|
I've been looking over the Arcane Armor Training and Arcane Armor Mastery feats.I think that it would make more sense if you add a level that is lower than Arcane Armor Training. It could be some variation of the Armored Mage class feature that the Warmage, Duskblade, and Beguiler class has. It would look something like this
Armored Mage
You have been trained in the arts of magic and warfare. This includes the skills to reduce the chance of miscasting spells while wearing armor.
Prerequisites
Armor Proficiency (Light), Caster Level 1st
Benefits
When wearing light armor and using a light shield the caster suffers no arcane spell failure.
The other thing I would like to see is that the other two feats provide a constant bonus, rather than having to be activated. That seems more in line with similar feats like Agile Maneuvers, Armor Specialization, Combat Casting, or Defensive Combat Training.
|
|
I'm starting to warm up to the idea of Arcane Armor Training and Arcane Armor Mastery being Combat Feats. It prevents a warrior-mage type character from combining some swift action spells (e.g. the infamous wraithstrike) with some of the more potent Combat Feats (Backswing, Two-Weapon Rend, Devastating Blow), if you still want the benefit of wearing armor.
The thing is though, that unless you give them something like the Duskblade's Arcane Channeling ability, they still have to choose between casting a spell OR using a weapon. Spells like wraithstrike which are not OGL are not a factor in core Pathfinder. Also such Combat Feats as Backswing require a full round action to use so even wraithstrike doesn't come into play when using it. Besides you can always trade in your move action for a second swift action and still use Arcane Armor Training and wraithstrike on the same turn as the rules are written now.
|
|
You cannot, at present, trade in a move or standard action to get another swift action in the round. This rule is used as a balancing factor for a number of spells and abilities (particularly stuff out of the Tome of Battle).Backswing, maybe not without metamagic, but you could certainly use Improved Vital Strike, Cleave, or any other full round action combat feat that you can use with a one-handed...
You're right. I was getting it confused with Star Wars Saga Edition. However, I was under the impression the the point of feats like Arcane Armor Training is to make wizards and sorcerers as attractive as other basic classes like warmage, duskblade and the like. My point is that as written I am still going to play a duskblade or warmage over a wizard or sorcerer, because I get to wear light armor for free and with the expenditure of one feat I get medium armor as well, and I never suffer a penalty at all. Even with Bloodlines and Arcane Schools, the classes with Armored Mage as a class feat are simply too attractive to pass up, especially when you earn enough gold to buy Mithral full plate.
|
I'd disagree that just because something isn't OGL it isn't a concern in the design of Pathfinder. One of the goals of Pathfinder is to let you use all of the books you've purchased for 3.x over the last several years, and the Spell Compendium is in a lot of our libraries along with many of the Complete books.
That's an excellent point. What is the 3.75 rule set tweaking and streamlining? Is it the entire body of WotC and third-party rules or just the 3.5 SRD?
For my part, I think it should focus on the SRD/OGL content because it's the only body of content on which Paizo and game designers are allowed to work directly. I don't see the point of taking into account duskblades (and the dozens of other core classes) without being able to tweak them.
I thought about the Armoured Mage idea as well from the Beguiler, etc. However, those classes have restricted spell lists and I wanted a universal feat for wizards and sorcerers. So, I found a variant of sorts (PHBII? Complete Mage?) for fighters where you can ditch heavy and medium armour proficiencies so that you can cast spells in light armour with zero arcane spell failure - and here's the important part - of a spell level no higher than half your fighter level, rounded down. I adapted this into...
Armoured Mage (Light)
You can freely cast some spells while wearing light armour.
Prerequisites: Armour Proficiency (Light), able to cast 1st level arcane spells.
Benefits: You can cast spells while wearing light armour with zero arcane spell failure so long as the spell being cast is of a level no higher than one-half your base attack bonus round down.
There would be similar feats for medium and heavy armour. Maybe for shields, but I don't think it matters that much - you only need one free hand to cast a spell.
