In addition to an enhancement bonus, armor may have special abilities. Special abilities usually count as additional bonuses for determining the market value of an item, but do not improve AC. A suit of armor cannot have an effective bonus (enhancement plus special ability bonus equivalents) higher than +10. A suit of armor with a special ability must have at least a +1 enhancement bonus.
A suit of armor or a shield may be made of an unusual material. Roll d%: 01-95 indicates that the item is of a standard sort, and 96-100 indicates that it is made of a special material.
Table: Armor and Shields
Minor Medium Major Item Base Price
Armor and shields can’t actually have bonuses this high. Use these lines to determine price when special abilities are added in.
Roll on Table: Specific Armors.
Roll on Table: Specific Shields.
Roll on Table: Armor Special Abilities or Table: Shield Special Abilities.
01-60 01-05 — +1 shield/weapon 1,000 gp/3k
61-80 06-10 — +1 armor/weapon 1,000 gp/3k
81-85 11-20 — +2 shield/weapon 4,000 gp/6k
86-87 21-30 — +2 armor/weapon 4,000 gp/6k
— 31-40 01-08 +3 shield/weapon 9,000 gp/12k
— 41-50 09-16 +3 armor/weapon 9,000 gp/12k
— 51-55 17-27 +4 shield/weapon 16,000 gp/20k
— 56-57 28-38 +4 armor/weapon 16,000 gp/20k
— — 39-49 +5 shield/weapon 25,000 gp/30k
— — 50-57 +5 armor/weapon 25,000 gp/30k
— — — +6 armor/shield/weapon1 36,000 gp/40k
— — — +7 armor/shield/weapon1 49,000 gp/54k
— — — +8 armor/shield/weapon1 64,000 gp/75k
— — — +9 armor/shield/weapon1 81,000 gp/100k
— — — +10 armor/shield/weapon1 100,000 gp/120k
88-89 58-60 58-60 Specific armor/weapon2 —
90-91 61-63 61-63 Specific shield/weapon3 —
92-100 64-100 64-100 Special ability and roll again4 —
Armor and shields can’t actually have bonuses this high. Use these lines to determine price when special abilities are added in.
1.Roll on Table: Specific Armors.
2.Roll on Table: Specific Shields.
3.Roll on Table: Armor Special Abilities or Table: Shield Special Abilities.
4.Roll on magical enhancements table
(Credit: d20srd.org for providing Table: Magic Items 1-3)
(gp = gold pieces, but this can be exchanged and properly scaled to any trade unit ((tu)))
Armor is always created so that even if the type of armor comes with boots or gauntlets, these pieces can be switched for other magic boots or gauntlets.
In short, AC = "armor class," or a numerical statistic to your defense and chances of either evading or blocking a hit. This is summed up by your training, enhancements, and gear. Armor, obviously, is harder to cut-through then a silk shirt. Magic armor doubly so. An "enhancement bonus" is the level of enhancement on an object, from zero to ten. Obviously, a "zero" indicates a mundane object, while "ten" indicates maximum power. A "+10 long sword" is "+10" more likely to hit then a normal one (say if you were to roll a "d20" following Dungeons and Dragons rules, or any other d20-based game. You would add 10 to your roll, atop of any other bonuses, such as being strong or fast). A "+10 suit of full plate armor" is "+10" more protective then a normal one (an attacker would subtract 10 points on their attack, or, in other words, the "target number" to achieve for a hit is ten points higher).
If you are as much of a nerd as I am, then I am sure you will have 3 sided, four sided, six, nine, ten, twelve, twenty, and hundred-sided dice just as I do. Roll either two tens (one ten = ones, the other ten = tens place) or two hundreds {same}. Simply use these points presented and either pull out your amazing copy of DnD (or other game with similar rules and work) or look up D20srd or the Dungeons and Dragons Wiki/Wikipedia page. These are all valuable sources of information.
Shields
Shield enhancement bonuses stack with armor enhancement bonuses. Shield enhancement bonuses do not act as attack or damage bonuses when the shield is used in a bash. The bashing special ability, however, does grant a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls.
A shield could be built that also acted as a magic weapon, but the cost of the enhancement bonus on attack rolls would need to be added into the cost of the shield and its enhancement bonus to AC.
As with armor, special abilities built into the shield add to the market value in the form of additions to the bonus of the shield, although they do not improve AC. A shield cannot have an effective bonus (enhancement plus special ability bonus equivalents) higher than +10. A shield with a special ability must have at least a +1 enhancement bonus.
Shield Hardness and Hit Points
Each +1 of enhancement bonus adds 2 to a shield’s hardness and +10 to its hit points. (Hardness is a numerical value, typically around 1-5, depending on the craftwork of an item, that subtracts from the damage it takes. Hit points, or HP, is how much damage a weapon or item can take ((if directly attacked)) before it it rendered useless. This is anywhere from 5hp for most weapons to 9999999billion for relics that have to be destroyed in a "special way," not just hammering it to dust)
Activation
Usually a character benefits from magic armor and shields in exactly the way a character benefits from nonmagical armor and shields—by wearing them. If armor or a shield has a special ability that the user needs to activate then the user usually needs to utter the command word (a standard action).
Armor for Unusual Creatures
The cost of armor for nonhumanoid creatures, as well as for creatures who are neither Small nor Medium, varies. The cost of the masterwork quality and any magical enhancement remains the same.
Anyway: The main purpose of this article is to help people that think they might have overpowered characters. To sum this up: keep a weapon under "+11 or higher," meaning if you are going to have a weapon, you can have a "+500 permiban hammer of flaming wrath, epic smiting, obliteration and doomliness" unless you are the (GM) or otherwise. There are magical abilities (to be added to this article upon request) that can be added to make a weapon more powerful, but make sure you don't have an epic, mary-su, over-powered sword of epic pwn or armor if invincibility. You can look up abilities online or just "guess and check" what abilities are worth what. A "fire sword" would be +1, where as a "fire sword of burning wrath" (I.E., flaming blade, pwns undead, smites evil creatures) would be +3-5. A "Brilliant Energy" (ignores nonorganic items, such as armor or clothing) or "Vorpral" (critical hits = cuts off your victim's head) would always be a +5, meaning that you couldn't have any other abilities on the weapon if you also want it to be good at hitting/damage. If you don't care, then try the "Brilliant Energy sword of Prismatic Spray + 2" 5 + 3 + 2 = 10. Each hit either does cold, fire, electricity, or et cetera damage at random, ignores armor, and is +2. Rather nice, 'eh?
So what do I do if I have twenty weapons that are "+10" ???
This answer is simple: Don't have 20 weapons that are +10. Have your character's most important item to be a reasonable level. If you have a character that is some teen, middle to lower-middle class, never completed an "Epic raid" on a Dragon's lair, and never fights, the best thing you might have is a +1 Icat that never runs out of power. (Ipod, Ipit, Idog, Ibird...whatever) On the other hand: If you have an epic gunfighter that goes around kicking ass all day, then you might have dual, +5 pistols on your hands. An expert sniper that fought in countless wars might have a really, really nice sniper rifle etched with runes of accuracy.
Keep your gear appropriate to your character and have the abilities adjusted rightfully.
I really, really hope this helps at least one person out there. You don't even have to tell me if it helped you or not... but I would like to know if anyone at least got a good idea after reading some of this. Leave a comment bellow if you want me to include a list of abilities and their adjustments (+1 through +5). I will leave a list for both weapons and armors/shields if you so want. Of course I know most people will simply have a "+5 shirt of deflection" and "+5 gun of fire" or something to that effect.
YES you can have a +1 flaming flamethrower if you really, really want.
