Pathfinder Player Companion: Armor Master's Handbook (PFRPG)

3.10/5 (based on 13 ratings)
Pathfinder Player Companion: Armor Master's Handbook (PFRPG)
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Test Your Metal!

The most experienced combatants know the best offense is a good defense—and the best defenders get the most from their armor with Pathfinder Player Companion: Armor Master's Handbook! From methods of scribing spells onto pieces of armor to a plethora of different ways to use a shield, this guide has new options for every iron-clad hero, giving steely nerved adventurers all the tools they need to escape any scrap unscathed.

Inside this book, you'll find:

  • Durable new archetypes to help combatants survive any assault, including the armored battlemage, the shieldbearer, the yojimbo, and more!
  • Magic armor and shields of every shape and size, from the sprightly arachnid harness to the unstoppable clockwork armor.
  • New methods to get the most out of your armor, from fighter armor training to combat style feats that emphasize your chosen type of protection.

This Pathfinder Player Companion is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Pathfinder campaign setting, but can easily be incorporated into any fantasy world.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-829-8

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Archives of Nethys

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3.10/5 (based on 13 ratings)

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Lots of good stuff

5/5

The low reviews had me worried, but after buying and reading this book, I really like it. This book provides a solid selection of new feats and styles that most martial classes will be interested in at least looking at. My favorite is the Feat Unhindering Shield, which lets you use and keep your buckler AC bonus while fighting with a 2 handed weapon. My Greatsword fighter loves it.

The armory mastery system makes the fighter armor training class feature a lot better, providing several good options. My favorite here is Armored Juggernaut, which gives the fighter damage reduction that stacks with adamantine armor DR, which is awesome.


Another person who loves this book ...

5/5

After reading the early reviews for this product, my expectation for this product was middling to low. Perhaps this is why I find myself loving this book! (And contrasting that to the very high expectation of the early reviewers expecting another Weapon Master's Handbook and then feeling let down).

I find a ton of options that make a previously niche build much more usable.

Want to use the cover feature of a tower shield more economically (and generally make the tower shield a very usable option)? Get Mobile Bulwark Style and Tower Shield Specialist. This is looking very good for the Castellan Cavalier Archetype

Want to get Spring Attack without Dodge and Mobility? Get Defended Movement

Want access to improved combat maneuver feats without Power Attack at STR 13 (for all those swashbucklers out there)? Get Guarded Charge

Want to make Overrun a cool ability that you might actually use and specialize in? Get Bulette Charge Style

And my personal favourite I've been waiting years for ... Want to be the Greek Phalanx Fighter from antiquity without need one niche fighter archetype? Get Shield Brace.

I also love the Advanced Armor Training options. Not as powerful as Advanced Weapon Training, but armor training was not as good as weapon training, so it balances.

And finally, continuing to add stamina options to other combat feats outside the core rule book line is magnificent. I'll keep hope that this continues and one day I'll see a stamina option for Phalanx Formation.


It's no Weapon Master's Handbook

2/5

After the excellent and fun to read Weapon Master's Handbook I had high hopes for the Armor Master's Handbook. Unfortunately, it's nowhere near the level of crunch as was in the previous. Where Weapon Master's set a very high bar I don't expect in every product, I was hoping for something better than what was presented, both content-wise, and visually. It's almost as if the entire product was hastily pulled together with far less consideration.

In terms of specific examples, feats generally offer little in the way of bonuses, or seem to be just "missing it" when it comes to final content. While this is my subjective opinion and very generally, objectively I found the errors more annoying/present than in previous products. In particular there's a style feat mid book (please forgive me not having the book with me). In this style chain, just like every style chain, the first feat is required for the second feat, is required for the third feat. The desk-meet-head moment though was seeing that feat 1 had a 13 Dex requirement, feat 2 had a 15 dex requirement, and feat 3 was back down to a 13 dex requirement. There are little inconsistencies all over this book.

Lastly, and this requires special commentary and a section all on its own. The art is bad. Not just "huh, this isn't good" bad but atrociously bad. Not bad in that subjective way that art can be bad, but in a way where the artist clearly doesn't understand perspective (a group of four different people I know independently said this as their first comment when I showed them the particularly awful elf picture from later in the book). So while there are some of the typical quality Pathfinder artwork images we see in a lot of their products, a good chunk of it in this book doesn't even evoke the feelings that it was intended to.


Sorry Paizo

1/5

But until you nerf Shield Brace and Unhindering Shield (2 feats that just kill sword & shield combat style, cause they basically allow you to fight with your trusted Power Attack buffed two-handed weapon and still have a nice shield bonus) I will not give this book more than 1 star.

If new content just devalues a huge junk of old content - it's bad, horrible game design.


Nothing useful...

