Is it possible to make 'masterwork' clothing?

[skunk3]

I am playing a high dex character and I am toying with the idea of ditching armor altogether because I don't want to deal with the max DEX limitations as well as having to add other properties, like Twilight, Feycrafted, etc.

I know that I can imbue clothing with an enhancement bonus, but what I want to know is if I can actually make clothing capable of being further enhanced with (for example) +1 Ghost Ward and other such enhancements. Is this legally doable? It would need to be masterwork with at least a +1 bonus right? I am not sure if this is even possible.

[Crake]

Since bracers of armor can be enhanced with special abilities just as you like, you could just call it a slot-swapped bracers of armor, so I don't see why not.

[skunk3]

Yeah but bracers of armor have at least a +1 armor bonus and are often masterwork, clothing has no armor bonus and I dunno if it can even be made as masterwork.

[MultitudeMan]

How high is your Dex going to be? Padded armor has a max bonus of 8, so unless your Dex is going to be 28 or more, it wouldn't come up as an issue. You can then have masterwork padded armor as normal.

[Bphill561]

I guess it depends on how high your Dex actual is.

Best option is to take Gnome Twist Cloth from Races of Stone. It is exotic light armor, 150gp, and has no max Dex or armor check penalty. The exotic feat makes the armor work against touch attacks, but is not need to wear otherwise since there is no armor check penalty.

You could master work clothes, I am just not sure as armor. They could easily fall under the master work tools category granting a bonus to hiding or diplomacy. Magic item creation does allow you to make items in different slots at an increased cost (or same cost if appropriate). So as suggested by Crake, you could make a custom item. The passage of interest in those regards is in the Arms and Equipment guide on page 130 that specially allows armor properties to be added to Braces of Armor.

Another high Dex armor option is Nightscale in the Underdark book. It is +2 armor for 1,000gp with no armor check penalty and a starting max Dex of 10. Not sure if it gives you the room you need. Making it Ceremonial (Dungeon Magazine 105) makes it half weight and adds +1 for double cost. Dragon magazine #358 has additional master craft options like reinforced, segmented, and Caster armor for another 1,400gp to increase armor back up by 1, increase max Dex by one, and remove the 5% arcane spell failure. If these kind of options are available, 3,400gp for non-magic armor +2 AC, Max Dex 12, no armor check penalty, and under 5lbs.

[skunk3]

How high is your Dex going to be? Padded armor has a max bonus of 8, so unless your Dex is going to be 28 or more, it wouldn't come up as an issue. You can then have masterwork padded armor as normal.

With my gloves of DEX +6 my DEX is 30 at the moment, and I do eventually plan on crafting one of those books that gives me an inherent boost to my DEX score.

My plan was to make masterwork clothing that has at least a +1 armor bonus (if possible) and then further enhance it with a +5 enhancement bonus and then add some other +X enhancements as well as flat GP cost enhancements and pair that with a Monk's Belt. I can see how this might not be legal though because if the clothing has even a +1 armor bonus then I would technically be wearing armor and the monk's belt wouldn't function.

However, if that isn't possible I think I'm going to go with some custom-made Celestial Armor without the 1/day Flight component (since I have a natural flight speed from being a Pixie) and make it Feycrafted, Twilight, Nimbleness, etc. The total AC wouldn't be as high as the clothing + monk's belt route but I know it would be legal at least.

[Zanos]

Gnome Twist Cloth, from the above post, is probably you best option. No max dex, +1 AC armor. You don't need the feat to use it.

[skunk3]

But I would not be able to use the twist cloth in conjunction with a monk's belt, correct?

[Zanos]

Yeah.


If you want to be counted as not wearing armor, bracers of armor can be given special abilities according to the arms and equipment guide, I believe. If you just want to crank AC consider using items that let you get greater mage armor(+6) or greater luminous armor(+8, -4 to hit you with melee).

So you could go monks belt, +1 Bracers of Armor with a bunch of special abilities, and UMD some item of mage armor or something.

[AnimeTheCat]

Uhm... I could be wrong, but bracers dont provide any inherent armor bonus, enchanting them as bracers of armor is what gives them said bonus.

[skunk3]

Yeah.


If you want to be counted as not wearing armor, bracers of armor can be given special abilities according to the arms and equipment guide, I believe. If you just want to crank AC consider using items that let you get greater mage armor(+6) or greater luminous armor(+8, -4 to hit you with melee).

So you could go monks belt, +1 Bracers of Armor with a bunch of special abilities, and UMD some item of mage armor or something.

Yeah, I'd rather not go that route as my arm slot item is already a semi-complicated custom item that I've crafted and it would just be a mess. I think that the Gnome Twist cloth is gonna be my best option. I'll add a +5 enhancement bonus, +1 for Ghost Ward, +1 for Mobility, +2 for Empyreal, and maybe +2 for Energy Drain if I can get away with it since it's from a 3.0 book and AFAIK there it hasn't been errata'd.

