will feel like a "tax" on their build. If someone does invest character resources in nautical or underwater stuff, make sure that they have an opportunity to use it, and are given compensatory rewards for it somehow.

PC's hop from island to island, occasionally encountering pirates or monsters or other random encounters at sea, and occasionally acquiring better ships (though whatever means they like) if that's important to them. Once you get to a new island, a different player takes over as DM, while his character stays with the ship to "keep it safe" (which it always is). The new DM gets to decide everything that happens on that island for as long as the players choose to stay there, and is allowed to move forward the meta-plot/world building as much or as little as he likes, as long as it does not contradict what previous DMs have established. When the players leave the island for any reason, as soon as they hit a new island, a new player takes over as DM.

Rinse and repeat until you get bored of the setting, or until you get married and have to move away from your gaming group.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Person_Man
*lots o' stuff*

Thanks for all the detail on how you're running that campaign; you've got some interesting ideas in there, especially the part about rotating DMs. I also agree that the players shouldn't have to invest too much into preadapting their characters for nautical life.

On that note, however, I checked the Buoyant armor property from Stormwrack and the MIC. In both cases, the cost works out to 4000 gp, which is what the dwarven paladin is already spending on his quick-escape interlocking plate. No easy out there.

Since the campaign is starting in Waterdeep, where this kind of armor might be a little more common, I'm wondering if I shouldn't offer him some sort of discount? It does seem a little overboard (heh) for him to be spending 80% of his resources on one item, just to avoid the possibility of a watery demise.


Originally Posted by Alabenson
I hope this helps.

It does indeed, thanks for the details on those. I'd looked up the first two, but hadn't even gotten around to the Called property yet.
.
:smalleek:
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[Alabenson]

Thanks for all the detail on how you're running that campaign; you've got some interesting ideas in there, especially the part about rotating DMs. I also agree that the players shouldn't have to invest too much into preadapting their characters for nautical life.

On that note, however, I checked the Buoyant armor property from Stormwrack and the MIC. In both cases, the cost works out to 4000 gp, which is what the dwarven paladin is already spending on his quick-escape interlocking plate. No easy out there.



If his primary concern is simply not drowning, I would point him to the ring of floating from Frostburn, 2000gp cost for the effect of making it impossible to submerge him, and thus nearly impossible for him to drown. I discovered it after running a campaign with a paladin whose player was terrified of drowning.

[Answerer]

Your player is sinking a metric ton of resources into a series of exceptionally mediocre bonuses. There are far better ways of accomplishing what he needs here (many of which have been mentioned). I do suggest encouraging him to rethink this armor. +2 AC isn't worth a feat, money, and having to not move more than 5 ft. Calling's pretty cheap, but I don't think you need Quick-Escape along with it. You could always just get the Restful Armor Crystal from Magic Item Compendium along with the Bouyant property and simply never really need to take your armor off.... pretty sure that's the cheapest method.

[Rubik]

I had a campaign idea that involved the PCs being the children survivors of a shipwreck out on a tropical island in the middle of the ocean; their parents were fleeing overseas from an impending apocalypse, and the magical backlash from whatever it was they were fleeing from caused shockwaves that produced hurricane-force winds that ran the ship into the jagged cliffs of a small island chain.

The only adult survivor was an aging bard/ranger who came along to chronicle the voyage and had to learn new skills to survive in the middle of nowhere against the goblinoid, giant, and monstrous humanoid natives of the island. He's fairly high level but he's also going blind, and he's made friends with some of the grippli tribes of the island and slaughtered enough of the evil types that they fear to come onto this side of the island (and have basically reduced the other side to a more-or-less barren wasteland that the friendly tribes have been staving off for generations).

The PCs learned their skills from their aging mentor and the friendly tribes, which can support just about any character class with a bit of finagling.

