TOPIC: Did anyone use the Cestus in combat?

It's probably not a bad idea to just set a bottom-out AC of 10 across the board.  That eliminates needing special rules for AC lowering items, which there could be more of in the future. Of course, most players in a party using a Cestus probably can't miss an AC 10 anyway so worrying about AC less than 10 is moot.<br /><br />I was in that party with JimC and it was very effective but it never felt overpowered. If I remember correctly, it helped get some of the final hits in our third round to end the fight against the demon before she could go again.<br /><br />A party could have 3 of them, but you are also sacrificing some damage to do it since the Cestus does less damage than the typical fighter, paladin, and barbarian weapons. Any way you spin it I think it is unlikely you are going to shave off more than 1 round of combat, which seems to me to be the real advantage of using the Cestus. It doesn't seem broken now and I would vote to sheath the nerf bat unless someone finds a way to abuse it.

Seems like it should only affect worn armor as opposed to natural armor....<br /><br />But that would require the DM to know what armor the creature was wearing.<br /><br />For example, maybe the angel/demon has a natural AC of 12 and is wearing +5 points of armor.... The cestus could eventually strip down all 5 points of armor, but the natural AC of the thing could never go lower than 12.<br /><br />The efreet, however, is probably not wearing any armor, and its AC is all natural... so the cestus wouldn't actually affect it.....

I used it on a couple of runs.  I was interested in tyring it out before GenCon.  I was operating under the assumption that it could lower the AC of the monster by a maximum of 8 (I thought I remembered a discussion about this when we were "proofing" the new URs).  The best that I was able to lower the AC was 6.  It was very helpful, especially in nightmare mode.  <br /><br />I had planned on equipping my party with only one of these for GenCon (I was going to give it to the Paladin).  Based on my experiences at True Realm (and assuming that the use of cestus(es) can lower the monster's AC by 8), I will also have the Barbarian use one.  My goup pobably won't use any other AC lowering tokens, though I do equip the rogue with tanglefoot bags.<br /><br />I would support some rule about combined lower AC (my suggestion would be minus 10, not necessarily AC10).<br /><br /><br />Jim<br />

Maybe we'll see combats with more than 1 enemy someday that will make items like this less than ideal for those types of situations.<br /><br />And besides, combat rarely lasts for more than 3 or 4 rounds. 

And if you put it in the hands of the barb you lose a lot of damage that could be done with a great club of bashing or similar token.

Not really. The whole idea would be to use the cestus round 1 with all the big +hit people. Then swap out round 2 once the lower AC is in effect. You end up losing something a little damage but it's more than paid for when other classes hit what they normally wouldn't be able to. A single additional hit offsets everything. It's also one instance where it's worthwhile for the bard to switch instruments. +2 hit would be huge on that round 1 to make sure the cestus landed. Ditto with a cleric bless.

CESTUS is a game changer to be sure, eh!

I guess since with maxed out ACs you can take a round to swap and let the monster hit you and then go back to the big weaps with -6 AC.

I could agree that the AC on a creature should not go below 10 that makes sense, but speaking as a person from a group that does not have a lot of purps and just spent the $250 in order to get the cestus for our barbarian....please don't nerf it.  There were other purps we could have chosen but liked the cestus bestus...  =D<br />Unless you are an ubertoken group are you really going to have three cestuses...cesti...?...and with only one person hitting and taking a monster down -2 a round it isn't going to stake too high unless the party is hitting poorly in which case they need it or its a monster with high hit points in which case its still going to take time to take it down...just some thoughts...<br /><br />Jennifer

Similar question, how many times does the Fey Wand -3 to will saves stack?<br />

I'm also against nerfing the Cestus, as I don't think it's broken.  If it is going to be nerfed at all, I think limiting a party to one Cestus at a time might be feasible.  That way, a low-Purp group with one Cestus can still get the full benefit, while a Purped-out group with three of them probably doesn't need the overkill.  <br /><br />Also, note that switching weapons is (as I recall) a free action in TD, so there's no penalty to softening up a monster with the Cestus and then switching to a higher-damage weapon later.  But with only one Cestus, in my experience, the monster was always dead by the time I'd softened him up (by the time he was -6AC), so I rarely switched out the Cestus in practice.  <br />

Who has been talking of nerfing the Cestus?