Pretty much as the title says ...
A person wearing armor ... say with a +6 armor bonus ... has maye armor cast on the (or wears bracers of armor +4).
I know they do not get a +10 to AC but do they still get the force armor vs incorporeal attackers?
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Bracers of armor and ordinary armor do not stack. If a creature receives a larger armor bonus from another source, the bracers of armor cease functioning and do not grant their armor bonus or their armor special abilities. If the bracers of armor grant a larger armor bonus, the other source of armor ceases functioning.
so no ... this is an old 3.5 rule that people used a lot when it came to incorpreal attacks ... seems another hole sewed up
its the "Ceases functioning" line that seals it
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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I don't know... Its kind of silly to think that a suit of full plate suddenly stops protecting you because you put on magic bracers.
Against an incorporeal creature, your mundane armor is useless, (granting a +0 to Armor bonus), and the mage armor spell or bracers of armor is effectively granting a higher armor bonus.
I don't think its particularly broken. I'd allow them to overlap, but only when one or the other would be more beneficial. For instance, Fighter Joe has bracers of armor +4 with a light fortification enchantment, and a breastplate (+6 armor) with acid resistance.
A rogue attacks him with a dagger, and his breastplate protects him. He DOES NOT get the 25% chance to negate the sneak attack damage because the enchantments on the bracers are not protecting against this attack.
A ghost attacks him with a touch attack. His bracers protect him, because +4 > +0.
Wizard Walt casts Acid Arrow. The bracers protect him from the ranged touch attack, but he DOES NOT get the acid resistance from the breastplate. Alternatively, he could choose to forgo the extra protection from the bracers and let his breastplate absorb the arrow, relying on the acid resistance to negate damage.
In 3.5, the two armor bonuses would not stack but if one was negated some how the other would still be in effect. So an attack that ignored your regular armor but was still subject to magical armor bonuses would benefit from armor bonus you got from the bracers.
Ghost Touch attacks would ignore regular armor but still have to deal with Mage Armor.
sorry about the multiple threads ... guess I missed one :(
So then just to answer the question, bracers of armor (and any special ability they had) would cease to function if mundane armor (with a higher Armor bonus)was worn. When it is ceased, it would not protect against incorprial attackers and special qualities are lost.
I'm assuming the the + value of the bracers is the deciding factor and not special qualities that use up + values such as fortification.
Mage armor will protect against incorprial attacks even if armor is worn. Whatever AC bonus is higher prevails against physical attacks.
Does this sound right?
The actual bracers of armor would be completely shutdown by RAW. There is not such limitation on the spell mage armor.
It MIGHT be interpreted that the cease functioning line does not necessarily mean that it will not apply during an incorporeal attack.
Logic:
During an incoporporeal attack your armor is no longer granting a bonus. Thus for that purpose the bracers would grant a larger bonus (+1 is larger than +0). As a result for an incorporeal attack the bracers would kick in and the armor would 'cease functioning' for that attack.
However, this is still fuzzy and subject to interpretation.
- Gauss
P.S. Yes, I know this is basically the same view that SirGeshko put forth.