Battlecaster + Spellsword

[lordmarcoos]

Hey, does the battlecaster feat from complete arcane stack with the lower ASF ability of the spellsword? if so, how in the nine hells does that work?

[Bears With Lasers]

No, it doesn't. It only applies to "cast in [X] armor" class features.

[lordmarcoos]

Oh. I didn't think it'd work, if only because I can't see any feasible way of making them stack. Other then... hey, could you take one level of spellsword and then use light shields? maybe take a level and get a heavy shield that has some kind of reduce ASF by 5% material, and then take battlecaster, allowing you to run around in a chain shirt and a heavy shield?

[Fax Celestis]

Or play a Duskblade...

Well, if you're set on Spellsword, what you can do is use the Twilight armor enhancement (from BoED), which, for a +1, reduces ASF 10%.

[Ramza00]

Mithral: [DMG] +2 max dex; -3 armor check penalty; -10% arcane spell failure.
Twilight: [BOED] cost +1; -10% arcane spell failure.
Nimbleness: [MoF] cost +1; +2 max dex; -1 armor check penalty.
Thisledown padding: [RotW] a few gp; +1 armor check penalty; -5% arcane spell failure.
and finally, to get rid of the +1 armor check penalty we get with Thisledown padding...
Armor Lubricant: [RoF] a few gp (40gp I think); lasts 1d4 hours per application; -1 armor check penalty!!!from the co boards

[lordmarcoos]

Wow, that was fast. thanks everyone! And I probably will just go duskblade, I was just seeing if their was any way to get more power out of some strange uber gish build with spellsword and the like. And since one level of spellsword doesnt lose you a caster level, and, well, you can see where I was thinking.

[Fax Celestis]

Wow, that was fast. thanks everyone! And I probably will just go duskblade, I was just seeing if their was any way to get more power out of some strange uber gish build with spellsword and the like. And since one level of spellsword doesnt lose you a caster level, and, well, you can see where I was thinking.

Straight Battle Sorcerors get the most use out of a Spellsword 1-level dip, since it lets them use some shields without much (or any) penalty.

[Mudo]

No, it doesn't. It only applies to "cast in [X] armor" class features.

The thing is:

The PHB2 recommends for a DUSKBLADE to get the twilight enchant on it's armor... If your statement was correct, the book would recommend only the mithril armor, wich changes the armor category.

There must be some feasible way to stack "cast in [X] armor" with "-x% ASF" orelse this published material would make absolutely no sense!!

Anyway, we houseruled the battlecaster feat into -10% ASF for calculations with spellsword/mithril/twilight bonuses.

The reason was that mithril armor reduces ASF by 10% and lowers one category. We concluded that the battlecaster feat would give an effect similar to mithril armor, wich translates in 10% reduction for the feat.

[AtomicKitKat]

The way I see it, Battlecaster merely affects the Armour you can use, but does nothing for shields, while Spellsword affects Armour and Shield ASF(or rather, spread the thing over your combined Shield+Armour ASF). Since you have no use for Spellsword to affect your armour, direct the -10% ASF reduction towards the shield.

[yango]

The way I see it, Battlecaster merely affects the Armour you can use, but does nothing for shields, while Spellsword affects Armour and Shield ASF(or rather, spread the thing over your combined Shield+Armour ASF). Since you have no use for Spellsword to affect your armour, direct the -10% ASF reduction towards the shield.

Its worth noting that with spells like Wraithstrike and Shield, and feats like Arcane Strike, that most gishes may be better off using 2-handed fighting and no shield to begin with.

[Roland St. Jude]

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