Conceaeling Armor of Ithan and other questions

[Veknironth]

Well, I was wondering how bulky AoI is. Can it be concealed beneath a lighter suit of armor, loose clothing, or something similar? If it were to form under clothes or a cloak, does it fill the item out? I know it’s invisible but someone could realize it exists on an opponent by their attacks stopping a strange distance from the target.

Also, how frictious is it? Does it help or hurt with climbing, or walking over slippery/difficult terrain? Would it keep your feet dry if you walked through a puddle? Is there any tactile feedback? Does the damage from a punch do the same as with a gauntlet?

Does fire, cold, and lightning do half damage to the armor, or does it absorb half of the damage and the rest goes to the person?

-Vek
“Have I asked this before?”

[Franko Tyrador]

IMO, the armor stops 1/2 damage and the rest is passed on to the person. so if 20 points of damage was rolled from, 10 would be passed on to the person.

If cast first, then a cloak could be put over it. To me, the AoI is millimeters above whatever surface (shirt, real armor, etc), so, once cast, you could put something over it.

In my game, it would not help nor hinder in any way for climbing, etc. Since it's magic, you would have the normal tactile feedback as if you didnt have AoI cast on you.

[Crimson Dynamo]

I'm fairly certain that the half-damage against magical cold, fire, and lightning is simply halved; nothing gets passed on to the wearer, since that's just not how any armor works in the game that I'm aware of. The armor itself just doesn't take as much damage from those types of attacks. It's a benefit, not a hindrance.

[kiralon]

To me armour of Ithan goes over the top of what is there already, and as its ar is high, generally if you armour penetration roll beats its ar, its usually high enough to beat everything else you are wearing.
It takes 1/2 of cold, fire and lightning. The rest is passed onto the target.
one of the best spells ever

[Soldier of Od]

Agree and slightly disagree with some of the posts already made:

I believe it is conjured over the top of any clothes or other armour the person is already wearing. You could fling a cape on over the top after you have cast it, and the cape would look just as it would if you wore it over the top of a "real", visible suit of armour.

I would rule that it has no effect on climbing, walking etc. due to friction or lack thereof, because it doesn't list any bonuses or penalties for such things in the description, and mainly because there are no rules for that with ordinary armour. I don't think we should add a "friction" rule to apply only to this magic armour. I think it is as air and watertight as a normal suit of armour; no more, no less. And unless I have missed it, I don't believe the rules state that you do any more damage from a punch with a gauntlet as with a normal hand.

I think it works just like any normal armour - it has an A.R. of 18, so hits of 18 or below do damage to the armour and hits above 18 do damage to the person inside. Magic fire, etc., do half damage to the armour, so if a firebolt doing 20 points of damage hit the armour, it would take 10 points of damage. If the firebolt hit the person inside, they would take 20 points of damage.

For many years we played that the person inside the armour would also take half damage from fire, etc. if they were hit, but on a later examination of the text we decided we had been mistaken.

[ShadowLogan]

Well, I was wondering how bulky AoI is. Can it be concealed beneath a lighter suit of armor, loose clothing, or something similar? If it were to form under clothes or a cloak, does it fill the item out? I know it’s invisible but someone could realize it exists on an opponent by their attacks stopping a strange distance from the target.

I do not think an AoI suit is formed under existing wearable items, it automatically forms around the wearer (ignoring holdables like weapons, shields, etc). Now being invisible if it became covered (or someone has See Invisible ability) it would reveal the shape, but there is nothing to indicate what the shape actually is AFAIK which results in three scenarios:
1. AoI is form fitting, and thus from a shape perspective wouldn't appear unusual
2. AoI is based on a real suit and mimics its appearance, which would reveal odd shapes
3. AoI shaping is in some way dictated by the caster (and/or recipient of the spell) and would be different for everyone.

Also, how frictious is it? Does it help or hurt with climbing, or walking over slippery/difficult terrain? Would it keep your feet dry if you walked through a puddle? Is there any tactile feedback? Does the damage from a punch do the same as with a gauntlet?

Alchemist enchanted armor offers Weightless option, which offers no encumbrance or movement penalties. As AoI is Weightless it would be reasonable to expect no encumbrance or movement penalties from the armor.

