Armor Enhancements for level 20 Warforged RKV that already has Heavy Fortification

[Optimator]

All 3.5 books, Dragon, PF.
Adamantine Body, 12 Dex
~250k budget, +GP enhancements advice is less important since they can be added on.
I know of this: The 3.5 Armor and Shield Special Ability Thread (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1064841)

+1 because of Greater Magic Vestment. Maybe +3 for convenience with armour crystals.

No need for heavy fort since the Warforged feat that gives immunity to crits. Improved Resilience? Or is that nonlethal damage? Whatever.

Soulfire is suspect due to being a caster.
So Greater Burring perhaps for +3? It's a melee character.
Energy Immunity?
Angelic?
Which armor crystal? Adaptation is my guess. At the same time though, Cleric, so Planar Tolerance is a thing.
I dunno, what do you guys think?

[AnonymousPepper]

Soulfire may be "suspect" but it's still indispensable. Always always always. Unless you're able to reroll things - the Fatespinner PrC will do this, as will persisting the rare ninth-level spell Choose Destiny, among other things - you always run the risk of getting instaboned via a nat1 save against a death effect. Contingent Revivifies aren't cheap either, nor are they foolproof.

[Optimator]

The character usually has Death Ward or Mass Death Ward up though (as well as caster level boosts and an effect that ups the dispel DC of his spells). Also, being warforged, he's immune to negative levels already, which is one of the major reasons to keep DW up. Also, being a high level cleric with above average WBL and great saves eases things a little. I feel ya on the natural 1 thing though, for sure. I don't think he has any reroll abilities so that's a good catch. Another party member does cast that PHB2 spell that grants a reroll a lot though. Might still roll with Soulfire but you can see why it isn't the no-brainer it normally is. Perhaps this is a good situation for the Death Ward ability.

Thank you for the response though, I am seeing Soulfire in a better light for this character.

[AnonymousPepper]

Yeah, you're right too though. You have other alternatives.

I just generally swear by Soulfire as a rule. If I can afford it, I always get it. If you've got too much on your armor, slap it on your shield.

However... now that I think about it, there's a very nice ASA from Dungeonscape you should look into... as I recall it's a flat bonus, which is more good news, and not very expensive. Durable makes your armor immune to acid and rust. Bonus: since you're a Warforged, your entire skin is your armor - at least that's the way I've always seen it - and the implications of that are fantastic. DM may not let that fly entirely, but at the very least it should grant you some boni.

[Optimator]

My character in this campaign has Soulfire armor. I generally swear by it too! +3 Greater Blurring Soulfire Celestial Chainmail with the Fly ability swapped for 0 ACP.

As for rust the Blueshine enhancement out of MIC should do the trick, although I'll look into Durable and the one in Dungeonscape for sure.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Fearsome (DotU, which was published after MIC so this is the current version) makes it count as spiked armor, so you can then enchant the spikes as something like +1 Defending, Parrying, Warning, Eager, etc. and GMW them to add a larger bonus to AC.

[Optimator]

Unfortunately the DM had nixed defending armor spikes long ago. Eager, Parrying, Warning spikes though...

[AnonymousPepper]

Animated defending tower shield spikes maybe? :D

If you ban that on shields that are legitimately bashing weapons, you're just flat-out wrong.

[Darrin]

Here's some excerpts from an Armor Handbook I've been working on. If you're not sold on Soulfire (which would be my pick), then I'd consider these, in the following order:

Durable
Anti-Impact
Freedom
Mirror Image
Radiant

(Charming could be game-breaking or a bunch of annoying bookkeeping. Proof Against Transmutation is decent but can be somewhat replicated with other items.)

For your augment crystal: Crystal of Alacrity (3500 GP, MIC p. 195), +5' morale bonus to speed. If that's not to your taste, then Rubicund Frenzy or Iron Ward Diamond.

--------------------------------------------------

Anti-Impact
Price: +2000 GP
(Complete Warrior p. 133)
While a Ring of Feather Falling is almost the same price and negates all falling damage instead of just half, it doesn't protect against everything else Anti-Impact could cover. Unfortunately, while constriction and falling are explicitly mentioned in the description, these other conditions (falling objects, trample damage, rockslides, various crusher/smasher traps) are kind of left up to DM interpretation. Still, the +2000 GP doesn't increase the cost of your other enhancements, and it's cheap enough you can buy both Anti-Impact and a feather fall item, in which case you've got a backup if the feather fall gets lost/stolen/sundered/dispelled. So my recommendation on this one is a "Strong Buy".

Durable
Price: +500 GP
(Dungeonscape p. 39)
Go ahead, hug a rust monster. Go surfing with an acidborn shark. Go... ok, seriously, we don't want to know what you're doing with the green slime. As soon as you can afford it, this is a MUST GET. Only works for metal armors (sorry, treehuggers), but for 1/3rd the cost of Blueshine (+1500 GP, MIC p. 9), your armor gets complete immunity to acid, rust, *and* green slime.

Charming
Price: +3 enhancement
(Defenders of the Faith p. 23)
Any opponent who strikes you must save vs. charm person (Will save DC 11, 1 hour duration), charm animal (Will save DC 11, 1 hour duration), or charm monster (Will save DC 14, 7 hour duration). Opponents who strike you in melee get a +4 bonus to their save (which I guess means ranged attacks are more likely to charm? Okay...), and there's a strong argument that if your opponent is currently being threatened or attacked by you or your allies, they get an additional +5 bonus to their save. While the save DCs are very low and a large number of creatures are resistant/immune to enchantments and mind-effects, the save vs. charm is a continuous effect that triggers every time you get hit. Even creatures with high Will saves are eventually going to roll a 1. So this is a very powerful enhancement, and possibly a game-breaker.

