My clanky armor killed my spell!

seriouslynow · Post by **seriouslynow** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 2:16 am

So uh do they gots any light or medium armor in this server with reduced arcane spell casting failure? Any shields even? or are we bards just left to freeze our tails off everytime we have to buff and forget spells during battle?

Silver Lady · Post by **Silver Lady** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 3:10 am

not sure, but u can take feat Still feat and after lvl 21 this feats Automatic Still Spell I - III.

but maybe u can find armor which has reduced spell casting failure

lordvan52681 · Post by **lordvan52681** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 3:35 am

You are mistaken Silver. Automatic Stillspell requires the ability to cast lvl 9 spells, which bards cannot do.

Silver Lady · Post by **Silver Lady** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 3:54 am

ah, right. so only Still spell?

Post by **Metis** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 11:00 am

I always liked bards but never understood why they always had wear havy armor. Try this for something different make it dex base get weapon finess wear robes and use a small shield, you can unerquip shield for buffs and you can also actually cast while in combat

with only a 5% arcane failure (downside is that if your as lucky as me that 5% feels like 50 sometimes).

seriouslynow · Post by **seriouslynow** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 3:35 pm

So, in 3.5 didn't they make it so bards can cast in light armor without spell failure? I'm not sure, haven't played any 3rd Ed PnP stuff.

The way I see it from most servers I've played there is almost never any reason to use any armor other than no armor or full plate. Either you use your dex bonus or you don't. Bards and rangers however are the two classes that actually have a reason to use the light and medium types of armor. (i.e. bards don't intrinsically have heavy armor feat and rangers lose their dual-wield ability). The problem tho, is since nobody usually uses these armor types, no development goes into them (I'm speaking about my experience in general).
For example, my toon is a str and cha based guy with very low dex. He can wear heavy armor and use a towershield but would prefer to use an armor configuration that he could potentially cast in. Maybe there could be a job or quest type thing that allows a reduction to arcane spell failure to be added. Otherwise, I have to use a small shield which drops me 2ac from a tower, and use no armor which loses me 8 nire ac for the ability to cast just a few spells in combat (wounding wispers, haste, ice storm, darkness, and maybe one or two others). Frankly, it's just too much ac to give up for the occasional spell. It really cramps a bard's style... makes him think he should have gone all sorc or all fighter rather than be something mediocre in between. Using a light/medium armor with reduced arcane spell failure costs a little ac but doesn't ruin me. Anyways, just some thoughts. *crosses fingers* hoping to find some armor to cast in

Go'f · Post by **Go'f** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 4:22 pm

You can add Barbarian to that list of Medium/Light Armour users

JesterOI · Post by **JesterOI** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 5:35 pm

What barb in their right mind doesn't get heavy armor feat some how?

Go'f · Post by **Go'f** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 8:02 pm

JesterOI wrote:What barb in their right mind doesn't get heavy armor feat some how?

A barb multiclass with good dex who wants to take advantage of that extra move is who

Go'f · Post by **Go'f** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 8:03 pm

JesterOI wrote:What barb in their right mind doesn't get heavy armor feat some how?

A barb multiclass who wants to take advantage of the extra move may not want to use heavy armour, just cause you can doesn't mean you should... someone should have told Mr Clinton that!

Celorn · Post by **Celorn** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 10:19 pm

My bard loves her still spell - you cast some buffs with armour/shield off, then you can stillspell the other spells during combat as-needed... The sucky thing is you can't cast Dirge (or the other lvl6 spells) in armour, possibly de-equip the shield and pray it doesn't fail...

BTW: War Cry can be casted with full armour on no problemo.

P. Fricebottle · Post by **P. Fricebottle** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 10:57 pm

Metis, I've created a dex bard as you suggested (Kender of course hehe). The problem is that, pure bards will not survive. Not on ns4 if they're not constantly babysat in a group, they're helpful in a group don't get me wrong. But a pain to level solo. So most people try to go for the Red Dragon Disciple way out, which involves a bonus to strength. So, yeah... Dex bards aren't too bad though.

Death Dealer1 · Post by **Death Dealer1** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 11:01 pm

i got a bard to lvl 19 mostly solo....pure all the way. i quit playing him because i messed up the build somewhere, but he can do very well all alone.

JesterOI · Post by **JesterOI** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 1:48 am

Bard is more than good enough without it's spells.
Only thing is if you go pure you don't get 4 attacks without buffs.
If you're just making a melee song bard 10/10 bard/rdd in first 20, then 20 bard in epics will yield an easily playable character. HP and AB may be a little low, but saves and ac will kick butt.

seriouslynow · Post by **seriouslynow** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 12:38 pm

JesterOI wrote:Bard is more than good enough without it's spells.
Only thing is if you go pure you don't get 4 attacks without buffs.
If you're just making a melee song bard 10/10 bard/rdd in first 20, then 20 bard in epics will yield an easily playable character. HP and AB may be a little low, but saves and ac will kick butt.

Agreed, bards aren't too shabby even without spells although they need some sort of melee class in there for that fourth attack. Still tho, this misses some of the point, a bard is intended to be able to cast spells like dirge, ice storm, wounding whispers, and the like without relying on scrolls to do it. I realise still spell is an option but I like extended spell a lot more. IMO there really should be some armors that cater to the light and medium wearing classes. Oh and don't get me started about why the barb class is mostly useless.