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I don't think it's meant to stack. I think they did it so you don't need to use a slot to prepare mage armor.
+2 might not be +4 but you shouldn't be in melee combat anyway. Not needing to prepare mage armor means you have an additional spellslot for a combat or utility spell. That extra spell means your more useful to the party.
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Protection from arrows my friend.
Also, with concentration rolled into Spellcraft, casting defensively should be A LOT easier now. So you really don't need the AC bonus from mage armor.
BTW.. your free ranged touch attack as a Conjurer should be more then enough to kill any ranged attackers and if it's not, casting Magic Missile to kill it is ALOT less...
1) Selfish
2) Turn wasting
3) Spell wasting
...then casting mage armor on yourself.
In any case, the bonus still stacks with Shield if you're paranoid about your AC but I still think it's a waste of a spell, turn, and down right selfish.
Actually, none of those options are good.
Magic missile kills ranged attackers? Perhaps if they're kobolds, but how long are you going to be fighting packs of kobolds?
The various free touch attacks are even worse, and throwing first spells away for 2 points of AC at low levels isn't worthwhile. the variation on the d20 roll is going to get you unless you stack your total AC absurdly high.
Another thing about the conjurer.
Summon Monster I is horrible. I don't care if you can cast it an infinite number of times as a free action. Depending on your level, it either doesn't last long enough to matter, or its isn't even vaguely level appropriate.
Actually, none of those options are good.
Magic missile kills ranged attackers? Perhaps if they're kobolds, but how long are you going to be fighting packs of kobolds?
The various free touch attacks are even worse, and throwing first spells away for 2 points of AC at low levels isn't worthwhile. the variation on the d20 roll is going to get you unless you stack your total AC absurdly high.
Another thing about the conjurer.
Summon Monster I is horrible. I don't care if you can cast it an infinite number of times as a free action. Depending on your level, it either doesn't last long enough to matter, or its isn't even vaguely level appropriate.
Summon Monster I hurts at 1st level with 1 round duration, and gets pretty useless pretty quickly - but I'd say from levels 2-5 it can be good and useful. I just ran a combat from Burnt Offerings and the Conjurer summoned up two celestial fire beetles that handily defeated
At those low levels, Mage Armor doesn't last all day. If you have encounters spread out along the day, or don't have prep time to cast it before battle, you'll be without it's benefit entirely without using up a valuable first round of combat.
Seems quite worthwhile to me.
Noticed a slight problem with the Conjuration school's power. Since armor bonuses don't stack, mage armor would make this power redundant quickly. The other school powers don't become obsolete at any point, this one shouldn't either or specializing in conjuration becomes a subpar choice.
Actually, most of them are pretty weak:
-Abjurer's ability is weak compared to Resist Energy/Protection from Energy.-Enchanter's ability is weak compared to Charm Person/Charm Monster.
-Illusionist's ability is weak compared to using illusions that don't require concentration.
-Transmuter's ability is weak compared to casting Bull's Strenth/Cat's Grace/Bear's Endurance (or wearing the appropriate belt/gloves/amulet).
For the Conjurer in particular, his ability seems useful at levels 1-2 (where one 1st-level spell is a big chunk of your spell-casting quota) and maybe at levels 11+ (saves you a measly 1st- or 2nd-level spell slot for [Extended] Mage Armor, unless it's been made obsolete by access to Greater Mage Armor or non-ASF armor). From levels 3-10 it's not that useful, though.