Full Plate of the Corpse, a Request for Information

[Shiroi]

I'm going to link to what could be one of the most horribly worded story arc enders in existence.

The Full Plate of the Corpse says:

This suit of +2 full plate has been etched and stained in such a way that it resembles the form and shape of a decomposed body that is encased in a suit of armor. The wearer is effectively hidden from non-intelligent undead, which can't see, hear, or smell him; even extraordinary or supernatural senses capabilities can't penetrate the magical shroud. An intelligent undead creature can attempt a single Will saving throw (DC 14) to penetrate the ward. All affected undead behave as if the wearer simply isn't there.

If my Vampire BBEG fails a will save, can the PC wearing this armor take all the time in the world to murder his $#!+ in? It appears so. It doesn't make the wearer INVISIBLE, in which case at least I could equip the BBEG with blindfight or blindsense or a dozen other solutions. It doesn't make the wearer "isn't there" until he does something aggressive, or for a limited time, it doesn't even reallow the will save if the wearer does one of those things. RAW, a person in this armor can walk down a hall of CR+10 zombies with no Int score and KILL THEM ALL, even if he has to do so one natural 20 at a time. One bad save by the BBEG or any intelligent undead and he wins, period. If the undead isn't intelligent, there's not even a glimmer of hope of making this a challenge for the party, because everyone else just runs and lets Bob handle it. Admittedly, it's a high level armor in a corner case, I've never seen it used and probably never will. But it feels like if a PC buys, makes, or finds this item, you have to make the decision as DM to allow it work as intended and never be able to use undead in your campaign again, allow it to work as written and let them win many encounters super easily, or houserule the item. I suppose you could always match encounters so that Undead are always near Constructs, or near Living creatures that control/aren't bothered by the nearby Undead, but we're talking about having to be very careful to build encounters around a single piece of equipment.

Am I missing a flaw in this armor, a reason it doesn't function as I feel, RAW, that it does?

I know RAI it feels like it lets you sneak past the zombie patrol groups and get into the BBEG's lair undetected, but was it intended to be this powerful in a game where some campaigns may be almost exclusively undead oriented?

[bigrig107]

Since the item is based on the spell Hide from Undead, I'd allow aggressive actions toward an undead to allow that particular undead another save, each time.

Makes it still powerful, without being game-breaking.

[Shiroi]

bigrig107 wrote:

Since the item is based on the spell Hide from Undead, I'd allow aggressive actions toward an undead to allow that particular undead another save, each time.

Makes it still powerful, without being game-breaking.

True enough, it's very easy to houserule. I'm just curious as to whether the Devs have noticed this little wording abomination yet, and whether any other people have had to adjust it.

[bigrig107]

I believe it was meant to work like the spell, but someone somewhere forgot to put it in there.

[Shiroi]

Makes sense. Thanks for the second opinion Doc. :)

[Undone]

I disagree about the intent.

It's clear RAW it works like you say (and is absurdly strong) RAI this item costs more than 20,000g over the base armor price. It's definitely out of line with the normal costs of a continuous level 1 spell. Adjusting it down would mean it should cost around 4000 gold over base cost.

[GeneticDrift]

a Will saving throw (DC 14) on an intelligent undead at lvl 6+ makes this mostly useless. a PC seeking this out will be wasting his time.

I would only put in a hall of super zombies if a PC had this armor. an unattended group of zombies is easily killed with out magic armor. A zombie horde does damage like a swarm so it doesn't have to know something is there.Feral Rage (Ex) is just crushing damage from the pressing of so many zombies.