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Alright, I'd like to have this clarified for me at last ...

Can wizards take magic armor from the magic items section?

I used to think the answer was a blanket NO, but have since gleaned that it's more like MAYBE. The guideline I've deduced is that if the character could take mundane armor than it can take magical armor. Is that correct? And I'm aware of the issues with vampires :S ... If this is the case, how does that extend to magical shields? Are they grouped generically under magic armor or would the wizard need to be able to take a mundane shield in order to take a magic shield?

- Salvage

A character that can't take normal armour can't take magic armour. But I don't think that if you can't take a shield you can't take a magic one.

Boss_Salvage wrote:Alright, I'd like to have this clarified for me at last ...

Can wizards take magic armor from the magic items section?

I used to think the answer was a blanket NO, but have since gleaned that it's more like MAYBE. The guideline I've deduced is that if the character could take mundane armor than it can take magical armor. Is that correct? And I'm aware of the issues with vampires :S ... If this is the case, how does that extend to magical shields? Are they grouped generically under magic armor or would the wizard need to be able to take a mundane shield in order to take a magic shield?

- Salvage

It seems that there are 2 issues worrying you;

"The guideline I've deduced is that if the character could take mundane armor than it can take magical armor. Is that correct?" This is generally correct, see page 121 (BfSP book), "Magic Armour" under "Types of Magic Item". All magic shields I can think of appear under the "Magic Armour" sections of the respective army books, except the Enchanted Shield, which appears under the common magic items category, but is explicitly placed in the "magic armour" category by the main rulebook (p.122 BfSP book).

Note though that there are no longer any restrictions with regards to items specific to wizards, per se (except arcane items, of course). The rule that wizards couldn't wear armor and cast spells (which necessitated Blood Dragon Counts and Lords having an explicit exception to this rule in the last VC army book) does not exist in 7th. So you need only follow the general rule (army specific exceptions as appropriate); if you cant take any mundane armor, you can't take magic armor.

Regarding needing to be able to take a mundane shield to take a magic shield, I actually can't think of a situation where this could come up, except vampires (who have a specific army book rule to address magic armor). Are there any characters that can take mundane armor but not a shield? Ogres, but they also have no option for a magic shield...

Mortal chaos wizards. They automatically come with chaos armor, and don't have the option of a mundane shield. The question is whether they can take a magic shield (or magic armor, for that matter). It looks to me like they probably can.

So it looks like I have the right idea. This mostly comes up with looking at the (limited but interesting) magic armor options in the new chaos mortals list. Damn Armor on exalted sorcerers and the like.

- Salvage

Interesting... Since a Chaos sorcerer definitely has mundane armor, I really can't see a legitimate argument for them not being able to take a shield. Which means of course that a Chaos sorcerer with the enchanted shield on a barded chaos steed has a 0+ armor save (and of course, the all important 6+ ward save from the Mark of Tzeentch...)!

Edit: I should have looked longer at the rules:

"A character that is not allowed to carry ordinary shields cannot be given magic shields" page 121 BfSP. The Chaos list doesn't have an explicit exception to this rule, so no shields on sorcerers.

there is armour in the empire book that lets you cast

Really?

Thats nice.

This was solved about 2 months ago.

Threadomancy?

if a wizard can wear the armour it'll say in the armours description