Wizards and Armour
by Marco DalmonteDe Ars Magica Quod Pertinent Ad
Vestitum Adhibentis
(Of Magic In Relation To The Arcane's Clothing)
excerpt from " Tractatus Ars Magicae " by Gart Nagan
Owing to my personal experiences and tests on the field, as well as other illustrious colleagues' recent discoveries (first and foremost to be quoted the results achieved by Master Terari of the Alphatian Imperial Academy Of Magic), I have come to the conclusion that the clothing donned by the spellcaster has considerable impact on the summoned magical effects of those magic schools I previously labelled as "Human" (see Chapter 1, "De Ars Magicae Specii"). The following considerations do not apply to the Elven Magic, and those rare cases that seem to fall into these rules have not been sufficiently monitored to be considered probative and thus have been excluded from this treatise.
The results of my experiments, undertook to examine the various beliefs regarding the inability of magic-users to don any kind of protective clothing without stripping them of their magical prowess, have shown that magic-users can in fact wear all sorts of armours, but this is always detrimental to their arcane abilities. The examined cases show that these kind of mundane bodily protections hinder the effective spellcasters' ability to summon, control, and siphon the magical energies they are so much dependant on.
Theoretically, one could presume (and all current arcane philosophies support this theory) that any kind of protective clothing can interfere with the spellcaster's power over the arcane energies in multiple ways. First and foremost, protective clothing always hinders the spellcaster's gestures (one of the two Fundamental Components to master the Craft). Then, protective clothing (especially armours) seems to act like a double-faced shield, shielding the wearer from outside harms, but also hampering the summoning of magical powers from the world surrounding the spellcaster. Thus, protective clothing acts as a disrupting philtre, which "jams" the spellcaster's will and power over surrounding matter and energy.
The conclusions which can be logically reached from these evidences (and Master Terari's own discoveries actually confirm my theorisation) are that the two main aspects of the protective clothing that must be taken into consideration are the actual protection offered to the spellcaster's body, and the material which it consists of. Of particular importance is this last element (even though Master Terari seems to omit mentioning its importance in his "Treatise On Mages' Protective Devices"). According to my evidences, materials derived from animal or vegetal beings do not create a particularly disruptive effect on the spellcaster's powers, while pure minerals, alloys and materials associated with magical creatures have the most disturbing effects on mages' spellcasting ability. Only cloth, wool, cotton and similar fibres do not hinder in any way the magical prowess of magic-users, and for this reason they are mostly used by spellcasters as favoured clothing materials.
DMs Notes & Gaming Rules
| AC provided by Clothing/armour* | % Spell succeeds | Dex Penalty | Material used | add penalty to % Spell succeeds |
| 7 | 70% | -1 | Steel | -20% |
| 6 | 60% | -2 | Bronze | -20% |
| 5 | 40% | -3 | Wood | -10% |
| 4 | 25% | -4 | Iron | -10% |
| Leather | -7% | |||
| Furs | -5% | |||
| Gold | -25% | |||
| *AC bonus given by Dex or | Silver | -20% | ||
| item magical bonuses must | Lead | -50% | ||
| not be included; this means | Electrum | -15% | ||
| plain AC given by that armour | Copper | -15% | ||
| Obsidian/Glass | -30% | |||
| Crystal/Gems | -25% | |||
| Glassteel | -20% | |||
| Dragon scales | -35% | |||