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Jul 11, 2012 -- 1:29AM, VinceP wrote:

However there are different types of Masterwork made out of different materials so the rare materials must be used to make the armour to have the enchantment added to it or is it the raw materials are needed when imbuing normal armour to make it into for example Earthhide all in the one process? 

Let me rephrase:

All armors of a certain Enhancement bonus are Masterwork. Even if they are normal armor, they are Masterwork. If you take a plain non-magic set of Hide armor and enchant it with a high enough enhance (3+ for ligh armor, 2+ for heavy) it magically becomes Masterwork.

There are no "rare" materials. Magic armor of the appropriate level is Masterwork. What do you need to make magic armor? Ritual components and a piece of armor to enchant.

Mechanically Masterwork exists to fix an AC scaling issue that was introduced by stupidity late in the development process (same scaling issue that resulted in needing Expertise and etc.) At no point did they try and make it meaningful. Magic armor of the appropriate level is Masterwork, you get the bonus to AC, add it up and ignore it.

By strict RAW they changed one thing about Masterwork in the Heroes of.... books. Now all armor gets the scaling bonus to AC, just by being magical armor. This means you can choose one of the NAD boosting varieties of Masterwork and get the AC bonus.

TL:DR; "Masterwork" is a scaling fix. Add the number on your character sheet and otherwise ignore it, it is a purely mechanical thing.

Jul 11, 2012 -- 11:46AM, Plaguescarred wrote:

Not exactly. When Essentials was released, armors were automatically given the increased AC Bonus normally granted by a Masterwork armor of appropriate level backed into them since this line of product didn't include Masterwork, but otherwise weren't Masterwork specifically. No armor is Masterwork unless it says so.

Masterwork armors may have Properties like +1 FORT/REF/WILL or a Resist 2 like a Snakeskin or Spirit Plate armor for exemple, and this benefit will not be found on just any armor +3 or +4 only on these specific Masterwork armors.


AV 6 Special: Some Masterwork armors have additional properties, such as a defense boost or additional resistance. A bonus received from the special property of a Masterwork armor is an armor bonus.

But you can pick the armor to be Masterwork that has the bonus and it automatically gets the AC bonus, as well, because the Heroes books say so, just by being of the appropriate enhancement bonus.

They didn't remove the Masterwork rules, which state that yeah all Magical armor is Masterwork because the cost is included in the process of enchanting it, they just made an extra rule which states that all armor gets the AC bonus intended for Masterwork.