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View Full Version : Help with sewing a Wizard's Gown



Isle
2008-01-12, 10:07 AM
First some background information: I'm running a campaign in a city that is run by wizards. In the future it will be run by the children of wizards, who will, surprisingly become wizards. It works the way aristocracy works.

I want to give the wizard one of my players is playing, an opportunity to get her share of in game attention. The other players have gotten it, because a fighter is important in a fight, a rogue is perfect for doublecrossing and the last one, well he never seems to run out of funny ideas.

My idea is to give the wizard a magical gown. The gown is only usefull for people who are able to cast arcane spells. It's sort of like a debutante-dress. You do not wear it very often. If you wear it, there are a lot of wizards around you. You can't move around in it (dex) but everyone will think you look gorgeous (cha). And since its a wizards-town, int is considered to be the most important stat, so it has a bonus on that. But I can also find reasons for penalties on str or con, and for a bonus on wis.

In short:
dex: -2 (reducing AC to 10, unless she buys bracers)
str: -2 (reducing it to 8)
int: +4 (for bonusspells, makes it 22)
cha: +4 (because its gorgeous. The wizard doesn't have anything with cha though, it would make a 14)

btw: she's level 7, DnD v3.5

The other players will also receive something, e.g. a pricy gem, a pricy necklace, perhaps +2 gloves or another +2 item. The dress should be the best gift though.

Does this make sense? What is your opinion about it? Would you be happy with it? Would you perhaps be too happy with it? Would you want to mend it if someone else received +2 gloves of dex?

BisectedBrioche
2008-01-12, 10:19 AM
But if it reduces dex then shouldn't it interfer with spellcasting?

Isle
2008-01-12, 10:50 AM
Never thought about arcane spell failure. But does it necessarily have that? I mean, a dex-draining poison doesn't do anything for your spellcasting, why would a -2 dress do someting? It's not an armor with a max dex bonus. And usually you can still move your arms freely in a galadress.

But these kinds of interdepent rules are exactly why I posted it :-) I don't know half of them.)

BisectedBrioche
2008-01-12, 11:17 AM
Well my reasoning is that the armour check penalty for arcane spells is caused by the weight of the armour making it harder to move. If the gown reduces dex then logically it makes it harder to move so it should have the same issues and penalties as armour.

Rigon
2008-01-12, 03:04 PM
i would simply remove the dex penalty

you said the wizard was a "her".
so instead of dex penalty she gets an AC penalty as the Gown exposes some areas for the viewers to drool at.
we could also apply a dex based attack penalty (for bows and weapon finesse melee weapons BUT not for crossbows/spells) as the straps and whatever are nice to look at but darn uncomfortable to move in. but as it was designed for wizards it was made so this inconvenience is dimunitive when it comes to spell casting.

Baron Corm
2008-01-12, 05:06 PM
you said the wizard was a "her".
so instead of dex penalty she gets an AC penalty as the Gown exposes some areas for the viewers to drool at.

Sorry but this is kind of ridiculous...

Anyway, my thoughts on the gown. Well, the mitigating factors don't really hurt anything at all for a wizard, or at least not enough. That item should be considered as powerful/expensive as a headband of intellect +4 and a whateveritis of charisma +4. Giving other party members +2 items is giving them something 1/4 as valuable. Well, it is even worse than that, since a headband +4 costs more than twice what a headband +2 costs.

If you're trying to be realistic about it, or at least true to the system, fancy clothes do not increase your Charisma (unless they are magically enchanted to) and baggy or hindering clothes would have a max Dex bonus instead of a penalty to Dexterity. I would just give her the equivalent of a headband of intellect +2, but make it robes instead of a headband.

I'm not sure what power level you're shooting for, but there already exists a Robes of the Archmagi (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#robeoftheArchmagi) item, if you want to use it or need inspiration.