[Armour] Mageripper Full Plate

[Timberwolf]

Or substitute any half decent name :)

Wrought by the finest Gnomish artificers and mages, this armour is designed to give a warrior a chance to at least give a good account of himself in the face of a powerful spellcaster. As such, it is designed to provide superlative protection against spells and elemental effects. Unfortunately, this has led to the physical protection being compromised sufficiently to make wearing one in melee combat against a conventionally equipped opponant of equal power a largely losing proposition unless you can win quickly.

The Gnomes realised that there was a huge gap in the market for items that would let a swordsman survive long enough to get into range of a mage who was blasting them. They also reasoned that these fighters and others would dearly love to pay said mage back in kind. Thus the Mageripper suit of armour was born. Taking inspiration from the Iron Golem the Gnomish inventors created a suit with excellent spell resistance and elemental resistance out of a substance that an apprentice alchemist had made while trying to develop a material for making golems that would allow the controling mage to use them as proxies for casting his spells while the mage remained safely far away. They also managed to give the suit a few limited magical properties of its own. These properties, combined with the Gnomes new Omnimount system means that the Mageripper suit can offer the wearer a very restricted range of magical capabilities to fight back against mages.

What is Omnimount and how does it work ? The Gnomes managed to develop a system where the magical properties of the suit would allow the wearer to use the magical properties of any wand or rod, no matter whether it is Divine or arcane. Unfortunately, only a limited number of wands and rods can be mounted on a suit of Mageripper armour but these, combined with the suits formidable resistances will hopefully allow the warrior to meet the opposing mage on an equal footing (or altitude if the case may be).

There are three kinds of mageripper armour available. They all share the same physical statistics but vary greatly in terms of potential firepower and magical effects. All are extremely expensive owing to the scarcity of the materials and the sheer amount of trouble you put the gnomes to every time you commission one.

Omnimount System

Treat as if you have a Use Magic Device Skill just high enough to use your choice of rod / wand.

Stats - Common to all

Heavy Armour

Base AC; 8
Max Dex Bonus; 1
Armour Check Penalty; -8
Arcane Spell Failure 45%
Feats Required; Heavy Armour
Weight; 40.00
Special Properties; -6 AC (Armour Modifier)

Lesser Mageripper Armour

As basic stats but includes

Special Properties; Omnimount special magic system - mountings for 4 wands and 2 rods, spell resistance 10, Damage Resistance; Cold 5/-, Fire 5/-, Electrical 5/-, Acid 5/-

Mageripper Armour

As basic stats but includes

Special Properties; Omnimount special magic system - mountings for 6 wands and 3 rods, spell resistance 15, Damage Resistance; Cold 10/-, Fire 10/-, Electrical 10/-, Acid 10/-

Greater Mageripper Armour

As basic stats but includes

Special Properties; Omnimount special magic system - mountings for 8 wands and 4 rods, spell resistance 20, Damage Resistance; Cold 15/-, Fire 15/-, Electrical 15/-, Acid 15/-

Creators notes

Ok, go easy on me here, I've undoubtedly forgotten stuff, screwed up the balance, accidently rehashed an idea that was ill conceived to begin with, broke it from the beginning or any number of things that mean this doesn't work. However, I thought I'd try it out anyway, it may be useful for fighters who don't particularly want to run around taking levels in spellcasting, I don't know. But anyway, here it is, it may be handy, may not be, I just felt that with rogues getting Use magic device, perhaps something that let warriors do the same (with an associated shed load of disadvantages) might be nice. Anyway, post comments by all means, I want this to be workable so in the likely event that it's massively overpowered or I've not set things out coherently (I did try), please say and I'll try to switch things around.

Anyway, Mageripper full plate should be almost prohibitively expensive but hopefully, the firepower and magical defense it brings to the fighter type will make it worth the huge amount of money it will cost (I will leave that to the discretion of whoever should be daft enough to want to use this, you all know your campaigns better than me :) ), the huge weight, the space taken in inventory, the limited physical protection and the difficulty and expense of maintaining it (wands and rods aren't cheap after all and it's not as if they'll recharge by resting in most cases. Heck you may not even be able to find a wizard who'll make / sell you the munitions you need). Having to first find and then deal with an angry (but very greedy) Gnome artificer and mage who really don't want to go to the trouble of making one should also provide some entertainment. Anyway, I tried to make it not completely useless when taking on a mage even without having it loaded up with wands and rods so hopefully it should be ok.

