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A chain shirt has the following stats
+4 ac, +4 dex, -2 ACP, 20 % spell failure.
Mithral on light armor costs 1,000 gold pieces and has this effect:
+2 max dex, reduce the ACP by 2, reduce arcane spell failure by 10%.
A mithral chain shirt comes out to 1100 gold and looks like this
+4 ac, +6 dex, 0 ACP, and 10% spell failure.
At 3rd level any arcane caster can take arcane armor training, as a swift action you can ignore 10% of your arcane spell failure.
Putting these two together at the cost of a swift action makes your armor
4 ac, 6 dex, 0 ACP. And 0% spells failure.
For wearing armor you are not proficient in you incur the following penalty:
A character who is wearing armor with which he is not proficient applies its armor check penalty to attack rolls and to all skill checks that involve moving.
so a sorcerer or anyone without armor proficiency could strap on this 1100 gold piece set of armor, take a single feat at level 3 with no prerequisite feats and boast a +4 suit of armor at 0 penalty.
Why do we buy mages robes, unless it’s the cost of the one feat which in my book is WELL worth the investment.
Scarier yet is that anyone following this same logic that spends all day flying anyways could easily strap an armored kilt onto this mithral chain shirt and end up with a suit of armor as follows
+5 ac, 6 dex, 0 ACP, 0 spell failure. All you lose is 10 feet off your walking speed.
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I came across this while working on my buddies magus. he is looking to play a Kensai and low armor was a concern but this setup is just so easy. and with a dervish built Kensai wearing this armor he walks around at 21 ac with no ring or amulet to boost. With his shield spell up hes at 25. and he has a +10 to hit at level 4. this is not godly i know nor min/maxing, but the power of this little set of armor deserved to be mentioned.
ac explanation of 21
+1 mithral chain shirt=5
+5 dex + uncanny defense to cap out dex bonus=6
and of course base 10.
with a 2k ring and a 2k amulet hell quickly be up to a combat ac of 27. in a few levels he can put another +1 on his armor and combat ac of 28 is great for a front line guy.
If you allow 3.5 stuff, lookup the "Twilight" armor enhancement. The Twilight Mithral Shirt is quite iconic.
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All a question of where you want to invest your resources.
Pick Mage Armor at first level, retrain at 4th after getting a mithral chain shirt and wasting a feat for light armor proficiency and another for Arcane armor training instead of just knowing the spell which is a 1st level spell slot or known spell (that really loses value at higher levels where feats don't, like spell penetration or any of the other meta-magic feats) , benefit from armor enchantments.
fixed that for you....
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All snark aside...2 feats, 1100+gold, and any swift actions ever is too high of a cost in any way imaginable over a 1st level known spell or spell slot, and the difference in value is magnified the higher in level you go.
I am by no means saying not to ever do this. By all means if your RPing reasons lead you down this path, feel free, but mechanically it is a supremely lopsided trade-off. That should be known going into it instead of sugar-coating the trade-off and trying to make them look anywhere close to equal.
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and, not hostile at all TOZ, I have nothing but respect for you and your opinion, I just want anyone considering this to know that it is a pretty major investment to achieve this. I don't want the OP thinking he found a "great idea" here, it is an option but not a great one.
(and it can be re-cast as needed, kept on really cheap scrolls, wands, etc....)
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In PFS, it is not a bad deal. You won't be using spell perfection and first level spells still retain some value for dealing with early encounters. Personlly, I would still just use a wand of heighten at 5+ though.
In a higher level game, it is two feats and a loss of swift actions for a +3 AC gain over Silken Ceremonial Armor. Not worth it. I'll have the armor enchanted to at least +3 and eventually to +5. At top end, Bracers are even better.
Either way, Mage Armor is going to be replaced by gear shortly after you have the ability to keep it up 24 hours per cast.
A lot of the Magus abilities require a swift action to activateI came across this while working on my buddies magus. he is looking to play a Kensai and low armor was a concern but this setup is just so easy. and with a dervish built Kensai wearing this armor he walks around at 21 ac with no ring or amulet to boost. With his shield spell up hes at 25. and he has a +10 to hit at level 4. this is not godly i know nor min/maxing, but the power of this little set of armor deserved to be mentioned.
ac explanation of 21
+1 mithral chain shirt=5
+5 dex + uncanny defense to cap out dex bonus=6
and of course base 10.with a 2k ring and a 2k amulet hell quickly be up to a combat ac of 27. in a few levels he can put another +1 on his armor and combat ac of 28 is great for a front line guy.
Exactly what I was thinking. If you're thinking of using this setup for a magus, I urge you to think again. You'll find your tactical options conflicting with activating Arcane Armor Training quite a lot, and have to choose between just not using some of your class abilities, or eating the spell failure %, thereby losing the benefit of the two feats you invested. It's going to be awkward, annoying, and just not worth it. There are lots of ways to avoid getting hit.
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The magus only has 3 swift action abilities, weapon enhancing and both spell recalls. I do see where this could be the spell recall can be useful and take up the same swift action as an arcane armor training. But a little forethought and some planning make that a non issue.
