Masterwork Armor, price and enhancement

[catsclaw227]

In the PHB, page 212, it states:

Certain kinds of armor are made according to arcane and esoteric methods that involve weaving magic into the substance of the armor. These masterwork armors never appear except as magic armor (see page 227), and even then only at the highest levels (16th and above). The various kinds of masterwork armor fall into the same categories as mundane armor and have similar statistics, but they have a higher armor bonus than their mundane counterparts. The cost of masterwork armor is included in the cost of magic armor.

If Scale armor gives a +7 AC bonus and Wyrmscale gives a +10 bonus, why would there even be +4 Scale armor, when the +4 Wyrmscale armor costs the same and gives you an extra +3 to your AC?

Does the armor chart on PHB, page 214 assume that all magic armor of +4 and +5 will be masterwork, and +6 armor will be "super" masterwork? This creats quite a jump in the AC bonus when you get to 16th level or thereabouts, and then again at the mid-epic levels.

We are talking about a +4 AC bump for heavy armors for jumping one magic bonus tier. Seems like a lot. Does the 4e math already take this into consideration?

 

[abyssaldeath]

In the PHB, page 212, it states:
We are talking about a +4 AC bump for heavy armors for jumping one magic bonus tier. Seems like a lot. Does the 4e math already take this into consideration?

4e math assumes that you are going to be using masterwork armor when available. They just explained masterwork armor very very poorly.

 

[Kordeth]

Yes, all magic armor above those minimum enhancement bonus requirements are assumed to be masterwork, and yes, 4E math takes those bumps into account. The bumps are there to ensure that heavy armor wearers remain competitive with light-armor wearers, who get to add their Dex/Int bonus to AC. Consider, without masterwork armor, at 30th level:

Scale-wearing fighter AC: 10 + 15 (1/2 level) + 7 (scale AC) + 6 (enhancement) = 38 AC

Leather-wearing rogue w/maxed Dexterity AC: 10 + 15 (1/2 level) + 2 (leather AC) + 6 (enhancement) + 9 (28 Dex, assuming a base of 20 and a bump at every available level) = 42 AC.

With the masterwork armor bonuses, those ACs become 44 each, evening out the progression.

 

[Lord Sessadore]

What Kordeth said Also, if you don't like the idea of the rogue having equal AC to your defender, note that the rogue has to start with 20 Dex, which doesn't happen often, and the scale-wearer can add a shield or plate or other defensive feats - a heavy armor wearer has a higher potential AC than a light armor wearer.

 

[James McMurray]

Since nobody has provided a rule reference yet:

The cost of masterwork armor is included in the cost of magic armor.

The cost of masterwork armor is included
in the cost of magic armor of 16th level or higher.

So I guess it's technically possible to have non-masterwork armor of 16th level or higher, but it would be kinda foolish.

 

[catsclaw227]

So I guess it's technically possible to have non-masterwork armor of 16th level or higher, but it would be kinda foolish.

Yea, I read these parts, only I didn't see anything that explicitly stated that basically regular scale goes bye-bye after +4.

Maybe it can be justified that the higher masterwork level of quality is required for +4 (or +6) armor, not just available for the higher pluses.

 

[Kordeth]

What Kordeth said Also, if you don't like the idea of the rogue having equal AC to your defender, note that the rogue has to start with 20 Dex, which doesn't happen often, and the scale-wearer can add a shield or plate or other defensive feats - a heavy armor wearer has a higher potential AC than a light armor wearer.

That too--I just did the bare-bones comparison because I'm at work and shouldn't be poring over the 4E PHB to figure out total potential ACs.

 

[evilbob]

I'm glad someone is asking about this because I am not sure I completely understand how this works... Is this right: You can have a +4 dwarven wyrmscale armor for 65,000 and it gives a +14 total bonus to AC (+10 and +4)? So all the masterwork armors are just -base- armor types that add nothing to the cost but have minimum enhancement bonuses. You can add whatever magic property you want. Correct?

 

[abyssaldeath]

That's correct.

 

[CapnZapp]

WotC's poor handling of this feature of the game continues:

In Adventurers Vault, they introduce masterwork types for +2 and +3 enchantment bonuses.

But these aren't errataed into the PHB.

This effectively means you can get your 10th level character a nice AC bonus just by purchasing your DM this supplement. (There is no cost to the masterwork component of the AC, remember).

This is the most blatant example of powercreep I've seen in a very long time.