Easy Travel
Price: +1500 GP.
(Heroes of Battle p. 129, MIC p. 10)
Buy this as soon as you can afford it. Aside from the fact that your capacity to acquire loot is somewhat directly related to how much loot you can carry, there are class abilities, flight speeds, and spell effects that may stop working if you're not lightly encumbered. By treating medium loads as light loads, this enhancement gives you roughly the equivalent of a +5 inherent bonus to your Strength score. Add a Belt of Wide Earth (8000 GP, MIC p. 204), and you can double your carrying capacity on top of that, or the equivalent of a +10 inherent bonus to your Strength score. While this is a no-brainer for the non-Muggles wiggling their fingers or high-Dex/low-Str support-squishies in the back row, even frontline tanks need to make sure they can load up on whoopass without restricting their movement. Easy Travel doesn't actually increase your maximum carrying capacity, but it does increase how much you can carry without slowing down, which means you're more likely to get whatever you're carrying back home. This is particularly important if you're using any kind of flight, either inside or outside of combat. While all the various methods of flying are very inconsistent with what happens when you try to carry too much weight, most of the time something bad happens when you're anything more than lightly encumbered.

Freedom
Price: +5 enhancement
(MIC p. 11)
One of the few +5 enhancements that's worth every grubby copper piece. Freedom of movement auto-wins against all grappling, entangle, solid fog, and dozens of other nasty effects. In high-level games, freedom of movement is almost a requirement. Rather than trying to pay for this on top of your other armor enhancements, sometimes it's best to throw this on a buckler +1 for 36165 GP (add mithral or githcraft for 0% ASF). This is cheaper than a Ring of Freedom of Movement (40000 GP, DMG) and keeps your ring slots free. If you can't quite afford either the enhancement or the ring, a Vest of Free Movement (12000 GP, MIC p. 198) can give you up to 9 rounds of FoM per day.

Mirror Image
Price: +20000 GP
(Shining South p. 53)
Creating 6 duplicate images of yourself is loads of fun, a staple defensive spell, and still a viable tactic in mid- to high-level ranges. However, this enhancement is a bit overpriced, by about 7000 GP: a 2nd level spell, caster level 6th, 3/day command word item should only cost 12960 GP. However, if your armor is already loaded down with other enhancements, the fixed 20K cost is worth it. If you don't mind or can easily afford the extra cost, then this is a great pick.

Proof Against Transmutation
Price: +5 enhancement
(Complete Arcane p. 142)
Expensive, yes, but it offers complete and continuous immunity to a large variety of save-or-die effects, including polymorph, petrification, and even disintegrate. While the price puts it out of the range of anything but a high-level game, I find it hard to imagine any high-level game where this enhancement wouldn't be extremely useful, particularly if you're tangling with anything from the Far Realms. At lower levels, if you're looking for something cheaper, there's the Amulet of Inviolate Form (11000 GP, MIC p. 69), which has 7 one-shot charges, but you have to decide if you're going to use a charge before you make your saving throw. The Talisman of Undying Fortitude (8000 GP, MIC p. 188) also provides 3 rounds of immunity 2/day to a wide variety of effects, including anything that requires a Fortitude save, but you have to activate it with a swift action beforehand. There's also the Belt of Reinforced Form (5400 GP, Drow of the Underdark p. 98) that offers a +4 untyped save bonus against any transmutation effect.

Radiant
Price: +4 enhancement
(SRD/Expanded Psionics Handbook p. 163, MIC p. 13)
So let me get this straight... if I want armor with just acid resistance 10, it costs at least 18000 GP, but if I want energy resistance to all five basic energy types, it only costs 25000 GP? There are probably cheaper ways to pick up better energy resistance, but this is a much better deal than wasting money on acid/cold/electricity/fire/sonic resistance. Oh, and the armor radiates light if it takes any energy damage (equivalent to a hooded lantern), with some somewhat cumbersome rules to calculate how long the light lasts, but I'm not sure why anyone would bother. However, there is an amusing thought that if you wanted a continuous light source you could just light yourself on fire and let your armor absorb the damage (1d6/round).

[Optimator]

Proof Against Transmutation! I had forgotten about that one. I mentioned it when the player and I were discussing armour enhancement options but forgot when typing this up days later. Thanks!!

Anti-Impact is already on the list, but thank you. It's a hidden one.
Ah, Durable is pretty good. Will recommend!
Charming... now there's anew one for me! I'll mention it.
Easy Travel: good find! I skipped that one since it's a Warfoged but it seems quite worth it!
Freedom: Normally I'd agree that i's a godly enhancement but multiple members in the party, including the Warforged himself, can cast FoM and do. Of the armour abilities that replicate what he can already do this was the one he's most interested in.
Mirror Image: Isn't that in the MIC? Or is the original better? Our DM often, but not always, allows un-updated spells and abilities. It helps if the older, better version is more expensive or higher level. I think the price factors in the doubling in price for slotless items. Armour enhancements usually do.
I mentioned Radiant but he wasn't stoked about it. He was a bit more interested in Energy Immunity, but once again being a cleric he's wary of loading up the precious armor enhancement slots with less-than-efficient uses. It's one reason we're looking at Greater Blurring (and now Mirror Image).

Thank you very much for your input! I greatly appreciate it.