Beyond Masterwork

[Avigor]

Okay, I saw these a while ago and I've been curious what the playground thinks of them:

Dwarvencraft, Races of Stone, metal items with more HP and hardness and a saving throw bonus. Worth it? The description kinda sounded like this might add to the cost of a magic item, is that right?

Item of Legend, Master Class from War of the Lance, get up to 5x normal masterwork bonus (attack for weapons, armor check for armor, check bonus for tools) for 5x the cost. Same q's, plus can it get OP at all?

If one wanted to do both in one item, would one just quintuple the higher dwarvencraft cost to get dwarvencraft of legend, then add that to the magic item base?

Granted, the weapon version is mostly an antimagic field contingency - compared to better armor checks for lower dex chars or better masterwork thieves tools - but still I'm curious how this may be used.

[Noldo]

Reducing armor check penalty further could open some interesting shenanigans since only penalty for wearing armor you are not proficient with is that armor check penalty applies to all rolls. A method to reduce the armor check penalty to +0 would effectively give anyone an option to wear such an armor (although arcane casters would still be subject to ASF).

[AnonymousPepper]

Reducing armor check penalty further could open some interesting shenanigans since only penalty for wearing armor you are not proficient with is that armor check penalty applies to all rolls. A method to reduce the armor check penalty to +0 would effectively give anyone an option to wear such an armor (although arcane casters would still be subject to ASF).

ASF is trivially easy to lower even without dips. War of the Lance material plus various methods of ASF reduction equals easy full plate wizard. Just about the only things you can't get away with are Mechanus Gear and Mountain Plate, to be honest.

And you CAN get away with those if you can gain the ability to cast in light armor, because Halfweight is a ridiculously broken ASA, particularly when paired with Illithidwrought on a psionic character - the latter of which is easy enough with proper race selection... my favorite being the +2INT +2CON -4CHA Aleithian Dwarf.

[Spore]

Granted, the weapon version is mostly an antimagic field contingency - compared to better armor checks for lower dex chars or better masterwork thieves tools - but still I'm curious how this may be used.

While I can't help you with the rules side of the question, I want to add in that powerful mundane items help spies and assassins to better blend in with the crowds. If a simple Detect Magic doesn't reveal you being covered in simple magical daggers or weapons you have a much higher chance to get to targets that have a magical guardian. Which should be all of the higher ones: Court Wizards, High Priests or similar.

[Avigor]

While I can't help you with the rules side of the question, I want to add in that powerful mundane items help spies and assassins to better blend in with the crowds. If a simple Detect Magic doesn't reveal you being covered in simple magical daggers or weapons you have a much higher chance to get to targets that have a magical guardian. Which should be all of the higher ones: Court Wizards, High Priests or similar.

Good points... Also hiding say an adamantine dagger of legend on your person in case of capture could be more effective than hiding most any other kind of dagger.

Albeit canny villains might put "stripped" enemies in a cell with a rust monster or two just in case (or am I the only one that thinks that way?), so using a glassteel dagger of legend might be worth the added cost. Too bad neither 3.5 nor 3.0 versions gave bonuses to hide them or penalties to find them in a search, that would have easily made it the favored material of assassins the world over.

[Lightlawbliss]

...
Albeit canny villains might put "stripped" enemies in a cell with a rust monster or two just in case (or am I the only one that thinks that way?), so using a glassteel dagger of legend might be worth the added cost. Too bad neither 3.5 nor 3.0 versions gave bonuses to hide them or penalties to find them in a search, that would have easily made it the favored material of assassins the world over.

Rust monster vs PC with no equipment... sounds like an execution.

[Avigor]

Rust monster vs PC with no equipment... sounds like an execution.
Thought was more like a domesticated one that only attacks if you are keeping a meal from it or attacking it first where the PC's are warned "don't hurt my pet" and it's there mostly to annoy the character with the lock picks smuggled in his underwear or whatever.... Meh

[atemu1234]

ASF is trivially easy to lower even without dips. War of the Lance material plus various methods of ASF reduction equals easy full plate wizard. Just about the only things you can't get away with are Mechanus Gear and Mountain Plate, to be honest.

And you CAN get away with those if you can gain the ability to cast in light armor, because Halfweight is a ridiculously broken ASA, particularly when paired with Illithidwrought on a psionic character - the latter of which is easy enough with proper race selection... my favorite being the +2INT +2CON -4CHA Aleithian Dwarf.

Where is all this from?

[sleepyphoenixx]

While I can't help you with the rules side of the question, I want to add in that powerful mundane items help spies and assassins to better blend in with the crowds. If a simple Detect Magic doesn't reveal you being covered in simple magical daggers or weapons you have a much higher chance to get to targets that have a magical guardian. Which should be all of the higher ones: Court Wizards, High Priests or similar.

You can just use Magic Aura (a first level spell) on your stuff and keep your magical goodies. Which you're likely to need against an enemy with serious magical defenses.