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Armor for Arcane Tricksters

Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2016 11:20 am
by sir_blacksoutalot
I'm hoping the community can help answer a couple questions. I'm playing an arcane trickster and am struggling to find that perfect armor type. As a hybrid sneaker/caster, I haven't come across many armors/robes that boost both stealth and casting abilities.

My dwarf Grum is currently using Assassin's Messenger leather armor. It provides +2 hide and MS which is nice, but the 10% spell failure is a big negative. I have a sneaking suspicion (pun intended) that I can do better. So here goes with a couple questions:

(1) I strongly prefer the appearance of leather armor over robes. Simply put, it suits the character concept much better. I've seen a suit of leather named Shadowdancer Outfit that confers -05% spell failure, which basically takes it down to 5% (possibly tolerable). It also provides the feat Weapon Finesse, always a nice attribute for dex-based classes. But since I don't have any Shadowdancer levels I'll need to rely on UMD which I currently have at 18 skill points. Can anyone advise if that will be enough UMD to use armor that is limited to another class?

(2) Are there any other armors that I should be keeping an eye out for? Feel free to RP contact me IG, or offer up any suggestions here. In the nearly ten years that NWN2 has been out, I've always played non-casters so still figuring out new stuff. Which is kinda nice.

Thanks in advance for any tips. Now to dive back into the game.

Re: Armor for Arcane Tricksters

Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2016 11:32 am
by Deathgrowl
1. That's enough UMD, yeah,

2. There's an epic mithral chain shirt kind of thing that has 0% ASF, if I remember correctly. Hard to get, though.

Re: Armor for Arcane Tricksters

Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2016 5:34 pm
by Tsidkenu
Epic Spellchain (Chainmail)

+4 AC
-20% ASF (for a total of 10%)
That probably is of little use to an arcane sneaker though.

Padded armour with -5% ASF (and whatever other random stats happen to be on it) pop up from time to time in the random loot generator as well. They usually end up in Mudd's auction but not always.

Re: Armor for Arcane Tricksters

Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2016 6:22 pm
by Blackman D
normal mithral chain shirts are 0 ASF, used to drop a lot, i got like 7 :?

Re: Armor for Arcane Tricksters

Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2016 10:42 pm
by Boddynock
I traded away an Epic Swashbuckler's chain shirt not too long ago, it might still be floating around for trade. It was +4 mithral, +3 dex, 3 tumble and parry, and +5 hp, with bonus feat dash. That the epic chain shirt you were thinking of? Cause it's a good one.

Edit: I didn't make this post to sound braggy or anything, but simply to inform about what is out there. I didn't know I wanted a Ysridain's Soul until Endelyon showed me hers, cause I didn't know it existed...

Re: Armor for Arcane Tricksters

Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2016 10:55 pm
by NeOmega
Blackman D wrote:normal mithral chain shirts are 0 ASF, used to drop a lot, i got like 7 :?
No,they are 10% ASF

Re: Armor for Arcane Tricksters

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2016 12:07 am
by Blackman D
so they are, mine has -10 ASF... been awhile since ive looked at it :? nevermind then :P

i do have a lot of mithral armor tho but none others from a quick look with -ASF

Re: Armor for Arcane Tricksters

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2016 2:29 am
by NeOmega
Blackman D wrote:so they are, mine has -10 ASF... been awhile since ive looked at it :? nevermind then :P

i do have a lot of mithral armor tho but none others from a quick look with -ASF
Ive never seen -10% asf from the random loot generator. It might be an old one from the loot table.

Re: Armor for Arcane Tricksters

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2016 4:18 am
by Blackman D
its definitely old, like 5 yrs old at least

Re: Armor for Arcane Tricksters

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2016 10:55 am
by sir_blacksoutalot
Thanks for the posts, guys. For you other AT's out there, I'd be interested to learn which armors you're having success with. Anyone?

Re: Armor for Arcane Tricksters

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2016 7:47 pm
by UnGround
At lvl 19 my AT uses the Wyvern armor for sale at Beregost. I think it has a 5% spell failure rate, but +hide/MS, +2 AC, and + movement speed.

I used to also have Elven leather armor or something that was pretty nice, but I think had higher spell failure.

Once DEX is high enough, you could look at shirts with 0 base AC instead of robes without losing any AC.

Re: Armor for Arcane Tricksters

Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2016 9:02 am
by Karond
Bone armor - It's a light armor (2/6) with 0% ASF. It also has some minor AC bonus and 5/- vs negative I believe. It's a loot table item.

Re: Armor for Arcane Tricksters

Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2016 2:11 am
by AlwaysSummer Day
I have played a nonstill spell armored wizard for years and never seen anything better than the padded armor for sale in soubar with 0% ASF, +? concentration, and a few other useless stats. I got a randomly generated light shield from auction years ago with 0% ASF and +2 reflex. I have never seen or even heard about this "Bone Armor" however I would not be surprised if it exists and traded only at the highest levels for obscene amounts of coin. I am 99.9% certain there are no mithral armors with 0% ASF since everyone and their mother is looking for one though. Also any armor with 0% ASF and a bonus to sneaking skills would be extremely valuable as there are a great many HiPSter mages always trying to get a little more power out of their build.

Re: Armor for Arcane Tricksters

Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2016 11:55 am
by Hawke
I have been having to use mithral Chainshirt... unfortunately it is -10% asf,, but it is great because it eliminates the negative to skills, like hide and move silently.

I have seen the padded in soubar and it does have 0% ASF , but there just isn't enough appearance options for my liking with padded. I wish we could have something like leather or studded leather (for appearance) with 0 ASF.. I mean,,, what is an extra 2 or 3 ac for a wizard, right? :D

I haven't seen bone armor, but it sounds like what I would like to use for my nonstill casters.

But like I said, my "sneak mage" uses the chainshirt...and I have to just eat that cost of miscasting.

Re: Armor for Arcane Tricksters

Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2016 4:20 pm
by AlwaysSummer Day
You can get custom armor appearances in game. Deathgrowl helped me get my set of padded armor to look more like leather scales. I was trying to make it look like a Smith's apron of sorts.

I am 99.9% certain there will never be heavy shields with 0% asf or any mithral armors. It's not as if Gish need more armor and sparing them stillspell feats certainly won't do.