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Was searching for an answer to a friend's crafting question in errata and faqs, and stumbled across the following regarding mithral armor and what armor catagory it counts as.
This then sent ideas spinning around in my head. Does this mean a monk could wear a suit of light mithral armor and still get monk wisdom to AC and access to their various monk abilities? I know they'd need light proficiency or they'd take a non-proficient penalty to skills and attack rolls. But would a mithral chain shirt, for example, count as unarmored for the purpose of monk abilities due to the properties of mithral lowering the weight category by 1?
If so, I know what I want for a monk I'm playing in PFS Core. If not, oh well. I'll just stick to potions of mage armor till I get a bracer of armor +5.
If you read the actual description of mithral it spells out thst light armor still counts as light armor.
In the description of mithral is says that light armor still counts as light armor. Not unarmored. So no, it doesn't work.
Mithral: Mithral is a very rare silvery, glistening metal that is lighter than steel but just as hard. When worked like steel, it becomes a wonderful material from which to create armor, and is occasionally used for other items as well. Most mithral armors are one category lighter than normal for purposes of movement and other limitations. Heavy armors are treated as medium, and medium armors are treated as light, but light armors are still treated as light. This decrease does not apply to proficiency in wearing the armor. A character wearing mithral full plate must be proficient in wearing heavy armor to avoid adding the armor's check penalty to all his attack rolls and skill checks that involve moving. Spell failure chances for armors and shields made from mithral are decreased by 10%, maximum Dexterity bonuses are increased by 2, and armor check penalties are decreased by 3 (to a minimum of 0).
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If so, I know what I want for a monk I'm playing in PFS Core. If not, oh well. I'll just stick to potions of mage armor till I get a bracer of armor +5.
I'd grab a wand of it. 9/10 times there will be someone in the group who can use it for you - just have a few potions for that tenth session when no-one can.
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As I said, the issue doesn't matter either way. And the idea of a monk in a chain shirt seems a little absurd to me. Since the faq answer specifically called out barbarians being able to use their "only in light armor" class abilities (for example) when wearing a medium mithral armor, it made me wonder if the same would be true for monks in light mithral armor.
Normally a monk that puts on light armor receives the non-proficiency penalties and loses access to their class abilities. So based on the faq answer I got to wondering if monks who did take proficiency in light armor as a feat could wear mithral chain while still using their class abilities. Or would the fact they put on armor, even if it's light enough to not impede their movement at all, mean they can't use their class abilities.
Granted, depending on how much you're carrying and strength score I could see a mithral chain shirt bumping said monk into medium encumbrance anyway.
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If so, I know what I want for a monk I'm playing in PFS Core. If not, oh well. I'll just stick to potions of mage armor till I get a bracer of armor +5.I'd grab a wand of it. 9/10 times there will be someone in the group who can use it for you - just have a few potions for that tenth session when no-one can.
Potions are far cheaper, and I didn't feel like messing with creating a custom wand in hero lab. Don't think anyone in the regular Core group can cast mage armor either. Could be wrong though. We've got a fighter, ranger, barbarian/cleric, monk... Wait, yeah we've got a wizard. Not that he's demonstrated a willingness to help out others much beyond summon monster 1 in the last session.
Granted, his wand of summon monster 1 DID help out a lot. As did his casting the spell personally.
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Potions are far cheaper, and I didn't feel like messing with creating a custom wand in hero lab.If so, I know what I want for a monk I'm playing in PFS Core. If not, oh well. I'll just stick to potions of mage armor till I get a bracer of armor +5.I'd grab a wand of it. 9/10 times there will be someone in the group who can use it for you - just have a few potions for that tenth session when no-one can.
LvL 1 potions cost 50g each.
LvL 1 wand costs 750g (though you could get it with 2PP) - with 50 charges that's g per charge.
A wand costs less than 1/3 as much per use of Mage Armor.
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It's going to be a pretty long time before the bracers of armor +5 are your best AC boost for the money, so getting a wand is a really good idea. And, even though the initial cost is greater, it's much cheaper to have a wand than to use potions in the long run.
If you're not too keen on relying on another character to cast Mage Armor on you, you can take a level in Empyreal Sorcerer to be able to cast Mage Armor, or any other sorcerer/wizard spell, and not have to worry about sucking up to the wizard. If retraining is allowed, you can take ranks in UMD, and at mid level retrain the level of sorcerer back into monk when you can reliably activate wands and scrolls.
EDIT - Ninja'd on the wand being cheaper, kind of.
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For now, bought 4 potions of mage armor. Which should be enough for a while. Will probably buy a wand later on though. I'm saving my prestige atm for in case something bad happens, and didn't want to spend too much gold up front. I'm also saving up for either a ring of protection (once I can get one) or amulet of natural armor. Or amulet of mighty fist, not entirely sure which one I'll get. Natural armor would improve my odds of not being hit, while mighty fist would improve my ability to take out foes. It's a tough decision that I'm still thinking on.
If we have a party wipe, which nearly happened last session, then I'd like to be able to have my body recovered and have the gold needed to be revived.
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or amulet of natural armor. Or amulet of mighty fist, not entirely sure which one I'll get. Natural armor would improve my odds of not being hit, while mighty fist would improve my ability to take out foes. It's a tough decision that I'm still thinking on.
Yeah - that's why core monks have issues - no archetypes - especially qinggong to get Barkskin with.
Oh - if you have a ranger in the party - you could get a Pearl of Power #2 for him to use Barkskin on you - though not until level 7. (Actually - you could potentially do the same with a #1 for the Wizard & Mage Armor.)
Owner - D20 Hobbies
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Does this mean a monk could wear a suit of light mithral armor and still get monk wisdom to AC and access to their various monk abilities?
No
A good way to know this in the future is to check out monk builds. If this was a tactic, it would be in every single monk build, bar none.