No-spellfail Leathers.

[9lives]

This is a serious issue.

[VanillaPudding]

Ninelives is a serious DM

[Minmaxed Librarian]

Mechanically, Mage Armor is indeed *better* than spellfail-less leathers and even Mithral Chains because it doesn't weigh anything, and doesn't have any max DEX penalty. This is, as some players figured, about the coolness value, not the mechanics. If I'm playing a combat mage or bard, I can use Mage Armor to give me AC, without burning a feat. If however I want to play something unusual, I can take Light Armor. That'll make me generally worse off with one less feat to spend on defence or firepower, but be cool. I almost went with it on a recent wizard, but then realised if I wanted to avoid spellfailure, I'd need to spend two feats to get Medium Armor, as well as hoping to acquire a rare item.

DM attention is never guaranteed, nor is loot that is what your PC desires. I once actually got a sweet set of DM loot leathers on a bard, that I eventually gave away because the spellfail annoyed me. One thing I like on EFU is the way in which there are powerful variants of sub-par weapons in order to eventually reward players who use them because it makes sense for the PC, without requiring DM intervention. There is however, not much of the sort for players who take less effective armors. This would be easily implemented, and like Alyssara said could give quests that "loot worth doing this for" that would breathe life back into stuff like Longest Night or Gem Mines that rarely gets done. In fact, considering the arcane theme of Gem Mines, it'd fit perfectly there alongside the arcanist-only shield as endchest loot.

[Talir]

I don't think this sort of thing should be quest drops, personally. There are not many that choose to take armor proficiency as a wizard or sorcerer, so we are talking about a very tiny minority here. If you do take it and plan to do something sweet with it, it fits the character and it's a good concept, why not tell us about it?

Sure, it may seem like a long shot, but isn't that what you are doing when picking those feats too?

By all means, do the unpredictable when creating the character. Don't go for the basic #12234 Wizard but instead make the build as it fits the character. It'll be much more interesting to play it that way. If you want to take armor proficiency, do so, but don't predict getting anything immediately. Work for it, make it unresistable to watch what you are doing and most importantly, have fun while doing so. Its your character, show off the quirks even if it might not be the wisest mechanical move.

[Elytherin Dragonius]

I dont want this to seem loaded with bias (im playing a bard) but it does make sence to have a peice of loot like this floating around, if there is 0-SF mithril chain shirt doing the rounds then it does seem rather odd to have something no leathers with 0-SF,

im with Minmaxed here, not have it as common loot by a long shot and only findable out in the wilds in a suitable area, a quick list of the types of chars that i could see using it

Finness Sorcerers
Wild sorcerers
Bards
excentric mages that use touch spells as their favored spells
barbarian trying to become educated (crossclass with mage)
Rogue-Mage/Sorcerer combos

i know that the excentric mages and the educated barbarians are probably never seen and it would be more of a quirk of charactor but the others are some what more of a common idea that would make alot of sence for them to be wearing leather armor and still be mobile,

im not good with the actual neumerical values but heres a few descriptions that make sence for the type of armor

  Wornout Leathers
This Leather armor looks like once upon a time i would have been an exceptional peice but through out the years of its service the sleeves have worn thin and may as well be silk although the torso seems to still be a serviceable thickness

  Rough Custom Leathers
the previous owner of these leathers seems to have customised the armor by roughly cutting off the sleves of an other wise fine set of leathers, one would assume it was done either for climatic conditions or perhaps because of mobility issues

  Home Made Armor
This armor looks like it was made by sewing many layers of cloth padding and scrap leather patches over vital areas on a typical cloth shirt it appears to be very poor quality mostlikely made by some one before rushing off to defend their home

  Leather Curaiss
this simple leather breast plate was made with mobility in mind

  Spell Woven Hide Armor
this armor was made by tanning the hide of *insert magical creature* it is highly flexible but seems to thicken in areas of the armor that are just about to recieve impact


i focused on the listing of the more mundane items simply because their the kind i would think would travel around the place most frequently, because alot of those would give lesser protection then give them a lesser armor value but they are real world applications to a rather simple idea, personally if i was a traveling sorcerer roaming the world of Faerun, i wouldnt hesitate to cut the sleaves and make slits in the side of a thick leather shirt to aid in my flexibility while giving me a measure of security

[Letsplayforfun]

Hum. I just checked and 'still spell' is only one spell case above (i confused it with quick spell which is 4 slots above), so still spell works fine.

[Yalta]

Decent suggestion.
 
Its not going to mean some class is suddenly over-powering. And if it means more people play wider more interesting concepts and classes / class mixes then even better.

[9lives]

This sort of equipment, which is excellent, is better relegated to DM loot.

[Razored Aria]

I'd just like to throw out there that in PnP, mithral as a material, has specific statistics that make a mithral chain shirt specifically offer less spell failure.  

There is no equivalent for leather, and for likely good reason; in PnP you can wear armor you aren't proficient with, the only consequence is that the armor check penalty which only applies to Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Pick Pocket, and Tumble normally...  Now take the penalty on all skill checks involving movement (including ride) as well as on attack roles.

Mithral reduces the weight of the chain shirt, increases the maximum dexterity bonus by 2, reduces the arcane spell failure by 10%, and the armor check penalty by 2.

Thus making the stats for the mithral Chain shirt: AC +4, Max dex +6, Armor check Penalty 0, Arcane Spell Failure 10%

As you can see, the armor check penalty is 0, so there was no need to have another material to be made into armors that provide less AC, this was intended to be worn by non-proficient characters.

As for the additional -10% spell casting failure, that was a probably concept thrown back from the days of 2nd edition when a wizard/fighter could wear a set of elven chain without issue.  In 3rd edition it is only possible through an enchantment that is found (if it exists) somewhere besides the DMG.

[Elytherin Dragonius]

magically Mithril might be superior to leather for its ability to allow magic transfer or the like but the 10% SF takes into account the restriction of the casting, but in the case of that the mithril would be covering the arms and generally restricting the subtle movements needed to spellcast (shouldnt really apply to sorcerers as they mould their magic inside them and simply need to release it)when your talking about the leather option your removing the restriction from the weight/thickness of the material, when doing that its no more a restriction than cloth but still offers "some" protection but less then a full set of leathers

[Cricket]

There are not many that choose to take armor proficiency as a wizard or sorcerer, so we are talking about a very tiny minority here.

May be more then you think. Not all characters are single class. Toss in one level of something that can wear leather and you have the light armor feat and whatever else that class comes with.
 
(I have a wizard/bard ;) )

[Razored Aria]

magically Mithril might be superior to leather for its ability to allow magic transfer or the like but the 10% SF takes into account the restriction of the casting, but in the case of that the mithril would be covering the arms and generally restricting the subtle movements needed to spellcast (shouldnt really apply to sorcerers as they mould their magic inside them and simply need to release it)when your talking about the leather option your removing the restriction from the weight/thickness of the material, when doing that its no more a restriction than cloth but still offers "some" protection but less then a full set of leathers

The properties of mithral are not magical in nature per PnP, the metal is just able to be made into lighter, less restrictive armor of the same strength then steel armors.  Without some sort of magical enhancement, it still has -some- restriction in PnP.

The main advantage to mithral chain verses mage armor in PnP-duration aside-is the ability to enchant it beyond a +4 AC bonus.

[derfo]

this is an outrage no spellfail leathers? fucking wizards might cast with two more ac on occasion when stupid enough to not put on mage armor. on the other hand no spellfail chain shirt is fine!