Thoughts?
|
|
I thought about the Armoured Mage idea as well from the Beguiler, etc. However, those classes have restricted spell lists and I wanted a universal feat for wizards and sorcerers. So, I found a variant of sorts (PHBII? Complete Mage?) for fighters where you can ditch heavy and medium armour proficiencies so that you can cast spells in light armour with zero arcane spell failure - and here's the important part - of a spell level no higher than half your fighter level, rounded down. I adapted this into...
Armoured Mage (Light)
You can freely cast some spells while wearing light armour.
Prerequisites: Armour Proficiency (Light), able to cast 1st level arcane spells.
Benefits: You can cast spells while wearing light armour with zero arcane spell failure so long as the spell being cast is of a level no higher than one-half your base attack bonus round down.There would be similar feats for medium and heavy armour. Maybe for shields, but I don't think it matters that much - you only need one free hand to cast a spell.
Thoughts?
That's a great idea. That also means that spells like the afore mentioned wraithstrike become less of a concern. A wizard or sorcerer wearing armor would have to be somewhere around 5th level, at least, to cast 2nd-level spells, which is where wraithstrike falls. The problem I see is that at low levels it takes away the magical abilities that are the very reason for playing a spellcaster/fighter.
I actually prefer the ASF reduction over the blanket "you cast in the *type* of armor" approach. For one it allows for greater variation in armor stat-blocks and makes armor materials an important factor. As they stand I see the Arcane Armor Training set of feats as well designed. Given that Pathfinder is adding 3 additional bonus feats over 20 levels I don't think the requirements hamper a Wizard that much. They also seem to play more toward supporting your typical Warrior/Spellcaster multiclass.
As to ASF, that mechanic could be revised to d20 roll and on a percentile one. Out of the SRD just about every ASF value is a multiple of 5, which equalities directly to 1 value of a d20. Thus an ASF check for Leather Armor could be done rolling a d20, spell failure on a 1 or 2. The advantaged for moving to a d20 roll is one of conceptual design, it is easier to see how things like Masterworked and other armor check penalty reductions could also be applied to ASF checks.
Our examples of armored casting arcane users in the OGL are the Bard and Battle Sorcerer (UA). Both of which cast spells in Light armor with no ASF. It is easy to reassign those kinds of absolute values to ASF Check (d20) reductions. Out of the SRD the worst ASF in light armor is 20% (4 or less). Any class that ignores light armor would simply reduce all ASF checks by 4. Medium is 6, Heavy is 8.
As a house rule, something like non-OGL Battle Caster would improve(reduce) an ASF roll by 2.
Perhaps a small rewrite of the existing combat feats, or addition, to include a 3rd feat with 30% (6) reduction.
Arcane Armor Training (Light) = 10% (2), Preq: Armor Proficiency (Light), Arcane Caster level 3rd
Aracne Armor Focus (Medium) = 20% (4) Preq: Armor Proficiency (Medium), Arcane Caster level 5th
Arcane Armor Mastery (Heavy) = 30% (6) Preq: Armor Proficiency (Heavy), Arcane Caster level 7th
Well, Arcane Armor doesn't benefit wizards at all, really. Choosing between being able to wear light armor and being able to cast two spells a round is a no-brainer. For sorcerers, though, who can't Quicken spells without jumping through a half dozen flaming hoops, it's an interesting choice. I was against it when I set out to write this post, but thinking about it, I like it as an option for sorcerers. The problem is that they're already feat-starved compared to wizards and, really, a wand of mage armor is cheaper and better than a decent suit of armor.
|
|
And what is the benefit of these revisions? More realism? Or is it just to benefit non-OGL classes at the expense of the Pathfinder core classes?Don't get me wrong. I like Duskblades. I just don't see the point in nerfing my wizard to make things easier for a class that is already pretty badass.
Actually my goal to try and put wizards and sorcerers on par with duskblades and beguilers. As I stated earlier, as written I feel that the Arcane Armor feats puts the core arcane casters behind the eight ball compared to the other mentioned classes. The idea behind my suggestion was to give core arcane spellcasters on the same level power wise as a duckblade or beguiler. I want to boost the wizard and sorcerer, not the duskblade and beguiler.