Godplate? Feyleather? WTFcloth?

[Duos Greanleef]

I seem to be having some trouble understanding the uber armor.
Could someone please explain it to me and tell me how much it costs.
I'm at a point where my PCs are asking and I'm at a total loss.

[Starsinger]

Okay, take Fey leather. Fey leather has a minimum enhancement bonus of +4, which means it must be at least +4. Now, +4 armor could be +4 Magic Leather armor, +4 Magic Feyleather Armor, +4 <Ability> Leather, or +4 <Ability> Feyleather Armor, I don't believe it costs any more than Leather but I could be mistaken.

[Duos Greanleef]

Okay, take Fey leather. Fey leather has a minimum enhancement bonus of +4, which means it must be at least +4. Now, +4 armor could be +4 Magic Leather armor, +4 Magic Feyleather Armor, +4 <Ability> Leather, or +4 <Ability> Feyleather Armor, I don't believe it costs any more than Leather but I could be mistaken.

That concept made sense to me too.
Except that +4 Magic Feyleather armor grants a grand total of 7AC when +4 Magic Leather gives 6AC at no extra cost?
And Godplate gives +20 instead of +14?
Things just don't add up for me.


edit: price column says special

[Gralamin]

That concept made sense to me too.
Except that +4 Magic Feyleather armor grants a grand total of 7AC when +4 Magic Leather gives 6AC at no extra cost?
And Godplate gives +20 instead of +14?
Things just don't add up for me.


edit: price column says special

That would be correct. Its the same as how +6 Magic cloth costs as much +6 Plate armor. The difference is that the "masterwork" armors are made of rare materials, and magic. This is all described on page 212.

[Jerthanis]

I believe that Feylether/Dragonscale/Godplate colorful distinctions are automatic upgrades in the basic power of the armor as the enchantment grows stronger... that only certain materials are capable of handling the power of +4 and +6 enchantments, and are themselves automatically tougher. So if you buy +6 plate, it IS Godplate, and has the appropriate base armor value (to which you add the +6 magic bonus as normal)

I could be entirely wrong about this though.

[Duos Greanleef]

That would be correct. Its the same as how +6 Magic cloth costs as much +6 Plate armor. The difference is that the "masterwork" armors are made of rare materials, and magic. This is all described on page 212.

I guess that makes sense.

[NecroRebel]

That's the way I understand it as well; +4 or better armors of a given type just are the more powerful versions, at no additional cost or effort on your players' parts.

It's probably intended as something as a balancing mechanism, as it seems that at the levels where those become available most enemies get a relatively big boost in power themselves. Or, it might be to make simple +4 or simple +6 items more attractive, since otherwise people would go for +3 or +5 armors with properties or useful powers and ignore the defense for better items cheaper.

Either way, it's an odd thing that no one I've encountered quite seems to get

[Myatar_Panwar]

i just find it odd that Jim, the 10th level fighter who has +3 Fullplate, gets a +3 bonus to AC when he decides to upgrade ONCE to +4 Fullplate (now warplate).

[Duos Greanleef]

i just find it odd that Jim, the 10th level fighter who has +3 Fullplate, gets a +3 bonus to AC when he decides to upgrade ONCE to +4 Fullplate (now warplate).

This is why I question it.
But no matter, Jim can face Orcus with his Warplate.
lol

[Oracle_Hunter]

i just find it odd that Jim, the 10th level fighter who has +3 Fullplate, gets a +3 bonus to AC when he decides to upgrade ONCE to +4 Fullplate (now warplate).

So, the argument here is that magic isn't mundane anymore. You can't just slap a flaming vorpal ghost-touch on a sword and call it a day - every magical item has certain requirements that go along with it. In fact, the majority of gear is not defined by it's pluses - it usually has some other powers that go along with it.

With that in mind, look at it this way: inferior goods cannot hold epic magics. +4 Fullplate isn't just +4 Fullplate, it's also going to have other awesome magics to go along with it.

To (*sigh*) use a real-life analogy, compare a bronze sword and a steel sword. No matter how awesome the craftsman is at making the bronze sword, and how much it is honed, it is not going to be as good as a steel sword. Furthermore, you can do more with steel than you can with bronze (in making weapons, that is). Likewise, normal Plate is just not strong enough to do the sorts of things that +4 Warplate does, and when you use better materials, you get a better product.

Mechanically, this has to do with the To-Hit v. AC gap, and to make Heavier Armor better than Light Armor, in the long run (or to keep it on pace, at least).

[amanamana]

3 kinds of each armor - 3 tiers of gaming.
Maybe that's the progression that keeps (along with the magic + X) the difference between tiers...
Don't really know, just guessing their intent.

[longtooth878]

Here are the different types of leather you need to know about:

Light Leather
Medium Leather
Heavy Leather
Thick Leather
Knothide Leather
Heavy Knothide Leather

Bwahahaha!!!!!!

[Talic]

You forgot Ruined Leather Scraps, Rugged Leather, and Thick Clefthoof Leather.

[vicente408]

Fey Leather? Wonder what it's made of... Hmmm...

[Helgraf]

Fey Leather? Wonder what it's made of... Hmmm...

Fey Cattle.

[bosssmiley]

I seem to be having some trouble understanding the uber armor.
Could someone please explain it to me and tell me how much it costs.
I'm at a point where my PCs are asking and I'm at a total loss.

I assumed the intent of the various uber armours is that they are either a) super materials intended to replace Mithril, Adamantine and the like, or b) ever higher quality levels of masterworked armour.

Given the lower systemic granularity of 4E as compared to 3E (no fortification, limited DR, miss chances...? etc.) the simplest way to do this would be to give the uber armours a flat bonus to AC based on tier.

basic armour +1 = xAC (armour) +1AC (enhancement)
med tier lgt/hvy armour +4 = x+1/+3AC (armour) +4AC (enhancement)
top tier lgt/hvy armour +6 = x+2/+6AC (armour) +6AC (enchancement)

However long I look at it I can't help thinking of the flat bonus to AC by tier as a bit of lazy mechanic. Surely there would be a more elegant way to include the improvement into the game?

As for the costs of the super armours IIRC the cost of the material is already included in the price of the magic armour.

[Townopolis]

It also helps balance light and heavy armors as peoples' stats increase. Notice that the heavy armors go up by +3 each material, whereas light armors only go up by +1, this is so that plate can keep up with the wizard's intelligence bonus.