Alternatives that cost less, weigh less and encumber less than Fine Plate

[hcobb]

Fine Plate (for humans) stops 6 hits, -4 DX, $5,000 55.0lb MA 6
+3 Chainmail Stops 6 hits*, -3 DX $4,200 30.0lb MA 6
Leather w/Stone Flesh Stops 6 hits*, -2 DX $4,100 16lb MA 8

* - Also effective against high level occult zaps.

[Skarg]

Stone Flesh is a massive bargain no matter how you slice it (well, unless your opponent blasts it with lightning and de-enchants it).

And yes, a simple comparison has those options more competitive for the (bogus as listed, as you well know since you've also complained about those) prices, but what master armorers mainly do is make fine weapons and armor.

In contrast. what wizards who can enchant do, could be all sorts of things. Even when they do spend their time enchanting, and even when they choose to make those enchantments publicly available for the listed book price (which in my campaigns, is almost never), they may be enchanting any number of other sorts of things rather than competing with master armorers.

And, enchantments can be added to fine plate just as easily as they can be added to leather or chain. (Which not only is much more protective, but also wears out much less quickly due to damage.)

So fine equipment is a different market from enchanted equipment, and the enchantment prices listed are super bargains.

The smart shopper (if he can find enchantment available at all) will figure out how much armor they can stand to wear (because of the weight, DX, MA, convenience and social issues) and then enchant that as much as they can manage.

[TippetsTX]

Originally Posted by hcobb

Fine Plate (for humans) stops 6 hits, -4 DX, $5,000 55.0lb MA 6
+3 Chainmail Stops 6 hits*, -3 DX $4,200 30.0lb MA 6
Leather w/Stone Flesh Stops 6 hits*, -2 DX $4,100 16lb MA 8

* - Also effective against high level occult zaps.

Easy fix... anything you want to enchant must first be of 'fine' quality ($ x10). That will raise the baseline cost for all magic items.

I don't think you should be able to grab a mass-produced cuirass off the shelf at Ye 'Ole Walmart and expect it to be enhance-able.

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by TippetsTX

Easy fix... anything you want to enchant must first be of 'fine' quality ($ x10). That will raise the baseline cost for all magic items.

I don't think you should be able to grab a mass-produced cuirass off the shelf at Ye 'Ole Walmart and expect it to be enhance-able.

It seems to me it's usually not smart to do so anyway. Enchanting a non-fine weapon tends to be a waste of an enchanter's time compared to the item you can get if you do both.

The main reasons the above options might look like a bargain are because of the limited apples-to-oranges comparison, the fact that ITL doesn't list fine options for lighter armor, the assumption you can really get enchantments for sale at those prices.

Someone capable enough to use fine plate, and wealthy/influential enough to have enchantments made, would probably really want something more like this:

Fine Plate with +3 armor enchantment ($5000 + $4000 x magic markup)
Stone Flesh ring ($4000 x magic markup)

With no market to be a fair comparison, that's $13,000 (less than the price of a +2 damage +1 DX fine weapon, BTW) x magic markup (which there really should be), which would stop THIRTEEN hits per attack.

Moral: Stacking magic is wicked powerful, and should cost more than the listed prices. If you make magic items abundant, the game starts to become largely about what magic everyone has.

[larsdangly]

There is no end to this sort of thing if you accept that magic items can simply be purchased at listed rates. Probably the first order question any group has to ask about their campaign is whether or not this is true. If so, your characters are effectively 'builds' of items constrained by the rule of 5. If not, your characters are more about their stats, talents and spells.

[Skarg]

^ Exactly!

[hcobb]

Armor breaks after 20 times its hits. Which means that enchanted fine plate needs 120 hits "to die".

The immunity to Break Weapon enchantment only exists for wizards so a magic sword breaks on average one in 216 uses, one in 432 for fine, and one in 1296 for very fine.

Wearing two rings, one of Stone Flesh($4k) and one of 1-die lightning immunity($5k) would ensure that both rings are safe against short of intentional destruction or a 4d+ lightning bolt rod. (You'll get fried, but the rings will be okay.)