For instance
"I need to regain that shocking grasp I just cast"
2 options
"Regain and cast at 10% asf"
"Regain and attack then cast next round"
I will admit that the quicken metamagic feat does become less appealing. I am playing in society though so I tend not to worry about the +3 and +4 metamagics.
Also a mithral chain shirt even at +2 is still only 5.1k and imparts a +6 armor bonus. Bracers of armor +6 are 36,000. Having the armor also opens up the possibility of any of the useful armor enhancements.
I’ll admit it’s probably a play style choice and definitely depends on your campaign setup. But to me 2 feats for an easy +6 armor bonus at level 4 in society is a no brainer. We don’t power game so I’m sure our acs could be higher but right now our acs range from 15 to 22. This magus (once he catches up) will be setting at the same ac as us or higher and then still have a shield spell.
I prefer the Haramaki, myself. 3 gold, 0% ASF and 0 ACP for a +1 armor. Even if you use Mage Armor over the top (and why not, if you can afford the slot?), you can stack enchantments on it for substantively less money than Bracers of Armor.
My Witch had an Adamantine Haramaki with a +1 enchant around level 5 due to a friendly crafting player. He made my armor, I made his wonderous items. Even if you have to pay the full cost on it, it's really not that expensive and the Adamantine can be dropped if you don't care about the DR and lack of sunderability.
0 feats, 3 gold at level 1. Winner.
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The magus only has 3 swift action abilities, weapon enhancing and both spell recalls. I do see where this could be the spell recall can be useful and take up the same swift action as an arcane armor training. But a little forethought and some planning make that a non issue.
For instance
"I need to regain that shocking grasp I just cast"
2 options
"Regain and cast at 10% asf"
"Regain and attack then cast next round"I will admit that the quicken metamagic feat does become less appealing. I am playing in society though so I tend not to worry about the +3 and +4 metamagics.
Also a mithral chain shirt even at +2 is still only 5.1k and imparts a +6 armor bonus. Bracers of armor +6 are 36,000. Having the armor also opens up the possibility of any of the useful armor enhancements.
I’ll admit it’s probably a play style choice and definitely depends on your campaign setup. But to me 2 feats for an easy +6 armor bonus at level 4 in society is a no brainer. We don’t power game so I’m sure our acs could be higher but right now our acs range from 15 to 22. This magus (once he catches up) will be setting at the same ac as us or higher and then still have a shield spell.
Here is a quick pull for swift Magus actions (there may be more that I missed):
Arcane Pool (grant weapon enhancement)
Arcane Accuracy
Critial Strike
Dispelling Strike
Hasted Assault
* Spell Recall
++ Iaijutsu Focus
for those last two, the Kensai does not have to worry about Spell Recall, but does have to worry about Iaijutsu Focus.
Also, a normal Magus (not a Kensai) has this line:
A magus is also proficient with light armor. He can cast magus spells while wearing light armor without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance.
So, as long as they wear light armor, it is not an issue.
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thank you for the complete list. of magus swifts. personally i would miss the dispellign stirke and arcane accuracy. we have since moved him back to a normal magus so the magus is not an issue anymore.
i am still thinking that there are many classes that could benefit from this. as a +9 chest ac is possible here where every other option for arcane casters leaves you at +8 for a lot more money. and that +9 could also have several nice magical bonuses on it.
is this for everyone probably not. if you are playing homebrew where you can get more money and magic are going to play until higher level this might not even concern you. but if you are scraping your way through a society campaign where death can mean permanent death and starting over scrounging up the 2100 gold for a +5 armor and investing 2 feats to have a 0% instead of a 10% spell failure is very appealing to this player.
That chain shirt can be worn 24 hours a day. Mage armor doesn't last that long, and is subject to dispelling.
I caught a lot of flack for recommending this feat for arcane tricksters. The thing is, for a caster/rogue type, you can already use light armor, and 24/7 armor you can enchant is much better for such a character than maybe having mage armor up.
They need it all the time. It's cheaper than bracers, and by the time they need swift actions for quickened spells, they're rich enough to switch to something else. You can get a reasonably good AC for the first 3/4 of your career, at least, and also put other enchantments on it much more cheaply than with bracers.
Look at the math. Bracers +7; 49,000. Mithral Chain Shirt +3, Shadow; 14850, same armor bonus and more.
MW Dagger (302), MW Thieves’ tools (100), Explorer's Outfit, Spell Component Pouch (5) Spellbook Spells (3,500?) (Total: 92,552)
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If this is for a Kensai, then you're also having to worry about max dex. Without taking levels of Fighter, a chain shirt will never have higher than a +4 max dex, while Kensais can get a dex bonus of 10 by level 5.
mithril chain shirt is a +6. and with the kensai you could have a +5 int and a +5 dex but thats very unlikely in society play
For all the people saying just saying use mage armor, I don't believe mage armor is on the magus spell list is it?
No, No it is not.
And while there are ways to add it, none of them are at really low levels.
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the magus is finished turned out very well this page helped me decide to avoid kensai all together. pure magus just has to much fun stuff. he has a solid ac 20ish, a good attack +8/+8 with spell strike, 31 hp and all kinds of other good stuff. playing by society rules and there format this character is a win in my opinion.
thanks to all for the insight and opinions.