Tortoise Shell
(Complete Divine, p. 184)Transmutation
Level: Druid 6,
Components: V, S, DF,
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: Living creature touched
Duration: 10 min/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)
Tortoise shell grants the armor plating of a tortoise across a creature's torso and a tough, leathery skin elsewhere. The effect grants a +6 enhancement bonus to the creature's existing natural Armor Class. This enhancement bonus increases by 1 for every three caster levels above 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 bonus 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 would run at 60 feet per round. The spell affects only a creature's speed; tortoise shell doesn't have an armor check penalty or arcane spell failure chance.
