Mage armor

[The Saltmarsh 6]

I know that normal armor and mage armor cant stack but can they overlap.
As in a game the party where attacked by a wraith the main fighter was taking a battering as he had no effective armour (he was wearing a breastplate) the mage cast mage armor on him as it would give him some armor against the wraith i allowed it as he wasnt after getting an extra +4 to his normal armor did i do the right thing

[Alwaysafk]

"An incorporeal creature’s attacks pass through (ignore) natural armor, armor, and shields, although deflection bonuses and force effects (such as mage armor) work normally against it."

Basically his touch AC would jump by 4 against incorporeal touch. So yes, you did the right thing.

[MurphysParadox]

Yes; you always use the highest applicable bonus for each available bonus type (armor, dodge, morale, etc) when calculating AC against a specific attack. Against incorporeal attacks, normal armor is useless which makes the mage armor the highest applicable armor bonus.

[Drejk]

MurphysParadox wrote:

Yes; you always use the highest applicable bonus for most available bonus type (armor, dodge, morale, etc) when calculating AC against a specific attack. Against incorporeal attacks, normal armor is useless which makes the mage armor the highest applicable armor bonus.

A minor correction: dodge bonus unlike most other bonuses stacks so it should not be on list in parentheses.