Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Lack of Medium/Heavy Armor for Casters

I understand that many casters do not even have access to medium or heavy armor, but there are many class specific pieces of gear (countless for monk); and I don't see why there couldn't be at least one of these. Right now there are 3 fairly druid specific (one is really druid only) armors, but they're light. I guess that's okay, but there's nothing like that for cleric, paladin, or eldritch knight fighter. Bards can also have medium armor with 2/3 subclasses, and there are feats and multiclassing to unlock medium or heavy armor. I'm not saying that medium or heavy armor are always desirable or superior to light armor, but it's a bit silly when robe of the weave has on par or better AC than many medium armors (combined with mage armor) not even mentioning light armor which it completely blows away. Though I think that's more of a testament to mage armor being strong than the items the devs included being bad.
I enjoyed that the devs weren't afraid to add some really specific equipments or even sets (like the poisoner one), but this seems like a giant hole in the equipment list. Eldritch knight fighter or paladin don't really need spell attack or spell DC, but cleric and bard would certainly appreciate either. You can use the "druid" armor on them, but it's a big step down if your cleric has heavy armor proficiency.

Stop wearing armor!

Be Naked!

So sayeth the wise alaundo.


Serious answer:

*I think* - because the norm is Spellcaster doesn't meant to soak in damage. You meant to outwit it. Just like Rogue, you're not meant to Tank.

Of course depending on what's given to you (item) in the game, you can do out of the ordinary thing, and you can do it in this game, but with caveat.

Since basic caster doesn't have Medium armor proficiency maybe you need to multiclass to fighter or warlock or cleric for their armor proficiency.

ps.

It's not silly for robes to have high AC, especially when it's infused in Magic!

I did some thinking and realised there is barely light armor for casters! It's 2/3 of the druid ones, and that's it. Not perfectly on topic, but there's really a lack of casting armor.

Elven Chain. This has always been a chain mail in D&D that won’t disrupt spell casting that wizards can wear. It also exists in BG3 as a Medium Armor that you can wear even if you don’t have Medium Armor proficiency. I’m glad that they kept a few of these items from D&D lore and from BG1/BG2 in the game.

Nudity is often preferable.

As is dispensing with armour in the video game, sometimes... It's a quirk of 5e design, carried over here, that Mage Armour, if you can spare it, is as good as +1 studded leather; what this means is that if you have light armour wearers, unless you have access to +2 studded, or an armour with a particular benefit that outweighs the AC, Mage Armour alone will provide you better protection. This goes further: it's also flat out better than hide in all cases, equal to chain, and if you have a +2 dex mod, it's better than some heavy armour as well. If you have +3, the only armours better than mage armour at base without enchantment are Half-Plate (medium), Splint (heavy) and full Plate (heavy). Mage Armour is, of course, lighter than all of them ^.^

Elven Chain provides no benefits for casters, and Mage Armor is better with basically any robe that's not the plain one.

Oh yes, remember: Dragonblooded Sorc has "Magic armor" proficiency. Meaning: you don't have to cast mage armor every single time post-rest + it scales (ha!) with your Dex still.

I've found two medium armours that I quite like on my casters:

- Luminous armour is great on clerics. It works especially well if you use spirit guardians against groups of enemies. Every time you deal radiant damage the target and nearby enemies get a stacking -2 to attack rolls. Walking into a group of enemies while spirit guardians is active can easiely cause them to get a -12 or even higher debuff on their attack rolls. So they miss every attack that is not a critical hit.

- Dark Justiciar Half Plate (both versions) grants advantage on con saves. Which is a slightly improved version of the warcaster feat, in my opinion the most powerful feat for casters.

I don't know - I personally kind of like that there isn't any "good" caster mediums or heavy armors aside from two of the three druid-centric armors.

It helps keep a trade-off existing in building a "tankier" caster -- you trade bonuses to your attack rolls and save DC's for your spells for getting to wear heavier armors and benefit from their unique passives and being able to "dump" Dexterity.

I think the caster-based armors should primarily stay in Clothing category and force casters that want those to have to rely on Dexterity + Mage Armor to keep their AC's high.

Just found the perfect armour for a caster in act III: