Melkiador |
A mithral buckler is similar, though a little more expensive. It has no armor check or spell failure, so there is no penalty for wearing it.
Mage armor is still a pretty great spell though and will be your go to armor for a lot of levels. The haramaki is just a backup, until you can get it up to +3 enhancement bonus.
Danny StarDust |
Mage armor is still a pretty great spell though and will be your go to armor for a lot of levels. The haramaki is just a backup, until you can get it up to +3 enhancement bonus.
I'd use the haramaki not for the enhancement bonusses nor as a back-up, but for armor magical special abilities. Since mage armor (especially at 8+ lvls is active the entire day), your haramaki provides the special abilities and your mage armor the armor bonus (unless you've got the GP to make the haramaki a +10 armor [+5 armor bonus and +5 abilities]).
LordKailas |
If you add an armed kilt to the Haramaki and make the whole thing mithril it works out to the following stats
Cost: 1,023 gp
AC: +2
Max Dex: +8
Armor Check Penalty: 0
Arcane Spell Failure: 0%
Armor Proficiency Required: Medium armor
Movement Penalty: Light armor
between getting this and a mithril buckler once you make one of them a +1 you are already at the same level of protection that mage armor provides. The only down side is the max dex, but at +8 you probably aren't hitting that cap at low levels.