What is the Best "Medium" Armor?

[Krazzman]

Hello again Playground,

Simple question: what is the best "medium" armor for a traveling character? Enchantments/Armorcrystals/Special Materials?
Is there an enchantment that nullifies the movement penality or should I just go for Boots of striding?

(Character in Question is a Cleric in a Banded Mail).

Thanks in advance

[Morcleon]

Mithril Breastplate is technically light armor, but it has barely any penalties.

Clockwork armor (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cw/20070212a) is also pretty good, but pretty expensive too. You already have the Heavy Armor Proficiency though. :smallwink:

Don't bother with Boots of Striding. Either ask your DM for Boots of Expeditious Retreat (4000 gp for +30'), or get Boots of the Unending Journey and UMD the relic power (4000 gp for +10' and immunity to fatigue/exhaustion).

[Greenish]

Mitral fullplate, with Blueshine (MIC, immune to rust and acid damage), Deathward (MIC, 1/day negate nasty stuff), Restful (Dungeonscape, sleep in armour without becoming fatigued), and maybe Least Crystal of Adaption (permanent Endure Elements).

Tooth of Savnok (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20060302b) (ToM) allows you to move at full speed in medium and heavy armour for just 2000 gp*.


*Some terms and conditions apply.


[Edit]: Easy Traveling (MIC, not encumbered by medium load) might also be of interest for a traveling character.

[Telonius]

There's not really a single "best" medium armor; it really depends on a given character's ability scores (and in some cases, race and class).

For example, if you're a Dwarf Cleric with a dexterity of 12, Mithral Battleplate (Races of Stone) is probably going to be the best AC for you. (As long as you don't mind using a feat for proficiency). The speed penalty doesn't bother you, and you probably don't care about the armor check penalty.

If you're something like a Human Rogue with dexterity 20, who relies on ranged weapons, you're going to care a lot about the armor check penalty to Hide and Move Silently. Something like Leafweave Hide (Races of the Wild) would be best; 8 AC, but only -1 ACP. (If you're a melee Rogue, you won't want Medium armor at all, unless it's a mithral breastplate; anything else would prevent you from Tumbling).

Arcane spellcasters get trickier, since they've got arcane spell failure to contend with. Thistledown Padded (Races of the Wild) is typically the one with highest AC potential. But if you have an ability to ignore spell failure (such as from Bard, or from levels in prestige classes like Spellsword) then heavier armors become options.

(And all that gets thrown out the window with extreme Dexerity scores; if you can somehow manage a 34 or better, Gnome Twist Cloth is the only armor you'll be looking at, since it doesn't have a maximum Dex bonus; but again, it requires a feat for proficiency).

[Greenish]

If you're something like a Human Rogue with dexterity 20, who relies on ranged weapons, you're going to care a lot about the armor check penalty to Hide and Move Silently. Something like Leafweave Hide (Races of the Wild) would be best; 8 AC, but only -1 ACP.Mithral chain shirt has no ACP, max Dex bonus of +6, and 4 AC.


(If you're a melee Rogue, you won't want Medium armor at all, unless it's a mithral breastplate; anything else would prevent you from Tumbling).Mithral breastplate is light, and only being slowed by armour prevents tumbling (so a dwarf in heavy plate could tumble, as could anyone with Tooth of Savnok).


Thistledown Padded (Races of the Wild) is typically the one with highest AC potential.Whatever happened to Twilight Mithral chain shirt? Or for that matter, Twilight Mithral breastplate with Thistledown padding is 0% ASF.


(And all that gets thrown out the window with extreme Dexerity scores; if you can somehow manage a 34 or better, Gnome Twist Cloth is the only armor you'll be looking at, since it doesn't have a maximum Dex bonus; but again, it requires a feat for proficiency).You don't need proficiency for Gnome Twistcloth, since it has no ACP. The feat would increase your touch AC a bit, is all.

[Krazzman]

Atm:
Human Cleric of Tymora (Travel and Luck Domains) 1, Dex 14. Travel Devotion and Practiced Spellcaster as feats.

Planned:
Human Cleric 2/Warlock 1/Cleric 2/Eldritch Disciple X.
Feat on third level probably Battle Caster, First Invocation probably a Homebrewed version of Eldritch Glaive.

[Telonius]

Mithral chain shirt has no ACP, max Dex bonus of +6, and 4 AC.

Mithral breastplate is light, and only being slowed by armour prevents tumbling (so a dwarf in heavy plate could tumble, as could anyone with Tooth of Savnok).