Once they're a tad higher level, they stumble on a plot for a draconic cult which has been perverted through some aberration influence, which end up using an ancient artifact that has kept the island in a time bubble. Time inside of the bubble passes incredibly slowly compared to the outside world; perhaps it's some sort of extradimensional pocket. Whatever the issue is, time on the Outside is passing at an extraordinary rate -- The PCs are around 16 years old or so, while a couple of millennia have passed in the outside world.

They have to find a way to stop the cult and escape the island, and they eventually find a ship-in-a-bottle, which is an actual ship they can call up and shrink at will (along with all the people and items on the ship, which are tucked safely in a nigh-indestructible reinforced glassteel container). It has a number of unusual amenities, including a giant compass that can be used to tell direction as well as point to certain other things, such as the closest landmass, or specific known locations, and a few other nifty functions. It also has sails made of energy that CAN be ripped up, but it runs on sunlight-charged batteries, and can be recharged with (at most) 12 hours of direct sunshine. They're not ACTUAL sails and don't depend on the wind, so the doldrums aren't an issue. The ship can be upgraded, but how is up to what the players need for the story.

From there they can either go back to their parents' homes or head across the sea, and encounter many strange miscellanea on the various islands and other (not-so-)natural wonders they come across (see: Voyage of the Dawn Treader).

[Otomodachi]

OK, so wait, it's a suit of interlocking plate, that he can have remove itself quickly and also call back onto himself? So...

http://i.annihil.us/u/prod/marvel//universe3zx/images/thumb/f/f5/IronMan_Head.jpg/406px-IronMan_Head.jpg

Is he going to gain flight at some point?

[MesiDoomstalker]

OK, so wait, it's a suit of interlocking plate, that he can have remove itself quickly and also call back onto himself? So...

http://i.annihil.us/u/prod/marvel//universe3zx/images/thumb/f/f5/IronMan_Head.jpg/406px-IronMan_Head.jpg

Is he going to gain flight at some point?

Don't forget Scorching Ray as an At-Will SLA.

[crazyhedgewizrd]

Don't forget Scorching Ray as an At-Will SLA.

could just use wands of scorching ray in wand bracers instead.

Dont worry if they want to spend all they money one item, they may dont want anything else.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Alabenson
If his primary concern is simply not drowning, I would point him to the ring of floating from Frostburn....

Actually, that could solve all manner of problems right there. Thanks for the pointer; I never would've found it. (Frostburn?! What were they thinking?)



Originally Posted by Rubik
...see: Voyage of the Dawn Treader....

As it happens, I did, just last week. Sadly underwhelming.

[crazyhedgewizrd]

dont forget that the calling property doesnt work if someone else is wearing the armor, then they will not be able to call it again.

[Palanan]

I think you have to reattune the armor by wearing it again, assuming you've gotten it back from whoever else was wearing it. After you've reminded it who's boss, the armor can be called as normal.

[deuxhero]

(Frostburn?! What were they thinking?)



Perhaps they had brain freeze? *runs*

[Crasical]

Psychic floating armor! (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/items/armorAndShields.htm#floating)

[Darrin]

dont forget that the calling property doesnt work if someone else is wearing the armor, then they will not be able to call it again.

Ring of Arming (5000 GP, MIC p. 122) is a little more expensive, but offers a bit more efficiency and security: you can switch between two sets of armor/clothes, and the armor is stored inside the ring when not in use.

There have been a bunch of different enhancements that deal with aquatic environments: Aquatic in A&EG, Buoyant in Stormwrack and then MIC, and Deepdweller in MIC. The cheapest way to negate Swim check penalties is a Least Crystal of Aquatic Action (250 GP, MIC p. 25). The Lesser Version is also quite cheap (1000 GP), and in addition to negating Swim check penalties, gives you a swim speed, which makes moving/fighting in water considerably easier.

As far as Interlocking Plate... I'd advise him to consider Heavy Plate, Mechanus Gear (Planar Handbook), or Thaalud Stone Armor (+12 armor bonus, 2800 GP, Anauroch: Empire of Shade p. 108) before spending a feat on Exotic Armor Proficiency.