Arcane Spell Failure and Armor

[thatwolfguy]

I'm making a Gestalt Character, Sorcerer/Cleric, and I'm looking for a way that a Sorcerer can wear armor and overcome the Arcane Spell Failure chance. Please advise.

Thanks

Dave

[PlatinumJester]

Mithral Twilight Chain Shirt.

[Douglas]

Take one level of Spellthief (Complete Adventurer) and the Master Spellthief feat from Complete Scoundrel. You can now ignore arcane spell failure from light armor for all classes. Next, ask your DM about the Battle Caster feat from Complete Arcane. Technically by RAW it would only apply to your Spellthief casting, but that's only because the writer didn't consider that there might ever be a class that allowed casting in armor for another class. If you get that approved to work with Master Spellthief, you can now ignore spell failure from mithral full plate for the cost of two feats and one level on one side of your gestalt.

[GNUsNotUnix]

I think metamagic rods of still spell are excluded from the DMG for this reason, but if you could convince your DM to let you buy one for the same approximate price as a silent spell rod, you could get a few free spells off in armor.

[cody.burton]

The Geomancer in Complete Divine allows you to switch around traits of arcane and divine spells. e.g. You can state that your arcane spells act like divine spells with reference to ASF, but the DC's of both arcane and divine are based on intelligence, for example.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Mithral Twilight Chain Shirt.

QFT!

Seriously, this is your best bet, since in a Gestalt campaign you can't get 'hybrid' PrC's like Swordsage to reduce ASF, or I could get to some seriously broken builds.

Really, though, why settle for Cleric? Why not go whole hog? Sorcerer/Paladin. Excellent Cha synergy, and after about three levels in Paladin, switch to Ranger on that side, and hit a full spellcasting PrC on your Sorcerer side. Full BAB, more hit points, Cha to all saves... unless you're planning on DMM Persist cheeze to effectively get full BAB, why Sorc/Cleric? Even then, both Cleric and Sorcerer provide nothing but spellcasting for additional levels. It is entirely to your advantage to PrC with either one of them ASAP. But you can only be in one PrC at a time with a Gestalt character. So get a class with useful abilities all up and down the line as your non-PrC side. Heck, if nothing else, Fighter at least has full BAB and feat progression.

[thatwolfguy]

QFT!

Seriously, this is your best bet, since in a Gestalt campaign you can't get 'hybrid' PrC's like Swordsage to reduce ASF, or I could get to some seriously broken builds.

Really, though, why settle for Cleric? Why not go whole hog? Sorcerer/Paladin.

DM won't allow Palladins - period, no palladins. btw, what is QFT?

I am heading towards Palladin however, i'm playing a half-celestial - LOL

[thatwolfguy]

Take one level of Spellthief (Complete Adventurer) and the Master Spellthief feat from Complete Scoundrel. You can now ignore arcane spell failure from light armor for all classes. Next, ask your DM about the Battle Caster feat from Complete Arcane. Technically by RAW it would only apply to your Spellthief casting, but that's only because the writer didn't consider that there might ever be a class that allowed casting in armor for another class. If you get that approved to work with Master Spellthief, you can now ignore spell failure from mithral full plate for the cost of two feats and one level on one side of your gestalt.

that's exactly why i was wondering if there was a way for a sorcerer to overcome arcane failure - thanks for the info!

[Droodle]

Another way to make it happen would be to use Bard/Sublime Chord instead of sorcerer. You'll get better skill points (and more skills), arcane casting in light armor , and broader spell access than a straight sorcerer. You'll also get better saves and bardic music. The rub, though, is that your arcane casting will suffer a bit at low levels compared to a straight cleric/sorcerer gestalt.

[yango]

DM won't allow Palladins - period, no palladins. btw, what is QFT?

QFT = Quoted For Truth

[Shhalahr Windrider]

There's the Battle Sorcerer variant from Unearthed Arcana.

But, what would work even better, given your gestalt status is the Armored Mage alternative class feature for fighters from Complete Mage. As long as you take 1 rank of Knowledge (arcana) at 1st level, you can trade in proficiency with medium and heavy armor for the ability to ignore arcane spell failure in light armor for spells you cast as a particular cast with a maximum spell level of your fighter level +1. This works will with gestalt since you gain fighter levels at the same time you gain spellcasting levels. As such, you don't have to sacrifice many caster levels to get the full benefit of the class ability.

Blargh. I somehow thought I read "Fighter/Sorcerer" instead of "Sorcerer/Cleric." Some DMs might be willing to allow that variant on any heavy armor proficiency class, though.

[Akennedy]

If you're a dwarf, you can take runecaster from Races of Stone (be a gold dwarf for sorc though)

[Solo]

Hours/Level duration spells can be Extended so you can cast them and then wear armor over them for the day. (ie, False Life)

Still Spell is your friend.

Metamagic school focus reduces the metamagic costs for one school by a total of 1, so if there's a school of magic you focus on, take it.

Some spells, like Dimension Door, Teleport, True Strike, and etc, don't require somatic components, and can be cast in armor without metamagic.

A full list of core sorc/wiz non somatic component spells is listed below.

Spells without Somatic Components

0-level: flare, light

1st-level: feather fall, hold portal, true strike, ventriloquism

2nd-level: blindness/deafness, blur, darkness, knock

3rd-level: displacement, suggestion, tongues

4th-level: dimension door, lesser geas, shout

5th-level: contact other plane, teleport

6th-level: mass charm monster, geas/quest, mass suggestion

7th-level: Otto's irresistible dance, phase door, power word blind, teleport other, greater teleport

8th-level: power word stun

9th-level: Mordenkainen's disjunction, power word kill, prismatic sphere, teleportation circle, time stop, wail of the banshee, wish

[ForzaFiori]

QFT = Quoted For Truth

amazing how QFT can mean both that someone posted something good,
and that they posted something bad. (QFT can mean Quoted For Truth or Quit ****ing Talking)