1/5

Unless you've got three or more feats lying around looking to facilitate a highly situational minor bonus, this book is useless. It's like they had a bunch of flavour ideas they wanted to express, then had the crunch added to the flavour after the fact by someone who's never played the game.


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So... does the Armor Master's Handbook not have anything that makes using a light or heavy shield much stronger than it used to be? I kind of assumed it would.

Liberty's Edge

Arachnofiend wrote:
So... does the Armor Master's Handbook not have anything that makes using a light or heavy shield much stronger than it used to be? I kind of assumed it would.

Bucklers and Tower Shields probably get the most 'transformative' changes, but there are also a lot of options for light/heavy shield users;

Shield Brace - Use a shield and two-handed weapon together
Shielded Mage - Can make somatic spell gestures with a hand holding a shield and reduces spell failure
Toppling Bash - Option to trip on a shield bash
Guarded Charge - Use shield to prevent AoO when making bull rush or overrun maneuvers.
Vanguard Style - Feat chain allows you to give 'aid another' and shield bonuses to ally reflex saves and AC within the area covered by the Combat Patrol feat. Basically, you can give defensive bonuses to your entire party in most cases.

The Shieldbearer Warpriest and Knight of Arnisant Cavalier archetypes are also primarily for light and heavy shield users.


Vanguard Style sounds pretty cool, and seems seems to be basically what people who run sword and board run sword and board to do. As long as it isn't too feat intensive it might be something I could recommend to someone looking to make a more defense oriented build.


Nice to see the contents of this Companion get some appreciation. There is a lot to like in here. The spells are very situation specific, may never use those. The Unchained material is, well, only for those who are fans of Unchained. I know I have already said this, but I really like those Shield feats and Spring-heeled style. The inside cover with the map and pictures of various armor organizations use is really cool as well.

Dark Archive

Can someone share what the traits in this book do, please?

Liberty's Edge

Souphin wrote:
Can someone share what the traits in this book do, please?

Promising: Bonus to AC until first time hit that day.

Permanent Scars: Bonus on saves vs pain and emotion effects.
Devil Fighter: Bonus to AC against lawful outsiders.
To The Last: Stacking DR if wearing chosen armor type and no allies within 60'.
Jacket Training: Treat armored coat as light armor.
Armored Rider: Ride is class skill, gets bonus, and no armor check penalty to ride with light/medium armor.
Armored Soul: Bonus on saves against divine spell damage.
Crimson Carapace: Bonus to AC against confirming criticals when in light armor and fighting defensively or using combat expertise.
Dragon Armor: Bonus to reflex saves against one energy type when wearing medium or heavy armor.

All are combat traits. All but 'Permanent Scars' require some kind of armor or shield.

Dark Archive

thanks

Liberty's Edge

Porridge wrote:
CBDunkerson wrote:
I continue to doubt that every effective 2HW and TWF build in existence has two feats available to spend on +2 to +7 AC. Many of them might, but you will still see plenty of builds without it.
In support of that thought: at least for certain classes, feats like Unhindering Shield are competing against some very good options which also provide (non-stacking) shield bonuses to AC. For example, consider the Advanced Weapon Training option "Defensive Weapon Training", which adds a +1+(weapon enhancement/2) shield bonus to your AC. Or the Avenger Vigilante's Shield of Blades, which adds a +1+(lvl/4) shield bonus to your AC. (Or, for that matter, the Shield spell...)

Not to mention that the AMH also introduced 'Shield Gauntlet Style' and 'Shield Brace'... which, like Unhindering Shield, make shield bonuses available to builds that were previously unable to get them.

Community & Digital Content Director

Removed a series of posts. Folks, if you want to have a more detailed discussion about game mechanics, take it to another thread.


Chris Lambertz wrote:
Removed a series of posts. Folks, if you want to have a more detailed discussion about game mechanics, take it to another thread.

You missed that post right above yours.

Owner - Gator Games & Hobby

Ugh, why do magic abilities for Armor & Weapons always have such appallingly terrible DCs. Lens of the Dark Tapestry would be a hard sell for me at 3,000 gold, let alone almost 30,000.

Overall I do find additional defensive options to be fun, and really like the design direction of splitting the different special abilities by armor weight - I love that heavy armor can let you count as bigger for tripping/bull rushing etc.


Since my thread on the Yojimbo archetype on the advice board seems stuck on this question I will pose it here in hopes to get an answer from the developer from this book or at least an errata: does the Yojimbo qualify for Advanced Armored Training? I believe it does based on how this reads:

a yojimbo selects one type of armor, such as chain shirt or scale mail. The yojimbo gains armor training, treating his samurai level as his fighter level, when wearing the selected armor.

