Mythic Synthesist + Enduring Armor?

[Chance Wade]

I was just curious if the Enduring Armor mythic path ability would be compatible with the Synthesist archetype. For reference:

Enduring Armor wrote:

You are protected by armor made of force. This armor grants you an armor bonus to AC equal to 3 + your tier. This ability is an abjuration effect with a spell level equal to your tier. If this armor is dispelled or otherwise ended, you can reactivate it as a swift action.

As for the Synthesist, the relevant bit is as follows:

Fused Eidolon wrote:

While fused, the synthesist loses the benefits of his armor.

And this is assuming that you decided to make the eidolon's AC bonus a natural armor bonus.

[GM Rednal]

If the Eidolon's AC bonus is a natural armor bonus, then yes, I think Enduring Armor would A) Work, and B) Stack with it. ^^

[Melkiador]

This is a problem caused by the overuse of the word "armor" in the rules. The text is most likely only referring to armor as equipment, but it is up to your DM to determine how he wants this to work.

[GM Rednal]

As a general rule of thumb, I assume that anything that is not physical equipment does not meld when you do fusions/polymorphing/etc unless a rule specifically notes otherwise. So physical armor would usually vanish, but magical, floating Enduring Armor would not. Bracers of Armor might or might not work, depending on the exact power in question.

[Chance Wade]

Melkiador wrote:

This is a problem caused by the overuse of the word "armor" in the rules. The text is most likely only referring to armor as equipment, but it is up to your DM to determine how he wants this to work.

I was afraid of that, as I'm trying to make a case of it before talking to him. I was looking around on the forums but couldn't find anything concrete, but does anybody know if there's precedents for this type of thing? For example, do Bracers of Armor or Mage Armor work with the Synthesist?

[GM Rednal]

Yes.

The relevant text is "While fused, the synthesist loses the benefits of his armor," and "While fused with his eidolon, the synthesist can use all of his own abilities and gear, except for his armor."

Armor is a specific type of equipment, and the term does NOT extend to magical items like Bracers of Armor, which are specifically permitted to be used by that second line. Enduring Armor is basically a semi-permanent Mage Armor effect, and both would work on the Synthesist.

[Melkiador]

The best argument I can give is that it says you lose the benefit of "armor" instead of "armor bonus". This implies to me that it's only referring to armor as presented in the equipment section.