Getting Armor and Shield Special Abilities while using a Monk's Belt

[Nettlekid]

I feel like this is a very novice question, but it's never come to my mind before now. Let's say a character has a really high Wisdom, higher than their combined armor and shield bonuses to AC, and wants to capitalize on this by using a Monk's Belt. But that sacrifices impressive armor and shield special abilities, like Soulfire or Heavy Fortification.

So, I guess, is there any way to get a little thing on you that you can enchant with those special abilities, that doesn't technically count as armor or a shield and thus allows you to use the Monk's Belt as normal?

[Phelix-Mu]

The 3.0 Arms & Equipment Guide has some rules, as I recall, allowing for armour abilities to be put on bracers of armour, apparently in an attempt to solve just this problem. I can't recall if this set of suggestions was optimal/useful, but I seem to remember thinking it had some potential.

A reasonable DM would also allow one to enchant +0 AC items worn on the body slot, as long as they were masterwork (since that is a pretty common baseline req).

[geekintheground]

for armor, i believe using Bracers of Armor still counts as being "unarmored" for the monk ability, so they work (the rules for enchanting them are in the AEG). as for shield properties, an animated shield MIGHT work(?), if they still provide all the enhancements even though you arent holding it.

[TuggyNE]

Gnomish twistcloth and gnomish battlecloak should work just fine. I forget if you need a proficiency feat for them or not, but they don't have ACPs, so normally it doesn't matter.

[Kudaku]

I think wearing Twist Cloth or Battlecloak would mean you lose the AC progression on the belt - the part about losing the AC bonus when wearing armor or using a shield seems pretty clear. You would still get the increased unarmed damage though.

Bracers of Armor would stack with Monk's Belt with no issues, Bracers of Armor do not count as "armor". I'm not sure if you can add other enchantments to the Bracers - The D20SRD seems to imply that it can only grant straight AC, but there might be additional notes in other books. For what it's worth PF lets you add armor qualities to Bracers of Armor with no issue.

[BWR]

I, and some other GMs I know, house rule that you can enchant normal clothes as armor. E.g. a robe - make it mwk as per armor )+150 gp cost on top of base), then enchant it. +0 armor bonus, no ACP or max Dex limit. Of course, you couldn't wear another robe or similar piece of enchanted clothing while wearing this.