Tortoise Shell

Spell Compendium (Sc)Updated Supplementals (3.5)

Tortoise Shell is a D&D 3.5 spell (Transmutation) from Sc. On class lists for Druid (Level 6), Druid Variant (Level 6), Druidic Avenger (Level 6). Range or area: Touch; Saving throw: None; Duration: 10 minutes/level; Casting time: 1 standard action.

School
Transmutation
Casting Time
1 standard action
Components
V, S, DF
Range
Touch
Target
One living creature
Duration
10 minutes/level
Saving Throw
None
Spell Resistance
Yes (harmless)

In the blink of an eye, the creature you touched grows the armor plating of a tortoise across its torso and a tough, leathery skin elsewhere.

Tortoise shell grants a +6 enhancement bonus to the subject’s existing natural armor bonus. This enhancement bonus increases by 1 for every three caster levels beyond 11th, to a maximum of +9 at 20th level.

The enhancement bonus provided by tortoise shell stacks with the target’s natural armor bonus, but not with other enhancement bonuses to natural armor. A creature without natural armor has an effective natural armor of +0, much as a character wearing only normal clothing has an armor bonus of +0.

Tortoise shell slows a creature’s movement as if it were wearing heavy armor. An elf subject to tortoise shell, for example, would have a speed of 20 feet and could run only 60 feet per round. The spell affects only a creature’s speed; tortoise shell doesn’t carry an armor check penalty or an arcane spell failure chance.