[D&D4.0] Armor training

[Cilvyn]

Hey ppl,

I was wondering, in D&D4.0 as PC you do have the option to take the feat armor training. You only need the previous armor training and the requiested bilitys to gain prefession with the next armor type.

Are there any extra penalties when weraing those armors? I mean If you just spend enough feats and heave te required ability mods you can wear any armor you want. This could not be the idea of the feat or is it? Otherwise each wizard trains himself in wearing plate and has just 8 AC more then normal:P

I hope you guys know what's about this problem.

Cil

[Townopolis]

Leather and Hide are light armor, while wearing them you add the higher of your Int or Dex modifiers to AC.

Chain, Scale, and Plate are heavy armor, while wearing them you do not add any stats to AC.

Wizards, being Int-based, will have a high Int, which they get to add to AC.

Assuming an Int modifier of +4 at level 1, and continual raising of that score, Plate only increases their AC by 4 over what they normally have (if my calculations are correct).

Also, to get plate, they must spend a feat on every other type of armor--5 feats total--and have all the requisite stats.

In order to qualify for and get plate proficiency, a wizard must gimp himself to eternal damnation and uselessness... so that he can spend 5 feats for 4 AC.

However!

Buying leather proficiency for a feat gives 2 free AC with no stat requirements and for the cost of 1 feat. This is a GOOD CHOICE for a wizard. You should take it, and that is fine. Going for hide proficiency is ok... if you have the stats anyway, but don't go out of your way for it.

[kieza]

It is possible to have a plate-wearing wizard, but it's impractical for several reasons:

1: You don't get to add your Dex or Int modifier to AC with anything heavier than Hide. Since wizards run exclusively off of Intelligence, they should have a fairly high Int bonus which they'd be deprived of.

2: The stat requirements for the plate armor feats are pretty high; you need 15 in Str or Con, maybe both. (I can't remember off the top of my head.) This thins out your points for other abilities and decreases your ability to hit, among other things.

3: The enchantments available for plate armor aren't tailored for wizards. Most wizard-friendly enchantments are for cloth or other light armors.

4: You'd need to spend five feats on it, of the 18 you get over 30 levels. That deprives you of opportunity to take Astral Fire and whatnot, Expanded Spellbook, Spell Focus, and other really useful feats.

Now, what is effective is multiclassing from Fighter into Wizard. You don't need to spend the feats, the enchantments for scale will synergize with your Fighter abilities, and you can still have decent Int for your Wizard powers to run on.

Edit: Hey, my first ninja!

[Artanis]

On top of the transition between light and heavy, there's also the fact that most enchantments are only available on certain types of armor. There's a lot of good spellcaster enchantments that only come on cloth, for example.

Edit: Bah, ninja'd

[Izmir Stinger]

2: The stat requirements for the plate armor feats are pretty high; you need 15 in Str or Con, maybe both. (I can't remember off the top of my head.) This thins out your points for other abilities and decreases your ability to hit, among other things.

It is both. Wizards have no business getting 15 STR.

4: You'd need to spend five feats on it, of the 18 you get over 30 levels. That deprives you of opportunity to take Astral Fire and whatnot, Expanded Spellbook, Spell Focus, and other really useful feats.

Only 4 feats. You can skip over hide and go strait to Chainmail from leather. Still impractical.

[MammonAzrael]

Only 4 feats. You can skip over hide and go strait to Chainmail from leather. Still impractical.

Especially since the +6 AC that plate offers over leather can be easily matched by your Int as early as lv 8. Or lv 12 for Wizards who start with only 18 Int. And before that you're only lagging 1-2 AC behind, while taking advantage of better feats.

So in short, don't worry about it Cilvyn, and enjoy your lack of ASF.

[Kurald Galain]

Unless you're a defender or otherwise actively trying to draw fire onto yourself, spending a feat for +1 to AC isn't worth it.

Spending a feat for +2 to AC is decent (but not great), and given the low amount of useful wizard feats at heroic tier, one of the better options. This will likely not be true any more once Arcane Power is released.

[Mando Knight]

However, while a Wizard won't have much to gain from going with heavy armor, a Sorcerer with Strength as his secondary ability might make the perfect class for your Golbez wannabe, once PHB 2 comes out.