One of my players is playing an eldritch knight who does not wear armour but instead uses mage armour to protect himself, and he asked if I could design him an Heavy Mage Armour spell for him, what I came up with was a 3rd lvl spell that boosts already casted mage armour into a heavy plated version. However I was wanting feed back from other dm's because while im happy with how this turned out, I dont want to miss something that will be abused with it.
Heavy Mage Armour lvl 3 1 action cast
concentration for 4 hours. Plate Armour Plate for materials
You expand casted Mage Armor into a glowing heavy version providing increased temporary protection. The target's base AC becomes 16 + its Dexterity modifier, disadvantage on all stealth checks. The spell ends if the target fails a concentration check, dons armor, or if you dismiss the spell as an action.
The only thing I would remove is the need to cast Mage Armor first. You are expended a lvl 3 spell slot (where a good amount of offensive spells are found), then requiring a lvl 1 to be cast first. You may as well be burning a lvl 4 spell slot with a round of casting time before actually getting into combat. Otherwise, I like the idea of a heavier buff for caster's physical defenses.
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Characters:
Grishkar Darkmoor, Necromancer of Nerull the Despiser Kelvin Rabbitfoot, Diviner, con artist, always hunting for a good sale Bründir Halfshield, Valor Bard, three-time Sheercleft Drinking Competition Champion, Hometown hero
How about making Mage Armor scale with spell level instead?
Like a +1 to AC for each spell slot above 1 used to cast it, up to lvl 5. Might just be me, but it feels like a more versatile and balanced solution. It would indeed make the lvl3 version 15+Dex, instead of your proposed 16+Dex, but I think itsi still good that one could dynamically decide how to implement it based on the spell slots available.
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Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
I agree with especially when you consider that an eldritch knight doesn't get access to 3rd level spells until level 13. Plus with LeK's version it eliminates the disadvantage to stealth rolls, which seems a bit arbitrary, why would armor made of magical force suddenly "clink". Also by forcing a character to maintain concentration you eliminate a whole host of other possible resources and you are doing it for 4 hours. Not to mention that every time that he takes damage he will have to make a constitution check to maintain the armor which just from a mechanical standpoint will bog down the game unnecessarily.
One of my players is playing an eldritch knight who does not wear armour but instead uses mage armour to protect himself, and he asked if I could design him an Heavy Mage Armour spell for him, what I came up with was a 3rd lvl spell that boosts already casted mage armour into a heavy plated version. However I was wanting feed back from other dm's because while im happy with how this turned out, I dont want to miss something that will be abused with it.
Heavy Mage Armour lvl 3 1 action cast
concentration for 4 hours. Plate Armour Plate for materials
You expand casted Mage Armor into a glowing heavy version providing increased temporary protection. The target's base AC becomes 16 + its Dexterity modifier, disadvantage on all stealth checks. The spell ends if the target fails a concentration check, dons armor, or if you dismiss the spell as an action.
Check out my homebrew projects
Dragonshield <Kobold Only FIghter Subclass Heart of the Dragon <Kobold Racial Feat
The only thing I would remove is the need to cast Mage Armor first. You are expended a lvl 3 spell slot (where a good amount of offensive spells are found), then requiring a lvl 1 to be cast first. You may as well be burning a lvl 4 spell slot with a round of casting time before actually getting into combat. Otherwise, I like the idea of a heavier buff for caster's physical defenses.
Characters:
Grishkar Darkmoor, Necromancer of Nerull the Despiser
Kelvin Rabbitfoot, Diviner, con artist, always hunting for a good sale
Bründir Halfshield, Valor Bard, three-time Sheercleft Drinking Competition Champion, Hometown hero
thanks for your opinion I'll make that change when i get the time
Check out my homebrew projects
Dragonshield <Kobold Only FIghter Subclass Heart of the Dragon <Kobold Racial Feat
How about making Mage Armor scale with spell level instead?
Like a +1 to AC for each spell slot above 1 used to cast it, up to lvl 5. Might just be me, but it feels like a more versatile and balanced solution. It would indeed make the lvl3 version 15+Dex, instead of your proposed 16+Dex, but I think itsi still good that one could dynamically decide how to implement it based on the spell slots available.
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
I agree with especially when you consider that an eldritch knight doesn't get access to 3rd level spells until level 13. Plus with LeK's version it eliminates the disadvantage to stealth rolls, which seems a bit arbitrary, why would armor made of magical force suddenly "clink". Also by forcing a character to maintain concentration you eliminate a whole host of other possible resources and you are doing it for 4 hours. Not to mention that every time that he takes damage he will have to make a constitution check to maintain the armor which just from a mechanical standpoint will bog down the game unnecessarily.
Just my thoughts and opinions.
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