If you look at the prerequisites for Advanced Armor Training it states: Prerequisites: Armor training class feature, fighter level 3rd

Which the Yojimbo would qualify for as it has the armor training class feature as well as using his samurai level to be treated as fighter level while using that armor. You would simply need to be a 3rd level Yojimbo to meet the 3rd level fighter stipulation.

Silver Crusade Contributor

I believe that the yojimbo has access to advanced armor training, but not to Advanced Armor Training. ^_^


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For more context to Grond's inquiry:

As I said in the other thread the yojimbo can access Advanced Armor Training at the same levels as a fighter (giving up the reduction in armor check penalty and increase in max Dex but keeping the speed bonus) at levels 7, 11, and 15.

But the yojimbo currently as written doesn't count for "fighter level 3rd" prereq for the Advanced Armor Training Combat Feat*.

The yojimbo's Armor Expertise states, "The yojimbo gains armor training, treating his samurai level as his fighter level, when wearing the selected armor."

The "treating his samurai level as his fighter level" text is in the same sentence as armor training, it's just to specify the advancement rate of armor training; and NOT meaning the Armor Expertise allows the yojimbo to count his samurai levels as fighter levels for other instances, even to get an armor-specific feat such as the Advanced Armor Training Combat Feat because it lacks wording like original flavour samurai's Weapon Expertise (or even warpriest's bonus combat feats) "his samurai levels count as fighter levels and stack with any fighter levels he possesses for the purposes of meeting the prerequisites for feats that specifically select his chosen weapon".

Also, Mark Seifter agrees that "treat your X level as your Y level for purpose A does not give you a Y level for purposes other than A. Feat prerequisites are their own purpose (several classes do treat their levels as some function of fighter levels for that purpose, like magus and warpriest)." So I concluded that the current wording of Armor Expertise doesn't grant "count as fighter" for feat prereqs unless specifically counting fighter levels for armor training purposes (which the Advanced Armor Training Combat Feat doesn't specify with current wording).

If the original author or Owen intended for the yojimbo to qualify for the Advanced Armor Training Combat Feat, then awesome as I'd love that, but til such a statement comes about I'll go with the actual reading of the feat.

* I'm bolding when mentioning the Advanced Armor Training Combat Feat because in the other thread, folks took my arguments that yojimbo gets no access to Advanced Armor Training rather than just no access to the Advanced Armor Training Combat Feat or at times it seems they're not sure if they're aware there's even a difference by not specifying if they're talking about the feat or not.


Is the Shielded Mage feat within this product meant to work in conjunction with a magus' spell combat class ability? Meaning, can a magus with that feat wield a shield of any kind (thus benefiting from its shield bonus to AC) in the free hand that is normally required for a magus to cast a spell during the full-attack action described in the magus' spell combat class feature?

As a player, I want to say "yes," but as a GM, I'm leaning towards "no." I can see the arguments for either answer (hence why I'm on the fence about it for now).

IF yes, then this feat is great for a myrmidarch magus (just marginally less so for a standard magus) once they have the required shield proficiency (easiest way is a level dip in Fighter). In any case, the feat itself probably will become a heavily favoured feat of choice for Eldritch Knights builds.

Cheers!

CB out.

[EDIT: fixed a grammatical error on the first paragraph. My bad.]

Liberty's Edge

Canadian Bakka wrote:
Is the Shielded Mage feat within this product meant to work in conjunction with a magus' spell combat class ability?

Shielded Mage allows the caster to use their shield hand to make somatic component gestures, but that isn't strictly the requirement for Spell Combat;

"the magus must have one hand free (even if the spell being cast does not have somatic components)"

So, it seems to me that Spell Combat requires some level of 'free' greater than 'able to make somatic gestures'... and thus Shielded Mage would not qualify.

Unhindering Shield, on the other hand, should work.


That is what I was thinking as well, and hence why I was leaning towards "no."

Cheers!

CB out.


What are the general opinions on the archetypes? I hear the wizard gets an armoured option?

Liberty's Edge

Harleequin wrote:
What are the general opinions on the archetypes? I hear the wizard gets an armoured option?

No Wizard archetype, but the 'Shielded Mage' feat is pretty good for letting a Wizard or other caster use a shield without messing up their spells.

You may have been hearing about the 'Armored Battlemage' archetype, which is actually for the Magus. Basically gets Medium and Heavy armor at earlier levels, uses arcane pool to grant abilities to armor rather than a weapon, and gets the fighter Armor Training ability... but gives up Spell Combat. That last bit hurts, but can be built around.

Of the other archetypes I really like the Paladin Legate... trades Mercy for the ability to conjure armor (including barding if mounted) of different types / enchantments as needed. Given the ability to quickly change armor types they can get a lot of flexibility out of armor tricks.


