[UE] Shadowform Belt + Ring of Protection = AC Decrease?

[Oladon]

Shadowform Belt:

UE wrote:

While incorporeal, he does not gain a deflection bonus to AC based on his Charisma, but his natural armor bonus is converted to deflection bonus.

Deflection bonuses don't stack... so as written, if you've already got a deflection bonus and activate your Shadowform Belt, your AC will go down.

Does anyone read this differently? If not, please FAQ... it doesn't seem intentional.

Edit: I've added a detailed example below.

Detailed Example:

Character has a Ring of Protection +1 and a +2 natural armor bonus. Character's AC is 13. Character activates Shadowform belt. Character now has an AC of 12.

[Lord Foul II]

You take whichever is higher.

[Oladon]

Lord Foul II wrote:

You take whichever is higher.

Yes, and your overall AC still goes down. Can you come up with a good reason for your AC to go down when you become incorporeal?

[Count Buggula]

Thanks, having an example helps drastically in helping understand where the problem lies.

I think this is an unintended edge case. If you don't already have anything that gives a deflection bonus, than your AC will stay the same (intended). Unfortunately just about everyone at some point has something that gives a deflection AC bonus so in 95% of the time a character will lose AC due to lack of stacking.

I'd say this could warrant some clarification from the devs.

[shroudb]

well, i don't really see a problem with this.

being incorporeal means that you don't have thick skin (natural ac). If for whatever reason you had thick skin it instead becomes a mgaical protection (deflection).

if fo whatever reason you already had magical protection then yeah, you just end up losing the thick skin...

sounds logical to me.

[DSXMachina]

shroudb wrote:

well, i don't really see a problem with this.

being incorporeal means that you don't have thick skin (natural ac). If for whatever reason you had thick skin it instead becomes a mgaical protection (deflection).

if fo whatever reason you already had magical protection then yeah, you just end up losing the thick skin...

sounds logical to me.

But without this item you'd have the thick skin & the magical protection.

[Count Buggula]

DSXMachina wrote:

shroudb wrote:

well, i don't really see a problem with this.

being incorporeal means that you don't have thick skin (natural ac). If for whatever reason you had thick skin it instead becomes a mgaical protection (deflection).

if fo whatever reason you already had magical protection then yeah, you just end up losing the thick skin...

sounds logical to me.

But without this item you'd have the thick skin & the magical protection.

Tradeoff for becoming incorporeal, I guess. We just don't know if that was the dev's intent or not.

[shroudb]

DSXMachina wrote:

shroudb wrote:

well, i don't really see a problem with this.

being incorporeal means that you don't have thick skin (natural ac). If for whatever reason you had thick skin it instead becomes a mgaical protection (deflection).

if fo whatever reason you already had magical protection then yeah, you just end up losing the thick skin...

sounds logical to me.

But without this item you'd have the thick skin & the magical protection.

so?

imagine a wizard with a ring that allows him to polymorph to a raven.

while in raven form he obviously cannot cast spells, he gains other benefits though (flying incospicuous etc). You can't argue that since "if he didn't have that item he would be able to cast" to allow him to cast while in raven form

no one is forcing the character to wear the belt, it is his own choice if he wants to become incorporal or not, and since incorporeals don't have natural armor, it is a trade off for a character that has.

[mplindustries]

Almost everyone's AC is going to go down because regular armor isn't going to work anymore, either.

Incorporeal creatures generally have lowish ACs, they just take 1/2 damage from most sources, so it's worth it.

[Lord Foul II]

And furthermore, if the source of your attack is not magical you simply ignore it, no responce required IMO.

[Oladon]

mplindustries wrote:

Almost everyone's AC is going to go down because regular armor isn't going to work anymore, either.

Could you post a source for this? Incorporeal attacks ignore armor, but I don't see anything that says incorporeal creatures don't benefit from armor.