[4e] Arcane Shielding

[Yakk]

This feat is to make the "leather armor option" less obvious for arcane casters.

It is a feat that gives you a shield-spell. The spell makes buying Leather Armor proficiency less optimal -- Leather Armor grants +2 AC.

The Improved Arcane Shield is based off of the Improved Swordmage Warding feat. It grants Paragon and Epic Defence feats and the Armor Specialisation feats.

Note that the power is a Standard Action and goes away if you are reduced to 0 HP. This is intended to be a minor inconvenience. The player may also recast the Arcane Shield based off of the situation.

Feats:
Arcane Shielding. Any Arcane class, Con 13, Wis 13
Gain the Arcane Shield power:
At-Will + Arcane Utility
Standard Action + Personal
Effect: Gain a +1 shield bonus to AC and one other defence of your choice while wearing Cloth or No Armor. If you are reduced to 0 HP or less, this effect ends. You may cast the spell again in order to change which defence the Arcane Shield improves. Note that this power persists across rests. At level 11+, you may pick two defences beyond AC. At level 21+, this bonus applies to all defences.

Improved Arcane Shielding: Requires Arcane Shielding, Level 11+, Con 15, Wis 15.
While using your Arcane Shield, you gain a +1 feat bonus to all defences. This increases to +2 at level 21+.

[dragoonsgone]

So you want it to persist through extended and short rests? And the only time you have to reapply it is after you are lowered to 0 HP? Its an interesting power. I think id eliminate the wisdom requirement or the con requirement though.

[Yakk]

At least one of Wis and Con is a primary or secondary stat for every Arcane class in existence. .. as yet.

So it isn't that huge of a commitment. By epic, you only need to have invested a 11 in the stat. :)

And yes, it is intended to be reapplied when:
A> You are KO'd and get back up (minor annoyance)
B> You want to change what defence you boost (minor perk)

Probably I should eliminate/reduce the 'improved' stat requirements. 15/15 is much harder than 13/13 in a certain sense. Maybe 15 wis or 15 con?

[Mando Knight]

At least one of Wis and Con is a primary or secondary stat for every Arcane class in existence. .. as yet.

Sorcerer. Charisma and Str/Dex. No Wisdom or Constitution.

[Yakk]

Hmm. Then maybe:
Arcane Shielding: 13 Dex 13 Con
Improved Arcane Shielding: Paragon Tier

Sorc: Cha sub (Str|Dex)
Sword: Int sub (Str|Con)
Wizard: Int sub (Anything not Str)
Bard: Cha sub (Con|Dex)
Artificer: Int sub (Con|Wis)

What that means is that for 2 feats, an epic-level caster can wear cloth and get +3 to all defenses.

Before, they would spend 1 feat on leather, 1 feat on hide (needing 13 str/con), 1 feat on epic +2 to all, and hit +3 AC and +2 to other defenses.

They could burn another feat (on hide armor spec) and get more AC, but that would require high stats.

So this is a power upgrade (+1 to all NAD, doesn't require 13 str) for the same feat investment. Hmm.

Lots of possible tweaks:
At-will minor action stance?
Drop the extra defenses granted.
Change the Improved to:
+1 feat bonus to AC and +1 to feat to Will, Fortitude and Reflex. Increase the feat bonus to Will Fortitude and Reflex to +2 at level 21.

This makes it +2/+3* vs +3/+2*, which is a nice mirror.

[erikun]

Stupid forum, eating my posts.

Let me make a brief summary on what my post was about, then:

- You're asking to focus on one secondary and one tertiary stat for each class, generally a tertiary stat that has no meaning to the class otherwise.
- All Arcane classes use either INT or CHA as their primary stat, except some Warlocks.
- Dragon/Chaos Sorcerers and Fey/Dark Warlocks are really left out, as both stats are tertiary.
- Classes which already have leather armor (Swordmage, Warlock, Bard) are even less interested, as they'd only get a +1 to all defenses for spending an epic-tier feat. Bards are even less interested, as they can wear hide armor already.

[Yakk]

They do get to wear cloth armor, which has different (and often more arcane-caster centric) enchanments on it.

- Dragon/Chaos Sorcerers and Fey/Dark Warlocks are really left out, as both stats are tertiary.

I think you mean Dragon/Storm Socerers.

Buying con up to 12 isn't that much of a big deal -- the extra healing surge (and 2 at epic) is nothing to laugh at. And with 12 con, you can hit 13 by Paragon.

Dex, similarly, gives initiative bonuses -- and many casters will want 13 for dual implement proficiency.

On the other hand, Warlocks and Bards gain the least from this. So I'll make the Improved feat require one of (Con, Dex or Cha) at 15+, and leave the base one alone.

So, reworked:
Feats:
Arcane Shielding. Any Arcane class, Con 13 and Dex 13
Gain the Arcane Shield power:
At-Will + Arcane Utility
Standard Action + Personal
Effect: Gain a +1 shield bonus to AC and one other defence of your choice (at the time of casting) while wearing Cloth or No Armor. If you are reduced to 0 HP or less, or reapply the effect, this effect ends. Note that this power persists across rests. At level 11+, the bonus to the non-AC defence increases to +2, and at 21+ to +3.

