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First off, I acknowledge that this might just be me being an idiot, but I'm new to the game side of the hobby and I need to ask; how many magic items can a character take?

Obviously there's a certain points allowance, but can a character take more than one magic item from the same category (i.e. Armour and a Helmet from magic armour)?

To give it some context, would my Skaven Warlord be able to take Warpstone Armour, an Enchanted shield and the Helm of Discord? They are in practice three separate pieces of equipment, but I wasn't sure if there were rules against taking certain amounts of items from one section. I've probably been an idiot and overlooked something in the rules, but if someone could spell it out for me that would be wonderful

Also, while I'm here;

How do armour saves and modifiers stack?

Thanks all!

A character can only take one item of each type (weapon, armour etc.) - page 172 Balance of Power, but can take a combination up to their points limit.

On the armour saves thing:
Say you have heavy armour (5+), and an Enchanted Shield (+2), so your armour save is 3+.
You take a hit from a strength 5 attack, meaning a -2 modifier, so you get a save of 5+ against it.

Is that helpful?

Unless a character has an exception saying otherwise, they can take up to one item from each category, points allowing. In other words you can't take two selection from any one category, so no magic armor, magic shield, and magic helm.

As to armor saves, they are additive. Heavy armor gives a 5+ armor save. A shield gives +1 save. Being mounted gives +1 armor save. If all three were true, you would have a (5+) +1 +1, which is a 3+ to a maximum of a 1+ save.

In effect, the heavy/light/full plate etc sets the base armor save and any further bonuses subtract from that number. So the above would be 5-1-1=3. If the shield was an Enchanted Shield, it would be 5-2-1=2 for a 2+ armor save.

Basically you can have multiple pieces of armor, but only one can be magical. All the saves will stack.

So a Chaos Lord who has Chaos Armor(4+), a Shield(+1), the Trickster's Helm(+1), and is on a Barded Chaos Steed(+2) has a 1+ armor save(technically it would actually be 0+, but the current rules cap armor at 1+)

Only one of the pieces is magical, but all together will stack.

Well, not all armor saves stack.

If you get any kind of Light Armor (6+) it will be overridden by any kind of Heavy Armor (5+) which will be overridden by any kind of chaos/full plate/gromril (4+). To those you can add a shield for another +1.

BUT scaly skin, of your highest value, does stack with armor.

So if you use lore of metal to give you scaly skin 5+ and the unit has LA, they would have a 4+ save. Like some Lizardmen characters can combine their natural Scaly Skin and armor they purchase.

Right, should have clarified. Armor saves from different types of sources.

The potential sources being Armor(light, heavy, gromril, chaos, etc...), helms, shields, being mounted, codpiece of manliness, etc...

Another often overlooked issue is that a character MUST have a wizard level to take Arcane Items.
So no cheap heroes running around with dispel scrolls.

Ah, that clears up a lot, thanks everyone

So a 1+ armour save is possible? Cool.

Yup. It still fails on a roll of 1, but you still have 2+ to save even if the attack causes -1 to saves.

And in previous editions it was possible to have even better saves. Chaos and Dwarves could easily get to 0+ or even -1. Its just the current rules cap armor saves at 1+.

-3 was best I am aware of, from Lizards with 4+ scaly skin, HA, Enchanted shield, cold one, and something else that i'm missing but will remember at some point I'm sure. In theory would have had a svae againt S10 cannon fire....if cannon didnt just deny armour saves

nosferatu1001 wrote:
-3 was best I am aware of, from Lizards with 4+ scaly skin, HA, Enchanted shield, cold one, and something else that i'm missing but will remember at some point I'm sure. In theory would have had a svae againt S10 cannon fire....if cannon didnt just deny armour saves

Lizards couldn't, and still can't geat heavy armour, unless they went magical.

Hmm, i certainly remember getting to that value at some point... no matter, irrelevant now

nosferatu1001 wrote:
Hmm, i certainly remember getting to that value at some point... no matter, irrelevant now

Light armor, enchanted shield, scaly skin, mounted on cold one and spawning of quetzl used to give an old blood a negative 2 or better save. The dude would save against S7 on a 2+.
I'm not sorry to see those rules go.

Ah yes, quetzl

I miss him...along with M9 Jagbloods

Before it was FAQed, the 7th Edition Bloodthirster could get to -3+ I think. Because Daemonic Gifts were not Magic Items, you could combine Obsidian Armour and the Armour of Khorne with his natural Heavy Armour. Of course it took up almost all of his Gift allowance, but it was quite fun to see...