D&D 5E Mage Armor
- Thread starter Melkor
- Start date
DogBackward
First Post
Nope. Basically, this is a way of saying "Mages don't wear armor... but we also don't want them to die horribly at every turn. Here, have a magical armor thingy." I think it works out alright. As long as you're using the sorts of mages that can cast anything at-will, there's nothing wrong (thematically) with them having magical force armor all the time.
I want to know... does it stack with mindful defence? (so will a high elf monk be able to have a 12+dex+wis AC?)
My gut says yes.
My gut says yes.
DogBackward
First Post
Yes, it stacks, since you're not wearing armor. But unless you roll for abilities, you can still only get a 17 AC to start: +2 Mage Armor, +3 Dexterity (15, +1 from Monk), +2 Wisdom (14). It's better than just plain Dex+Wis, but not really broken when you realize that the Monk doesn't have Parry or any of the Rogue's possible "No you didn't hit me" abilities.
Falling Icicle
Adventurer
Mage Armor is a cantrip tax for wizards. I'd much rather they make it 1st level and last all day instead.
UngeheuerLich
Legend
wrong... it is carefully worded that it does not overlap... on the other hand: it should...
Olgar Shiverstone
Legend
Agreed. As a 1st level all-day spell it's a choice; as an at-will 1-hour cantrip it's an always-on feature. At that point just give wizards +2 AC and be done with it.
DogBackward
First Post
Hmm, actually, now I think you might be right. Because it's not stated as "+X AC", it's stated as "AC is now X+Y". So, technically, you can either have 12+Dexterity or 10+Dexterity+Wisdom. That's certainly interesting.
Indeed. One makes your AC 10+DEX+WIS, the other makes it 12+DEX. No possible way to reasonably interpret that as stacking.
As for whether it should, I think it would depend on what it takes to get Mage Armor. Just a one level splash in Wizard would be too easy. +2 AC is a pretty big deal in this edition.
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