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I am curious as to whether anyone has worked out how the Jacket Training trait and the Spirit-Bonded armor enchantment interact with each other. Jacket Training lets you treat an armored coat as either light or medium armor, chosen from the time you put the armor on until you take it off again. The Spirit-Bonded enchantment provides bonuses whose details are irrelevant to the discussion except for the detail that this enchantment can only be placed on medium armor.

So -- does exercising the light armor option of Jacket Training turn off the Spirit-Bonded enchantment of a Spirit-Bonded Armored Coat? Or does the fact that the armor is objectively medium armor prevent that from happening?

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.
David knott 242 wrote:

I am curious as to whether anyone has worked out how the Jacket Training trait and the Spirit-Bonded armor enchantment interact with each other. Jacket Training lets you treat an armored coat as either light or medium armor, chosen from the time you put the armor on until you take it off again. The Spirit-Bonded enchantment provides bonuses whose details are irrelevant to the discussion except for the detail that this enchantment can only be placed on medium armor.

So -- does exercising the light armor option of Jacket Training turn off the Spirit-Bonded enchantment of a Spirit-Bonded Armored Coat? Or does the fact that the armor is objectively medium armor prevent that from happening?

The armor is still medium armor. It can only be enchanted with enchantments that can be placed on medium armor, and those continue to function despite any ability that allow you to treat it as light.

Liberty's Edge

Imbicatus wrote:
The armor is still medium armor. It can only be enchanted with enchantments that can be placed on medium armor, and those continue to function despite any ability that allow you to treat it as light.

Yep. This comes up with all kinds of option that allow armor (or weapons) to be used 'as if' they were in a different category. The answer is always that the item is unchanged and subject to the normal rules for that item type.

Sovereign Court

Question: who can use Poised/Imposing Bearing?

I'm playing a PFS Slayer focused on Thunder & Fang/Shield Slam stuff. I'm curious if these would be any good for me to take on bigger enemies.

I can't find them on the SRD yet, so I don't really know if they're a reason for me to buy this book.

Liberty's Edge

Ascalaphus wrote:
Question: who can use Poised/Imposing Bearing?

They are Armor Mastery feats, so you need to be a fighter / archetype that gets Armor Training, or take Armor Focus (and possibly Improved Armor Focus) to qualify for them.

Sovereign Court

CBDunkerson wrote:
Ascalaphus wrote:
Question: who can use Poised/Imposing Bearing?
They are Armor Mastery feats, so you need to be a fighter / archetype that gets Armor Training, or take Armor Focus (and possibly Improved Armor Focus) to qualify for them.

How does that work? I just leveled to slayer 5, so I'm wondering if I should pick up the book now.

Liberty's Edge

Ascalaphus wrote:
CBDunkerson wrote:
Ascalaphus wrote:
Question: who can use Poised/Imposing Bearing?
They are Armor Mastery feats, so you need to be a fighter / archetype that gets Armor Training, or take Armor Focus (and possibly Improved Armor Focus) to qualify for them.
How does that work? I just leveled to slayer 5, so I'm wondering if I should pick up the book now.

If you are familiar with Advanced Weapon Training and Weapon Mastery Feats from the Weaponmaster's Handbook then it is basically the same concept.

If not, then for a Slayer it would basically mean that you need to take the Armor Focus feat for some kind of medium armor first, and then Poised Bearing would be available at BAB +6... so next level.

Imposing Bearing is at BAB +11, but note that it also requires you to wear and be proficient with heavy armor - which would require another feat for a Slayer. Your 'Armor Focus' feat would also then have to be with a type of heavy armor.

Sovereign Court

Ah. Well, I do have room left in my build at L5/7 feats, so this is a possibility then.

Grand Lodge

Fourshadow wrote:
Nice to see the contents of this Companion get some appreciation. There is a lot to like in here. The spells are very situation specific, may never use those. The Unchained material is, well, only for those who are fans of Unchained. I know I have already said this, but I really like those Shield feats and Spring-heeled style. The inside cover with the map and pictures of various armor organizations use is really cool as well.

It is REALLY feat intensive. Even with fighter and human and full dedication and every trick I knew, I couldn't pull it off until high level play. I had to take a level of Master of Many Styles to skip some pre-reqs. Also, Vanguard Ward seems to really not do much, so with tme Styles dip you can skip it until you have a feat to spare.

+S


And now, I have a bit of a question for Owen, if he's around here somewhere. I happened to lay my eyes on the phalanx shield, which breaks some rules (Or possibly invents some new ones) by virtue of being an adamantine tower shield. You can't actually have adamantine shields by strict RAW. It's also lighter than even mithral tower shields at 30 lbs. I'm curious as to who wrote this and possibly get some dev insight as to what the cost of the shield without the magical enhancements would be.

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