Is a SR 13 spell mantle worth 10K for an 11th level character?

[Bitter Thorn]

I have a Dwarven rog5/rang6. I'm doing decent on offence, AC and saves, although I could stand to improve defense in general. This DM can be pretty brutal.

Would a 13 SR item be worthwhile given how easy it would be to overcome, or would I be better served spending that gold improving saves and AC or something else?

[Abraham spalding]

Anywhere else but SR. That's a trap item for your level and you'll always regret buying it.

Get that cloak of resistance +3. A much better choice and saves you 1,000 gp for a wand of cure light wounds for those occasions the dice hate you.

Consider:

How likely is it you'll face someone with a caster level of 2 or less? Generally put if they are a caster they will be higher level than you... and at level 12 they can't fail on that SR check.

Even a level 2 wizard will have a 50% chance of ignoring your SR, and it only works on spells and spell like abilities.

The cloak of resistance will benefit you on all your saves -- even those that aren't magical.

[TriOmegaZero]

Get something else. Otherwise you'll have to lower it for every spell you want to be affected by (anything cast by an ally), and the ones you don't want to will just blow past it (anything cast by an enemy).

What Abraham said.

[Beorn the Bear]

Just to echo both of them, the spell resistance items are crap, never get them, ever. Spell Resistance the spell can be worth it at times, but never the items. Spell turning items are better. But never, ever, get one of the SR items. Such a waste.

[Bitter Thorn]

That makes sense. Thanks for the input!

[TriOmegaZero]

Quick houserule to make them somewhat decent. Items that grant SR give a total SR equal to 12+character level. Thus it scales to level.

[Majuba]

You'd have to price any SR item as a permanent spell resistance spell for that.

I actually think this isn't a bad investment. I'd go with a Cloak of Resistance +3 first, but this isn't that bad.

First - no issue really with allies - they will all bypass it as well as an enemy, generally.

Second - masses of low level casters can be trouble. Only occurs in some campaigns, but 6 3rd-level clerics casting Hold Person on you is dangerous.

Third - wands! Wand of Enervation for instance - very rarely higher than 7th caster level. No save. This gives you a 25% chance to ignore them. Not tons, but it's a decent "miss chance".

[Carpjay]

Majuba touched my only reason to take an SR item...if your DM hits you with lots of opponents using canned low-level spell items, or brigades of goblin shamans attacking en masse with low-level spells. If you had an ultra-realistic campaign, it would make sense because most of the creatures you encounter are low-level regardless of your own level. (But the standard campaign tends to have that crazy reality where the crooked sherriff in your first adventurer is a 2nd level expert, but the crooked sherriff in your later adventures is a 12th level blackguard. Weird how that happens.)

Generally, I never take an SR item unless it is a more powerful conditional SR (can't recall, but I think there were some like that vs dragons). The generic across-the-board SR items have never appealed to me since the first 3.0 "SR" format came around.

[Beorn the Bear]

The only item I like that gives SR is the robe of the Archmagi. If your DM allows 3.5 items, the DMG2 had an item called Dazzix vest for 25 k that boosts an existing SR by 5, but that would still only get you a 23 SR between the two.