Hope it doesn't suck too much.

[fangthane]

I'd tend to think you probably want to specifically limit the type of wand and rods able to be mounted in such a suit; some things make sense, some don't, and some would be profoundly unbalancing if given to a fighter type. For example, I'd rule out evocation entirely, probably conjuration and abjuration as well. The last thing you need is a fighter who loads up his armor with wands which eliminate or reduce the penalties associated with the armor itself (it has a +2 armor bonus, so Mage Armor and similar spells would supersede its protection, for example).

Interesting idea, definitely, but I think it needs a bit more polish before it's effectively balanced.

[jlousivy]

I wouldn't neccesarily have the 'rod mountings' but the wands would be cool.
Have the suit confer a 'Use magic device' +10 or +15 competance bonus (and make it a 'usable' skill even without any ranks). Also state that by having it mounted, that you do not have to have an open hand to use it.
On the best grade of the armour maybe have it capable of using two wands at once? (@ 2 charges / use?) but the DC is 25 or 30 for the activation?

I'm a little fuzzy on the Armour part though?
so the base 10 ac gets reduced to 8, and the armour only gives a 2 AC bonus?

So asssuming the warrior only has this and a +1 dex bonus, he gets an AC of
11? touch of 9 AC?
This can be a major problem, no fighter would concider using this( if my assumtions are correct ) due to the sheer low AC. a few plain goblin archers would be able to pierce this guy no problem.

[Minchandre]

So it's powered armor, but magical?

[fangthane]

I'm a little fuzzy on the Armour part though?
so the base 10 ac gets reduced to 8, and the armour only gives a 2 AC bonus?

So asssuming the warrior only has this and a +1 dex bonus, he gets an AC of
11? touch of 9 AC?
This can be a major problem, no fighter would concider using this( if my assumtions are correct ) due to the sheer low AC. a few plain goblin archers would be able to pierce this guy no problem.

The way I read it, the armor itself is 8 (as full plate) minus 6 (because it's weaker in melee) which grants a total armor bonus of 2, so your hypothetical +1 dex fighter would have a 13 ac. Of course, the goblins would still be hitting him about 40% of the time at a 13. I'd be inclined to think that a 2-3 point reduction would be plenty, so long as the rod/wand capability is reduced a bit to balance it out. At a -6, it's essentially only of any value as a vehicle for wand and rod effects.

[Eighth_Seraph]

Apparently. Anyway, the Damage Resistances should all be changed to Energy Resistance, since that is apparently what you were going for; written as Fire Resistance 5, Cold Resistance 5, etc. I'd also say that rods are a no-go for this, as even the lesser version with two rods could be seriously unbalancing. I would also say that making Use Magic Device a usable skill and giving a bonus depending on version os the armor would be alot more reasonable than simply saying "You can use any wand you can fit into the suit." because that would inevitably lead to someone saving up for and buying a wand containing Meteor Storm and destroying everything withing range.

[jlousivy]

wands are only up to 4th level spells

[ClericofPhwarrr]

The armor shouldn't be enabling the fighter to function as a mage, but negate the mage's magic.

So give the armor bearer an ability to cast "Dispel Magic" and similar anti-magic spells as a spell-like ability. Make sure it can counter the basic stuff that "Dispel" and "Greater Dispel" don't work against. It shouldn't be totally comprehensive, but enough to give an edge. An initiative boost would also probably help significantly.

Or better yet, the ability to project an anti-magic field. What solo fighter wouldn't love that?

[PinkysBrain]

Treat as if you have a Use Magic Device Skill just high enough to use your choice of rod / wand.

Anyone can use rods, do you mean staffs? Rather than mucking around with UMD why not simply say "mounted wands and staffs can be used just as if the wearer could cast from a spell list with the contained spells". If his UMD is high enough to use one of the mounted wands without fail he can use any wand without fail mounted or not, and do a whole lot more of stuff with his UMD skills ... and that doesn't seem to be the intention.

Get rid of the armor modifier, it's just no fun.

Simply make one staff take two wand slots and get rid of the separate types of slots.

Whether it's balanced depends completely on the cost.

[Lord Iames Osari]

I would increase the Spell Resistance granted as well, but maybe that's just me.