Squishy Artificer w/ Armor Question

[Milo the Gnome]

Hello!

Currently I'm playing a squishy gnomish Artificer in a 3.5 game and drowning in a sea of options for what to do with my armor.

With an Artificer, between the existing armor upgrades and custom additions of spells to items almost anything is possible. But we're playing in a campaign where money is tight, and time is limited too. i have a Dedicated Wright (they're the Best!) to make things, but the longer he spends on the armor the less time he's spending making other things like upgrading Sweetness my crossbow or making a Furtive Filcher to help me rob the rich blind.

For a gnome Rogue 1/Artificer 5, who spends most time in battle firing a crossbow and most time out of battle acting as party rogue (trap finding and disabling), what armor would you make? I'm looking at +1 Mithril Breastplate for an AC bonus of 6, max Dex bonus of 5, and 0 armor check penalty, as a starting point.
Going from there, what would you suggest?

[Deophaun]

A mithral breastplate has an armor check penalty of -2, not 0. A mithral buckler, on the other hand, has a penalty of 0.

It's hard to say without knowing what your Dex is, but long term you're better off working on bracers of AC, which can get you a base AC of 8, instead of the breastplate which has 5. You can use a mithral breastplate in the interim, but use magic vestment on it instead of taking the time to enhance it.

And if you have levels in Rogue, why are you using a crossbow and not a shortbow?

[sleepyphoenixx]

A mithral breastplate has an armor check penalty of -2, not 0. A mithral buckler, on the other hand, has a penalty of 0.

It's hard to say without knowing what your Dex is, but long term you're better off working on bracers of AC, which can get you a base AC of 8, instead of the breastplate which has 5. You can use a mithral breastplate in the interim, but use magic vestment on it instead of taking the time to enhance it.

And if you have levels in Rogue, why are you using a crossbow and not a shortbow?

You can enhance the armor to +5 for the same price that you'd pay for Bracers of Armor +5, so the only reason to get the bracers over actual armor is something like the monks class features or ASF (though you can get around that with Twilight + Mithral).
If you have so much dex that you'd exceed the max dex bonus (doubtful for an artificer) you can get Gnomish Twist Cloth or a similar armor with no max dex bonus.

Instead of a mithral breastplate i'd suggest getting a mithral chain shirt though. It has ACP 0 and you can combine it with dastana (also ACP 0 if masterwork) for the same armor bonus and an additional item to put armor enhancements on.

Then instead of enhancing your armor or weapon (you can do that with infusions) i'd spend my craft XP and time on scrolls and wondrous items.

Start with a Healing Belt (MIC) if you don't have one already. It's cheap and incredibly useful. You can even make several and supply them to your party too, so everyone can at least heal a little in an emergency.
The next on my list would be the Shadow Cloak (DoTU) for a +1 deflection bonus to AC and 3/day emergency 10ft teleport as an immediate action.
Then you can make Steadfast Boots (MIC) - always having a readied action against a charge is seriously powerful, and you can get the requisite 2handed weapon just by adding a bayonet to your crossbow. The bonus against combat maneuvers is just icing on the cake.

Other cheap items:
Ring of the Darkhidden (MIC, 2,000gp) for constant invisibility to darkvision, if you can get your party on board to fight in constant darkness. Combine it with the
Darklight (500g, Secrets of Sarlona) Increases or decreases ambient light, fueled by pp.

Ring of Silent Spells (MIC, 2,000gp) - swift action Silence 1/day, and you can cast in it.
Third Eye: Clarity (MIC, 3,000gp) lets you clear up a whole lot of disabling conditions as an immediate action.
Third Eye: Improvisation (MIC, 1,000gp) adds a +5 to an untrained skill and lets you treat it as trained 1/day.
Shirt of Wraith Stalking (MIC, 6,000gp) at will, no-save Hide from Undead.
Heward's fortifying bedroll (CM, 3,000 gp) Full Rest in 1 Hour instead of 8.
Heward's Handy Haversack (DMG, 2,000 gp) Holds less than a Bag of Holding, but also costs less, and the retrieval function is very valuable. Everyone should get one ASAP.
Survival Pouch (MIC, 3300gp) Provides you transportation, hauling capability, food, instant campfire and/or torches, shelter, water, rope, shovel, bow & arrows.
Possum Pouch (CAdv, 1800gp) Hidden bag that needs a DC30 search check to find.
Orb of Mental Renewal (MIC, 3100gp) Heals up to 8 mental ability damage/day
Rod of Bodily Restoration (MIC, 3100gp) Heals up to 8 physical ability damage/day

[Deophaun]

You can enhance the armor to +5 for the same price that you'd pay for Bracers of Armor +5...
Right. But then you still have an additional +3 to AC you can add to the bracers, bringing you to an AC of 13, while the armor caps at 10. Which is why I said "long term."


so the only reason to get the bracers over actual armor...
...is if you are playing for the short term. In which case there's still the issue of having access to magic vestment and greater armor enhancement that negates the need for proper magic armor.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Right. But then you still have an additional +3 to AC you can add to the bracers, bringing you to an AC of 13, while the armor caps at 10. Which is why I said "long term."


...is if you are playing for the short term. In which case there's still the issue of having access to magic vestment and greater armor enhancement that negates the need for proper magic armor.

Except that a mithral chain shirt, dastana and chahar-ana gets you +6 armor AC for a little over 1,000gp, while using the bracers costs 36,000gp for the same.
Sure, at high levels you can get 2 more AC out of the bracers, but given that AC is a pretty low priority overall and gets less important as you level i can't really see how you justify getting the bracers on a 6th level character, no matter how "long term" your view.

You'll spend most of your career behind in AC for a potential that you're unlikely to actually use, because even at high levels there's almost always something more worthwhile to spend your gold on than paying 18,000gp for a +2 to AC over the Chain Shirt/Dastana/Chahar-Ana combo. It's just not cost-effective.

[Deophaun]

Except that a mithral chain shirt, dastana and chahar-ana gets you +6 armor AC for a little over 1,000gp, while using the bracers costs 36,000gp for the same.
Sure, at high levels you can get 2 more AC out of the bracers, but given that AC is a pretty low priority overall and gets less important as you level i can't really see how you justify getting the bracers on a 6th level character, no matter how "long term" your view.
So the problem is that you did not understand what the word "interim" meant in my first post?


Back to the OP: For armor, the first thing you're going to want to make is not going to be for a while, but that is a lesser metamagic rod of chaining (MIC). With that, you can give everyone in your party a +X enhancement bonus to their armor/shield, and then do the same with their weapons.

[Milo the Gnome]

Thanks for all the item ideas!

Dex is pretty decent, and about to get better when I finish the Gloves of Dex.

Hm, Healing belt vs a Belt of Battle?

Heward's Fortifying Bedroll, yeah this item is fantastic. I don't know why any caster that needs 8hrs wouldn't get this immediately.

The metamagic rod of chaining. Wouldn't you need something else to make the magic enhancement spells last a while? Otherwise you're doing that at the start of every combat (useful first round action, but not the best use of action economy)

[Deophaun]

The metamagic rod of chaining. Wouldn't you need something else to make the magic enhancement spells last a while? Otherwise you're doing that at the start of every combat (useful first round action, but not the best use of action economy)
Both magic vestment and greater magic weapon last 1 hour/caster level, which means by level 8 a single casting in the morning (out of combat) should last you an entire adventuring day.

Edit: And since they're both transmutations, you can get a cheap +1 boost to CL if you worship Kord with the Vanguard of Kord (Complete Champion, pg 135). Check out all the holy symbols there, though.