Abjurant Armor?

[Caxton]

So I was looking at the Abjurant Champion, and I noticed that he gives extra ac to Abjuration spells that provide a shield or armor bonus. However, I haven't been able to find any core spells in the school that give an armor bonus, as Mage Armor is inexplicably conjuration. Does anyone know of such a spell? Or perhaps some reasonable spells in a reasonable book that fit the bill?

[Frosty]

Shield will work with that ability. Otherwise, there's something in the BoED, but it requires str damage as a material component.

[Tempest Fennac]

This came up ages ago, and someone thought it may have just been an oversight on the part of whoever designed the feat (it would make sense for the bonus to be applied to Mage Armour and Greater Mage Armour).

[Eldariel]

The guy who made the class stated it was an oversight. You can use (Greater) Luminous Armor from BoED or houserule Mage Armor into Abjuration.

[zaei]

Tome of Magic has the Steel Shadows mystery which can give you some pretty sick AC bonuses when combined with Abjurant Champion. Normally it gives +3 Armor and +3 Shield, which goes up to +8/+8 with a 5th level Abjurant Champion. Not bad for a one level dip into Shadowcaster.

[Riffington]

Of course, the Full Caster Progression of Abjurant Champion ought to have been an oversight as well <grumble grumble>

[Eldariel]

Of course, the Full Caster Progression of Abjurant Champion ought to have been an oversight as well <grumble grumble>

Actually, that was just a design mistake; it was intended as a Martial character (again, words of the creator) with magical boosts using his spells and abilities to make him martially fearsome, much like Ordained Champion. Of course, it's a damn good the mistake was made since it actually made Arcane Gish a viable option (since a Divine Gish is a singleclassed Cleric, while an Arcane Gish needs 3 Prestige Classes to compete with even straight Fighter 20) even without resorting to Divine Power from some stupid sources, but a mistake nevertheless.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

(since a Divine Gish is a singleclassed Cleric, while an Arcane Gish needs 3 Prestige Classes to compete with even straight Fighter 20) even without resorting to Divine Power from some stupid sources

Duskblade.

[Frosty]

Duskblades are...well, they're better than Fighters, but not by too much.

[Eldariel]

Duskblades are...well, they're better than Fighters, but not by too much.

I disagree. I'd play a Fighter over a Duskblade in a heartbeat. And I'd kick a Duskblade's ass with a Fighter in a melee on basically any level save for the very low levels where Fighter lacks the means to stop the Duskblade from effectively casting and playing into its strengths. That is, of course, unless the Duskblade has went to great lengths to get a real spell list, which makes it playable; but I'd rather just play a real caster at that point.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Duskblades are...well, they're better than Fighters, but not by too much.

They're probably the best Gish available from 1-10. They're not perfect, and not as OP as CoDzilla, but really, what other gishes are there that are even semi-viable by level 6, when Duskblades are in their sweet spot. They only lose out after level 10, when their melee casting fails compared to an actual caster's spells. But anyone in a martial class after level 10 is going to be in trouble unless they have partial casting or ToB.

[Catharsis]

Duskblades are...well, they're better than Fighters, but not by too much.

They have strong Will saves. That alone is worth a bucketful of feats. Channeling touch spells >> weapon specialization. All in all, they're teh win over fighters (unless you're talking about the chain-tripping shock trooper, which is about as original and flavorful as a DMM-abusing CoDzilla).

A wee bit of MAD and the d8 hit die are basically the only drawbacks. They can wear mithral full plates by default, and if that's too hard to find, taking the Battle Caster feat allows regular full plates.

[Eldariel]

They have strong Will saves. That alone is worth a bucketful of feats. Channeling touch spells >> weapon specialization. All in all, they're teh win over fighters.

A wee bit of MAD and the d8 hit die are basically the only drawbacks. They can wear mithral full plates by default, and if that's too hard to find, taking the Battle Caster feat allows regular full plates.

Fighter gets feats, not Weapon Specializations. Sure, you could choose the Specialization-tree, but you probably won't unless you have a very good reason to want Melee Weapon Mastery. More importantly, Fighter can complete a Lockdown-set very early and get those charger abilities while at it.

Also, strong Will-saves are worth precisely one (one feat costing) alternative class feature for Fighters: Resolute. With it, Fighter Will-saves are comparable to Wizard or indeed Duskblade. Also, the last thing you should spend your valuable few feats on is Battle Caster. You need both, Melee and Caster-feats and get no bonuses, so you should rather get busy with those, especially ones that allow you to expand your spell list with useful spells.


EDIT: The thread is getting derailed. Let's stop with this topic.