Whatever happened to Twilight Mithral chain shirt? Or for that matter, Twilight Mithral breastplate with Thistledown padding is 0% ASF.

You don't need proficiency for Gnome Twistcloth, since it has no ACP. The feat would increase your touch AC a bit, is all.

OP was asking about Medium armor specifically - most of that is Light.

[Greenish]

OP was asking about Medium armor specifically - most of that is Light.I was replying to you (hence the quotes), and most of the armour you spoke of was Light.


Anyway, the answer is, the best medium armour is almost always, and definitely in this case, mithral full plate. That is, when you can afford it.

[Bakkan]

I like +1 Twilight (MIC) Thistledown (RotW) Feycraft Githcraft (DMG II) Mithril (DMG) Full Plate. Medium Armor, +9 AC, +3 Max Dex, -4 (IIRC) ACP, and 0% arcane spell failure. As long as your caster doen't use attack rolls, or happens to pick up medium armor proficiency from somewhere, this won't interfere with his casting at all.

[hamishspence]

How do you get both Feycraft and Githcraft on the same weapon- does it have to mean a fey and a gith collaborating, or perhaps it being done on the Plane of Faerie by a gith?

[Bakkan]

I'd have to look at the text to recall exactly, but I think that Githcraft means it has to be made in the Astral by a Gith, but Feycraft can be obtained if the crafter is dominated by a fey or something like that. So it has do be made by a Fey-dominated Gith on the Astral plane, and apparently with the collaboration of some elves.

[Diarmuid]

Atm:
Human Cleric of Tymora (Travel and Luck Domains) 1, Dex 14. Travel Devotion and Practiced Spellcaster as feats.

Planned:
Human Cleric 2/Warlock 1/Cleric 2/Eldritch Disciple X.
Feat on third level probably Battle Caster, First Invocation probably a Homebrewed version of Eldritch Glaive.

That build is only losing 1 caster level, is Practiced Spellcaster really worth the feat slot there?

[Krazzman]

That build is only losing 1 caster level, is Practiced Spellcaster really worth the feat slot there?

It's losing two. One for the Warlock Level, one for the first Eldritch Disciple Level. I'm thinking of going Cleric 2/Warlock 2/Cleric 1/Eldritch Disciple for always Detect Magic... but will probably pass that.

Otherways I don't even know what feat I should take. I thought about Luck feats but... well they are underwhelming. Thought about Luck devotion but... well underwhelming. Extra Domain... I didn't meet the prereqs as far as I can tell.

I'm asking about the best "medium" armor because he won't wear heavy armor, Mithral Full Plate was my initial thought too but maybe there is another, maybe cheaper way.
Campaign Info:
The campaign is seeing inflation (everything costs double but you can haggle a bit free'er) and a bit of the Weave (faeruns magic distribution system) is damaged from a meteorthingie (that brought wealth which caused the inflation) and jeah those roaming energies are the explanation behind critical fumbles.

[Grasharm]

My question for you is what's your gp budget for this armor and besides best AC is there anything else your looking for besides easy to move in? Is best AC even the most important thing to you? Lastly we have covered how to get rid of the movement penalty via a tooth but given the side effects is that something you'd want or do you want other options?

[Krazzman]

My question for you is what's your gp budget for this armor and besides best AC is there anything else your looking for besides easy to move in? Is best AC even the most important thing to you? Lastly we have covered how to get rid of the movement penalty via a tooth but given the side effects is that something you'd want or do you want other options?

I like options and I basically seek for a piece of armor this char can save for. currently he has around 200 gold. (Got 40 Platin and invested them in a Firmamentstone to tell him what phase of moon it is). +128 Gold that I think about giving back to his order as it belonged to someone he should've protected.

His means for armor are: Easy to travel in and giving protection to a traveler. As such I thought about Mithril Full Plate myself.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

You're probably CG, so get a Lesser Rod of Extend and a Rod of Bodily Restoration and cast Luminous Armor every day. Get a standard Strand of Prayer Beads with the Bead of Smiting removed, it's only 9,000 gp per DMG pricing, and use the Bead of Karma whenever you cast that and put Magic Vestment on it as well. Eventually move up to Greater Luminous Armor.

Until then, put a Restful Crystal (MIC p26) on whatever medium/heavy armor you wear as long as it's at least masterwork quality.

