Missile/Piercing/Slashing Modifiers - what do they mean and how to evaluate armor?

[ranger101]

I have accumulated a bunch of armor such as Gorgon Plate, Armor of the Hart, +1 Magic Full Plate, Doom Plate, etc.

I noticed that when I switch armor, I get different piercing/slashing/missile modifiers? What does this mean? If Doomplate +3 gives me the same AC as either +1 Magic Full Plate of Plane Full Plate - but dramatically lower slashing/missile/piercing modifiers.

I found full plate - whether magical or non-magical totalled -16 slashing/piercing/missile modifiers for a certain character while the Armor of the Hart/Gorgon Plate totalled -12 or so. Doom Plate was -6 maybe - perhaps even worse.

I found for Keldorn, I could get better AC by using regular Plate plus a ring or cloak with +2 AC.

Can anybody clarify how to decide upon the best armor?

Thanking you in advance.

[Hesperus]

These are modifiers versus certain weapon types. Say you have -3 vs. slashing. Then whatever your base AC is (the one displayed on the record), add the modifier to your AC (a negative modifier will make your AC lower (better), and a positive will be higher (worse, which is often the case with leather armor or chain vs. bludgeoning weapons) to get what your AC would be versus that weapon type. Its just a matter of different tools being better at different jobs.

As far as the "best" armor goes, say, the lowest numbers, the best armor would just have the lowest base AC and the lowest modifiers. But all things considered, the lowest AC isn't always the best armor, as UserUnfriendly pointed out with the elemental protection ya get from the Gorgon plate. You want your armor to have some sweet features and light weight, I mean, 70 pound full plate just won't be very comfortable...

[UserUnfriendly]

dont forget the golden girdle and other belts, which are ok in beginning, due to lack of str belts, but most people will switch over to str belt for the all important thaco bonuses...

hard and fast rule for me is magical and elemental protection is generally more important, since in major battles you can always use

gargoyle boots...casts stoneskin 3 times a day,
or potion swap scrolls of stoneskin,

or just plain cast mass inv....so yes, magical buffing is more important, since bless and chant will give your party +2 or so to ac, i think, as well as lower saves...most of my chars are capable of magical protection...

this is also why jahiera is such a killer npc....

ironskin, better than stoneskin (cannot be breached)
cleric spells work with plate...

overall, i find dragon plates the best of all...

[Hesperus]

Spoiler below? or just rambling?

Ah Jaheria... Even though she was (in my opinion) a bit untrusting for a fair bit of the romance (okay though, she had a nasty scar from Khalid being killed and disected), she proves to be quite a gem. The climatic ToB dialogues put a knot in my throat. Iron skin all the way! It makes up for her (relative to stereo-type tanks) lack of HPs.

Good-old fighter/mages present a sick array of protection possibilities, especially when mated with the Aslyferund chain...

Dragon scale is definitely high on the ranks, especially the white dragon scale with 3x/day cone of cold.

But I am also quite fond of the +3 practical plate from BGI, the golden mystery mail, since it is accomodating with protection items (like Cespy's improved cloak +2...), has remarkably light weight, and it Viccy looks fine in it, even though she is more of a dragon type... And the golden mystery mail is quite the fashion smash for those goody-2-shoes fighters in shining armor...

[Giant space ham]

Jaheria is great not least because of having harper call, I like dragon scale armour because of the light weight.

[serjeLeBlade]

Originally posted by UserUnfriendly
gargoyle boots...casts stoneskin 3 times a day,

Does such an item exist? Where do you find'em?

[Hesperus]

Spoiler?

ToB: Amkethran, I believe, from the smuggler's cave "merchant".