Improved Arcane Shielding: Requires Arcane Shielding, Level 11+, Con 15 or Wis 15 or Cha 15.
While using your Arcane Shield, you gain a +1 feat bonus to all defences. At level 21+, your feat bonus to Fortitude, Reflex and Will increases to +2.

----

So you can get, from 2 feats:
+2 to AC
+2 to 2 non-AC defences
+5 to one non-AC defence.

These eat up your feat bonuses to defences. The Improved Arcane Shielding is a direct replacement of the Paragon defences feat.

So subtracting that out, the feat gives:
+2 to AC (and eats your shield and feat AC bonuses)
+3 to one non-AC defence of your choice.

for one feat (at epic). In comparison, leather armor gives +2 AC for that one feat, but has no attribute requirements.

This might be too good.

[erikun]

So... Arcane Shielding + Improved Arcane Shielding gives +3 to a NAD over Leather Armor + Epic Defenses, but requires an investment of at least DEX 11 and CON 13 at character creation. And requires waiting until level 21 unless you invest more into DEX (gerenally 13).

Perhaps reducing Arcane Shielding to just +1 AC/+2 non-AC at level 21, similar to how at-will powers get a buff at level 21.

[Yakk]

Hmm. Actually, how about 16+ for the NAD bump?

If so, compare the leather armor path to the non-leather armor path:

        Leather      Shielding
 1- 5   +2 AC        +1 AC +1 Choice
 6-10   +2 AC        +1 AC +1 Choice
11-15  +2 AC +1 NADs +2 AC +1 NADS, +2 Choice
16-20  +2 AC +1 NADs +2 AC +1 NADS, +3 Choice
21-25  +2 AC +2 NADs +2 AC +2 NADS, +4 Choice

So this is slightly better than Leather for non-Leather classes, and somewhat tempting for free Leather classes.

The total edge is +2 to a NAD of your choice, and the ability to wear Cloth armor (and get Cloth enchantments). The cost is that if you are KOed, you need to burn a standard action to replace your Shield (which could suck).

[dragoonsgone]

sorry NAD?
Can't find it defined and its not in the acronym thread.

[Yakk]

Non-AC Defense -- Fortitude, Will or Reflex.

NADs refers to all 3 of them, while NAD refers to any one of them.

[dragoonsgone]

Ah Ty yakk

That looks pretty good.

[Gralamin]

Hmm. Actually, how about 16+ for the NAD bump?

If so, compare the leather armor path to the non-leather armor path:

        Leather      Shielding
 1- 5   +2 AC        +1 AC +1 Choice
 6-10   +2 AC        +1 AC +1 Choice
11-15  +2 AC +1 NADs +2 AC +1 NADS, +2 Choice
16-20  +2 AC +1 NADs +2 AC +1 NADS, +3 Choice
21-25  +2 AC +2 NADs +2 AC +2 NADS, +4 Choice

So this is slightly better than Leather for non-Leather classes, and somewhat tempting for free Leather classes.

The total edge is +2 to a NAD of your choice, and the ability to wear Cloth armor (and get Cloth enchantments). The cost is that if you are KOed, you need to burn a standard action to replace your Shield (which could suck).

Well, you have achieved making Leather not an auto take, but you've done it by making Cloth an auto-take instead. Don't forget that Cloth enhancements are pretty much the best of all. With these feats, there is very little reason not to take cloth.

[Yakk]

Good point. I should have a 1 AC lag that persists.

Arcane Shielding would then grant +1 AC, and +1 to a NAD of your choice.

Improved Arcane Shielding would then grant a feat bonus of +1 to all of your NAD (+2 at level 21), and increase the bonus of Arcane Shielding to +1 to AC and +2 to a NAD of your choice.

That produces:
Leather + 1 feat = +2 AC +2 NADs
Shielding + Improved = +1 AC +2 to two NADs, and +4 to one NAD of your choice

You lose a point of AC, gain +2 to a NAD of your choice, and have to burn a Standard Action whenever you are KO'd to put the shield back up.

And it requires higher stats than Leather.

[Gralamin]

Good point. I should have a 1 AC lag that persists.

Arcane Shielding would then grant +1 AC, and +1 to a NAD of your choice.

Improved Arcane Shielding would then grant a feat bonus of +1 to all of your NAD (+2 at level 21), and increase the bonus of Arcane Shielding to +1 to AC and +2 to a NAD of your choice.

That produces:
Leather + 1 feat = +2 AC +2 NADs
Shielding + Improved = +1 AC +2 to two NADs, and +4 to one NAD of your choice

You lose a point of AC, gain +2 to a NAD of your choice, and have to burn a Standard Action whenever you are KO'd to put the shield back up.

And it requires higher stats than Leather.

That should make it balanced.