[Krazzman]

You're probably CG, so get a Lesser Rod of Extend and a Rod of Bodily Restoration and cast Luminous Armor every day. Get a standard Strand of Prayer Beads with the Bead of Smiting removed, it's only 9,000 gp per DMG pricing, and use the Bead of Karma whenever you cast that and put Magic Vestment on it as well. Eventually move up to Greater Luminous Armor.

Until then, put a Restful Crystal (MIC p26) on whatever medium/heavy armor you wear as long as it's at least masterwork quality.

Sadly the spell is outside of our sources. Additionally he is CG, yes but not exalted.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Sadly the spell is outside of our sources. Additionally he is CG, yes but not exalted.

Sanctified spells make no mention of requiring an exalted status, only a good alignment.

[Grasharm]

So you want to save for it, so I'll rephrase a bit. How much do you want to save up? Are we talking total wish list +10 armor with every magic add-on that doesn't require you to spend plusses as well or you know something like a 5 or 10k gp cap that you might be able to get sometime before level 20.

Also, l really do need to know the answer to my, "Lastly we have covered how to get rid of the movement penalty via a tooth but given the side effects is that something you'd want or do you want other options?" question. That is a kinda nasty side effect but does exactly what you want so....

[Zanthy1]

I don't know how final your race is (as in is it still in creation or already in play). If in creation, I would suggest being a silver brow human from Dragon Magic (this gives you some abilities, but most importantly dragon blood subtype). With that take the Dragonscale Husk special feature (from Dragon Magic as well). This is considered medium armor, with a standard AC of 6, that increases by 1 for every 3 levels of class you have that gave you heavy armor proficiency. You can sleep in it without penalty, and every 5 levels it grants increasing energy resistance (5 at lvl 5, 10 at lvl 10, etc.) Max dex of +2 and armor check of i believe -4? also no arcane spall failure as this is essentially your skin (scales). You cannot wear armor with it, but can use shields still if you so choose.

[Krazzman]

Race is final, and our sources consist of Faerun stuff, Completes, Core (+ PHB2), Races of Wild, Destiny and Stone, Tome of Battle and Dungeonscape, maybe Magic of Incarnum (the one where the Totemist Class is in).

The amount he is able to save depends on how much we will get paid for. We are still level one after 2 sessions due to those sessions consisting of exactly one combat encounter and... well probably having another experience system. (The DM telling us to level not giving us exp, probably even only half as much or less as we are 6 players already and he seems to be a more storydriven DM.) About the real amount... I thought more of a progression thing. If you have X Gold you buy Y, then you put Z on it if you have enough gold left, else you take this.

From my point I thought about the first thing he shall get to be a Travelers Cloak. Being able to pray for water and having a comfy cloak that gives him food is actually a good part of surviving checked out.

He seeks the following in a suit of armor:
With Battlecaster a suit of Armor in that he can invoke (Warlock's EB and Invocations), that is able to let him move as freely as possible, being able to either be ready when he needs it (Calling enchantment for example) or makes the armor comfy enough to sleep in (armor crystal of [?]), and giving a good bunch of protection not only against normal attacks but against other stuff or giving him the ability to do stuff his goddess doesn't grant him (casting haste for example or something similar). Basically the best suit of armor for travelling. Being warded against random thugs and still being mobile and not being screwed by things his traveling path throws at him. As such I'm looking for an armor with around a +3 bonus in special abilities (next to the +1 needed for enchanting it further). So that I can plan on these things. Maybe the enchantments change depending on what we encounter.

I don't know about the tooth but tumbling in armor wasn't the goal I had in mind. (In a Pathfinder game my GF plays a Barbarian with an Agile Breastplate that has 0 ACP for everything except swimming and still gives a +6 AC, maybe there are some other mundane/non-enchants that lower ACP for certain things?)

[Darrin]

From my point I thought about the first thing he shall get to be a Travelers Cloak.


Highly recommended. Good choice.



With Battlecaster a suit of Armor in that he can invoke (Warlock's EB and Invocations), that is able to let him move as freely as possible,


"move as freely as possible" means he'll probably be better off with light armor, since this doesn't restrict your speed. If in-combat speed is a priority, then your best option is a Darkleaf Breastplate. Darkleaf is in the Arms & Equipment Guide, and it's much cheaper than mithral: +750 GP for light, +2250 GP for medium, an +3000 GP for heavy armor. A Darkleaf Masterwork Breastplate costs 2600 GP (200 + 150 + 2250), compared to a mithral breastplate for 4200 GP. The only difference between the two is the mithral has a slightly better Max Dex (+5 for mithral, +4 for darkleaf).

