a fancy item our GM gave our cleric

[TheCowabunga]

Our GM is a veteran gm... of other games but is new to pathfinder. Currently we are a group of roughly level 4 and he just gave our cleric a cursed vestment to purify. He said once they are purified those vestments will be 9 ac to equal plate armor and have the ability to allow our cleric To cast cure medium wounds an infinite amount of time. My brother and I didn't say anything at the time since they will be so powerful. However we are curious what others think of this item.

[Sandslice]

Clothing equal to full plate? Let's see.

So it'd be equivalent to +1 glamered half-plate with no ACP and no significant weight. I'd say it's a bit powerful, depending on when the purification happens and how integrated it is to your aventure path (campaign.)

By that time, having cure moderate wounds as an at-will SLA shouldn't be a significant problem either.

So yeah, if it's a major adventure goal that will span several levels, it should be fine. :)

[Cap. Darling]

That Will depend on when it is fixed to give these bonusses and what other stuff you guys Will have at the time. A monk or a kensai Will most likely be a bit too powerfull with that item but a cleric wont be a Big deal after level 10 i Think.

[TheCowabunga]

But at level 5 clerics can cure cursed items. It looks like even with what little quest the gm gives us we will have this robe soon at lvl 5 or 6

[Akerlof]

TheCowabunga wrote:

But at level 5 clerics can cure cursed items. It looks like even with what little quest the gm gives us we will have this robe soon at lvl 5 or 6

At level 5 or 6 most of your PCs will have 40-60 HP while the cleric is healing 2d8+6 (if it uses his caster level), about 15 HP on average. CR 5 creatures should average about 20 damage on a successful full attack, so he's got enough healing to neutralize a trivially easy encounter, but CR 7 creatures are hitting for about 30 so he's extending a fight by about a round if the enemy focuses on one of your tougher PCs while he does the MMO healer thing.

That's going to get a lot weaker really fast.

On the other hand, by using it out of combat to heal people up, he gets to use his actual spells for actual stuff instead of being an HP battery. That's going to make things more fun for him, and if he's any good, it will have far more impact on your combats than 2d8+6 will.

I don't see a huge problem with this: It won't be effective in combat healing for long, but it will be a potentially huge quality of life improvement for the Cleric if the rest of the party expects him to be the party's HP battery. And it will save a lot of money on Cure Light Wounds wands for out of combat healing.

[Cap. Darling]

TheCowabunga wrote:

But at level 5 clerics can cure cursed items. It looks like even with what little quest the gm gives us we will have this robe soon at lvl 5 or 6

if it is that easy i suggest you look at the problem when it shows up. As it is now the GM can have Lots of nasty surprises hilden in that vestment.

[Claxon]

I think any infinite use healing item is a terrible design. If he wanted to do something that is awesome (compared to your current level) but no overpowered in the long-run, I think it would have been better to make it able to cast Heal 3/day. Very powerful, especially at current level. But merely becomes good once you reach the level where you can cast Heal.

As for the +9 AC bonus with no ACP nor requiring Heavy Armor proficiency. It's good, but not over the top. Clerics could already wear a breastplate, and make it masterwork mithral (Which I believe reduces the ACP to 0. Starts at -4, masterwork reduces by 1 and mithral reduces by 3 and I believe they stack). So it's +6 AC with 0 ACP. This is +9 AC with 0 ACP. It's nice, I'd be happy to have. Heavy armor proficiency is only a feat, and there are various items that have granted proficiency. But let's also remember Celestial Full Plate*, which is basically what the player has been given in terms of proficiency bonus.

Basically, in my mind the only thing exceptional about this armor is the limitless healing.

*Which is not from Paizo, but we all remember it

[Chroma]

All broken-ness aside: if he's a vetren GM I see one of two scenarios. A) He intneds to throw some hard encounters at you, and expects you'll need the healing. B) That's a cursed artifact that will either take a ton to restore; or have a hidden draw back once finished.

In general, "at will" casting should be avoided for the aformentioned reasons. The AC is kinda huge too, but clerics are capable of wearing full plate; and I'd argue that check penelties are not as important to a cleric in the first place (as say, a rogue).

I would personally have probably done something a little different: probably a lower AC; like 6 or so; and the ability to STORE x number of spell levels in it. I don't have any books in front of me atm, but that would seem more reasonable.

TL:DR; it really depends on how your GM intends this to come into play.

[Petty Alchemy]

Looks like it's his way to get rid of CLW wands, which implies he wants longer adventuring days and to free the Cleric's slots for other spells.

It's "overpowered", but not in a way that trivializes the encounters themselves. CLW Wands trivialize healing between encounters anyway. I think it's fine, really, if that's what he wants to do.

[A Medium-Sized Animated Object]

D&D is co-operative story telling. This shouldn't trivialize any of the other _players_, so it seems fine to me. I'd have opted for CLW at will, but the difference is negligible.

[Koshimo]

TheCowabunga wrote:

Our GM is a veteran gm... of other games but is new to pathfinder. Currently we are a group of roughly level 4 and he just gave our cleric a cursed vestment to purify. He said once they are purified those vestments will be 9 ac to equal plate armor and have the ability to allow our cleric To cast cure medium wounds an infinite amount of time. My brother and I didn't say anything at the time since they will be so powerful. However we are curious what others think of this item.

so what is the problem? if your DM wants to give out powerful items, i am sure he is planning on throwing stuff at you that can challenge you

he is also probably going to give the rest of the party neat custom items so noone feels left out

and these are all defensive abilities which don't make a huge difference in the long run since we have already discovered that pathfinder is all about offense

[mardaddy]

As a veteran DM myself, at that level (5th), being able to cure the entire party to max HP after every single encounter without using resources is too significant a boon.

I have a 4th lev Rogue in an adventure with a veteran DM and he, "accidentally," gave him Shadow-enhanced Leaf armor. I say accidentally, because after doing the calculations, we discovered his AC was off-the-charts for that level, and we agreed to tone that aspect of the armor down.

So, there is the possibility of, "didn't think that through, exactly..."

BUT... as others have mentioned, maybe there is another twist in the plot the DM has planned that has yet to unfold.

[Create Mr. Pitt]

This is basically an item to help free up the cleric to just have fun with his spell slots. If you think this will "break the game" you haven't seen the impact of a CLW wand. Unlimited between combat healing is just the nature of the game; unless you're making radical changes to the rules.

I can think of cleric builds, reach clerics with combat reflexes, which would benefit mightily from this armor, but instead of being jealous just wait for your awards. If you feel as if special gear is being handed out in an imbalanced way, I might say something to your DM outside of game. But this doesn't sound that bad; don't ruin a treat for someone else in your party.