Why does armor enchantment exist?

[hcobb]

Why does armor enchantment exist when Stone Flesh and Iron Flesh items cost half as much and have none of the limitations of armor?

I've got a house rule to limit SF/IF/DF WRT armor stacking, but what's your excuse for why so many dumb wizards are wasting their time?

[Skarg]

I think once again you're dulling your point by overstating it. As asked, the reasons it exists may include:

* Anything that stacks armor effects with other armor effects is part of the road to invulnerability (especially now that missile spell power is capped at 3 dice), and so is very valuable.

* Armor Enchantment at lower levels (+1 and +2) is easier to make than Stone Flesh. In our games, higher levels of armor enchantment were indeed less common than Stone Flesh, however.

* Some GMs may have realized Stone Flesh with no fatigue cost is really powerful and may have increased the difficulty and cost of Flesh spell enchantments.

* Iron Flesh requires 14-hex dragon skins, which may tend not to be commonly available. Attempts to treat 14-hex dragons as easy industrial resources may not have worked out as hoped.

* Some GMs may house-rule something like a fatigue cost per turn to use Stone Flesh items. (Others may house-rule other side-effects or disadvantages to using Flesh spells all day.)

* Some GMs may have magic item breakdown rules where different enchantments have different rates of breakdown, wherein Stone Flesh may break down more quickly the armor enchantment.

However I think there is a core of truth beneath your exaggerated question (as indicated by the the various "some GMs may house-rule" points above). Which is that Flesh spells are better than W/A enchantment because they don't have to be on armor, and aren't subject to removal by Remove Thrown Spell, and so probably ought to have some more disadvantages and/or be more difficult to enchant.

[Helborn]

Originally Posted by hcobb

Why does armor enchantment exist when Stone Flesh and Iron Flesh items cost half as much and have none of the limitations of armor?

?
Iron Flesh (-6 DR) $16,000.
+5 Enchantment, $16,000 plus you get the armor, so a minimum of another +1 DR - same cost....

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by Helborn

?
Iron Flesh (-6 DR) $16,000.
+5 Enchantment, $16,000 plus you get the armor, so a minimum of another +1 DR - same cost....

Iron Flesh plus cloth armor?

[Helborn]

Iron Flesh plus cloth armor gives you DR of 7. Cost of +5 enchantment is the same as cost of Iron Flesh