If dropping from 30' speed to 20' is no big deal, then Darkleaf Masterwork Full Plate is probably his best option for 4650 GP, as compared to Mithral Full Plate for 10500 GP. Again, Max Dex is slightly better for mithral, but you pay an additional 6K for it.

There are a few other options if you're willing to spend a little more. In the Planar Handbook, Sectioned Armor has stats similar to Full Plate but slightly better ACP, which may be an issue if he does any Jumping/Tumbling/etc. Base price is double what full plate would cost, so if you wanted Darkleaf Sectioned Armor, it'd be 6150 GP (3000 + 3000 + 150).

While you're over there in the Planar Handbook, Mechanus Gear might be worth a look. This offers a whopping +10 armor bonus, but drops your base speed in half: 30' goes down to 15', 20' goes down to 10'. If you're a dwarf or a binder with Aym's "Dwarven Step" (I don't actually recommend the Tooth of Savnok due to the drawbacks), then you can ignore the movement penalty and Darkleaf/Mithral/Sentira/Firebrass Mechanus Gear is the best medium armor you can get.

The last option to consider would be Heavy Plate from Races of Stone. This has a +9 armor bonus, so slightly better than full plate, but the Max Dex is +0, so not quite as good as full plate. If you're trying to decide between Heavy and Full Plate, then it largely depends on your Dex bonus. Darkleaf is only going to improve Max Dex by +1, while mithral improves it by +2, so mithral may be the better option here. If you can't take advantage of your full Dex bonus, then having a slightly higher armor bonus isn't much of an improvement.

If your Dex bonus is +1, then you want Darkleaf MW Heavy Plate: +9 AC bonus from armor, +1 bonus from Dex, total cost of 5150 GP.

If your Dex bonus is +2, then you want Darkleaf MW Full Plate: +8 AC bonus from armor, +2 bonus from Dex, total cost 4650 GP. Or Mithral Heavy Plate: +9 AC bonus from armor, +2 bonus from Dex, total cost 11000 GP.

If your Dex bonus is +3, then Mithral Full Plate is probably best, since you can get your full Dex bonus. If your Dex bonus is +4 or more, then you'll probably lose some of your Dex bonus, since it's very difficult to get medium/heavy armor with a decent Max Dex. The Nimbleness property (MIC) helps somewhat, but pay for that +1 Max Dex by not getting a +1 enhancement bonus to your armor.

If you have to have medium armor but don't want to take the hit on your base speed, then ask your DM if you can add a +10' speed enhancement to your armor. It's not entirely clear what this should cost, but based on the Boots of the Unending Journey in the MIC, +4000 GP might be a good guideline. If adding that effect to the armor isn't advisable, then you can just buy the boots for 4000 GP.



being able to either be ready when he needs it (Calling enchantment for example) or makes the armor comfy enough to sleep in (armor crystal of [?]),


Called is cheaper, flat +2000 GP, but if you have multiple pieces of armor/weapons, then Ring of Arming (5000 GP, MIC) is more efficient: you can call your armor, shield, and weapons with the same standard action.



and giving a good bunch of protection not only against normal attacks but against other stuff or giving him the ability to do stuff his goddess doesn't grant him (casting haste for example or something similar).


Add the Anti-Impact property (+2000 GP, Complete Warrior). Half damage from falling, crushing, and some other full-body damage effects.



Basically the best suit of armor for travelling.


As has already been mentioned, Easy Travel property is a steal for only +1500 GP (MIC).



Being warded against random thugs and still being mobile and not being screwed by things his traveling path throws at him. As such I'm looking for an armor with around a +3 bonus in special abilities (next to the +1 needed for enchanting it further). So that I can plan on these things. Maybe the enchantments change depending on what we encounter.


Start with Death Ward (+1 enhancement) as a general 1/day "Get out of Death Free" card. Get Light Fortification next (DMG), and then start saving up for Soulfire (BoED) or Freedom (MIC).



maybe there are some other mundane/non-enchants that lower ACP for certain things?)

Masterwork (+1 ACP), Darkleaf (+2 ACP), and Mithral (+3 ACP) are the most typical. You can squeeze another +1 ACP with the Hellforged template (DMGII, +1000 GP, improves ACP by 1, decreases Max Dex by 1), but the armorsmith has to be a native of the Nine Hells of Baator and actually craft it on that plane. After that, the only way you can reduce ACP is with the Nimbleness property (+1 enhancement, improves Max Dex by 1, reduces ACP by 2).