Keeping out environmental factors IMHO would be reasonable but given the AR can be beaten that means there would be areas that are "open" to passing environmental factors to the wearer and could also allow for tactile feedback.

Punch damage is not altered, AFAIK gauntlets do not add to punch damage normally.

Does fire, cold, and lightning do half damage to the armor, or does it absorb half of the damage and the rest goes to the person?

I take it as strictly damage to the armor, there is no distributed damage indicated (ie armor and wearer when armor is not depleted to zero). This is in part reinforced in the Rifts setting where AoI offers MDC level of protection, if it distributed the damage as you suggest is possible then alot of SDC creatures are going to be in for a world of hurt when an applicable MDC attack has to be distributed (though one could also argue that this is just how the spell behaves in an MDC level magic environment).

Though you do have me wondering if the 1/2 damage modifier applies to attacks that exceed the AR.

[Kraynic]

I always thought it applied to energy attacks that targeted the person protected by AoI, simply because it doesn't make any sense to me for the SDC of the conjured armor to be the only thing the resistances help protect. I applied it to energy attacks whether they end up applied to the armor (like flaming weapons) or go straight through to the wearer (like call lightning). It may seem more straightforward in 1E, since this is the only defence wizards get against call lightning, which is the same level of spell in 1E. There is no resist energy in 1E and they don't get access to the air elemental protection from lightning, which is superior due to reducing damage of that element to 1/3 of normal instead of 1/2.

The wording isn't changed much in 2E, so you could take it either way I suppose. Wizards have a defensive alternative and call lightning isn't as accessible in 2E, so it might not be as important of a defence to have in that edition.

[drewkitty ~..~]

AoI goes over everything, and it is invisible.

[kiralon]

I think it is better played as an aura, so attacks hit it first. I play that armour doesn't stop magic spells, so with armour of ithan if you get hit by a fireball the armour takes half and you take half. It covers half damage both sides then . As an aura it then doesn't cover your sharp pokey thing with a blunt covering as imagine an archers surprise when firing an arrow it hits the inside of AoI. It is a spell that contains a lot of handwavium to make it work as i think its supposed to.

[Veknironth]

Well, here's another question I thought about with AoI. If you cast it on someone, would they know? If not, would they just be surprised that something stopped the incoming attack? If so, would they be able to resist, assuming they didn't want the boon? What happens if one person casts the spell on a person and then another does the same, not knowing the first person cast the spell on someone?

-Vek
"I'm way down the rabbit hole now."

[kiralon]

As AoI can't really be a set of armour around you, you can cast it on someone unknowing (or think they are getting a different spell) and then are protected.

For me for it not to get a save someone has to allow a particular caster, rather than opening a hole in their defenses so if they don't know a spell is coming they get to save, which is unhelpful when someone casts a helpful spell at you without warning.

[Soldier of Od]

Well, here's another question I thought about with AoI. If you cast it on someone, would they know? If not, would they just be surprised that something stopped the incoming attack? If so, would they be able to resist, assuming they didn't want the boon? What happens if one person casts the spell on a person and then another does the same, not knowing the first person cast the spell on someone?

-Vek
"I'm way down the rabbit hole now."

I think they would definitely know. The armour might be weightless, but the wearer can still feel it on them - they still have a sense of touch. I'm sure I would notice if I was wearing a suit of armour, no matter how light it was.
The spell says saving throw none, so by the book no, they cannot resist.
This is just a judgement call on my part, but I would say that if someone tried to cast a second AoI spell on someone it just wouldn't work. Anything else is just unworkable, opening up a "what happens if I cast a thousand AoI spells on a person?" type issues. And I guess casting most spells twice or more on a person doesn't have any additional affect, so it should be the same with Armour of Ithan.

[drewkitty ~..~]

As AoI can't really be a set of armour around you, you can cast it on someone unknowing (or think they are getting a different spell) and then are protected.

For me for it not to get a save someone has to allow a particular caster, rather than opening a hole in their defenses so if they don't know a spell is coming they get to save, which is unhelpful when someone casts a helpful spell at you without warning.

The spell, in PF, actually says it is a invisible set of armor on the target of the spell.