Turtle companion natural AC.


Rules Questions

Scarab Sages

Hopefully easy to clarify. Trying to understand the 7th level adjustments for the turtle options.

There are two PFS legal turtle companions, the Tortise (B4) and the snapping turtle (B2).

The tortise has +6 natural armor, which has a +8 adjustment at 7th level.

The Snapping turtle has +10 natural armor, which has a +2 adjustment at 7th level.

Both go from medium to large at 7th level.

Is the intention that the 7th level natural armor replaces the natural armor at 1st, or that they stack?

Seems odd that the snapping turtle would lose AC at higher levels, while +14 ac seems rather iffy on the tortise...

Can someone clarify?


As with the ability scores, the 4th/7th level advancements of natural armor are additive rather than replacements. This is shown through the inclusion of "+"s. While the 14 natural armor looks impressive for the giant tortoise, it isn't too far ahead of the base monster (+8) from which it is derived (and considering it has double the hit die by the time it gains the 7th level advancement, even this isn't surprising to me).


They are supposed to stack (showing how much you increasing everything by in the advancement).

Though I agree that adding +8 natural armor does seem like a lot. It may have been that they intended to add +2 (like the snapping turtle) for a total of 8, but that someone didn't write it correctly.

However it is difficult, if not impossible, to know what the intentions were so I would run it as is. The tortoise is going to have some great AC at higher levels.

Scarab Sages

Alright, thanks. I've been wondering this one for awhile, glad it's simple.

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