[Zanos]

Yeah, so you can get +1 bracers of armor that give a +1 armor bonus, and then just stack special abilities on them.

Then you cast (greater) mage armor, replacing the armor bonus from the bracers of armor, but still getting the special abilities.


Yeah, I'd rather not go that route as my arm slot item is already a semi-complicated custom item that I've crafted and it would just be a mess. I think that the Gnome Twist cloth is gonna be my best option. I'll add a +5 enhancement bonus, +1 for Ghost Ward, +1 for Mobility, +2 for Empyreal, and maybe +2 for Energy Drain if I can get away with it since it's from a 3.0 book and AFAIK there it hasn't been errata'd.
I think MIC might let you add bracers of armor effects to items for no cost multiplier, since its considered a common effect.

I'd recommend soulfire for your enchantments, if you don't have access to another death ward like effect. Also if you can swing it you can skip out on the raw bonus and slap greater magic vestment on there.

[Crake]

Uhm... I could be wrong, but bracers dont provide any inherent armor bonus, enchanting them as bracers of armor is what gives them said bonus.

This is correct, I believe skunk was incorrectly conflating bracers of armor with dastana, which are very bracer-like, and provide a +1 armor bonus before being enchanted. I do believe you could wear dastana as a monk though, since they aren't actually considered light/medium/heavy armor despite granting an armor bonus.

[skunk3]

I won't need Soulfire. This is a gestalt game and we're level 17 and the capstone of a PrC I just finished is permanent death ward. Otherwise, yeah, Soulfire rocks.

[skunk3]

This is correct, I believe skunk was incorrectly conflating bracers of armor with dastana, which are very bracer-like, and provide a +1 armor bonus before being enchanted. I do believe you could wear dastana as a monk though, since they aren't actually considered light/medium/heavy armor despite granting an armor bonus.

When I said 'bracers' I was referring to actually enchanted bracers of armor, not just bracers in general.

[Bphill561]

Yeah, so you can get +1 bracers of armor that give a +1 armor bonus, and then just stack special abilities on them.

Then you cast (greater) mage armor, replacing the armor bonus from the bracers of armor, but still getting the special abilities.


I think MIC might let you add bracers of armor effects to items for no cost multiplier, since its considered a common effect.

I'd recommend soulfire for your enchantments, if you don't have access to another death ward like effect. Also if you can swing it you can skip out on the raw bonus and slap greater magic vestment on there.

MIC rules are a little more specific. You can put it in the body slot (in addition to the arms slot) which they give examples as armor or robes at no added cost. You can also put a secondary non-armor property onto it without paying the 50% extra for the cheaper enchantment. Any other position will cost 50% more or double for slotless just for the bracers of armor effect.

Strange, I never realized robes could go in the "armor slot" which was changed to body.

You are spot on with Soulfire. The only reason I have found not to use Soulfire is if you don't have room/money for a +4 enhancement or you are naturally immune.

[Mr Adventurer]

Where does it say you can put armour special abilities onto Bracers of Armour?

[Crake]

Where does it say you can put armour special abilities onto Bracers of Armour?

I believe it was a sidebar in AEG

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

I believe it was a sidebar in AEG

I believe you are correct. Edit, yup page 130

I seem to recall breaking down a couple clothing items looking at the pricing of their base components and believe they had larger base prices than their mundane versions, but the simplest answer is, there's tons of enchanted clothing across all kinds of sourcebooks, clothing can obviously be made of sufficient quality to be enchantable; wether or not it is "masterwork" is debatable.

Something kinda out of left field though, just saw the other day the Power Armor from Return to the Temple of the Frog has 10ac, 8 MD light armor. Throw some alien tech at your DM, then your +5 tunic won't seem far fetched after he shuts it down.

[Bphill561]

I believe you are correct. Edit, yup page 130
Something kinda out of left field though, just saw the other day the Power Armor from Return to the Temple of the Frog has 10ac, 8 MD light armor. Throw some alien tech at your DM, then your +5 tunic won't seem far fetched after he shuts it down.

Thanks for sharing, that is pretty neat. The stat block is a little strange though "Armor/Shield Bonus" is +10. It looks like the repulsion field might count as a shield so it is both, but it only takes up an armor slot so not sure. Maybe you can bind a lightning elemental to the power pack Eberron style. Now how would one go about getting a suit...

[AnimeTheCat]

I've let my players spin threads of mithral or adamantine and then craft clothing items out of it. It was +1 AC and DR 1/- for the adamantine and +1 AC for the mithral. It didnt count as armor and I let it stack with bracers of armor. That's homebrew, but it's not unreasonable I dont think, so maybe you can convince your DM to allow it.