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Howdy yall. So I've got a bit of a question concerning the Kensai's Canny Defense
At 1st level, when a kensai is wielding his chosen weapon, he gains the canny defense ability. This is identical to the duelist prestige class ability of the same name, save that his chosen weapon may be of any type
And the Duelist Canny Defense
When wearing light or no armor and not using a shield, a duelist adds 1 point of Intelligence bonus (if any) per duelist class level as a dodge bonus to her Armor Class while wielding a melee weapon. If a duelist is caught flat-footed or otherwise denied her Dexterity bonus, she also loses this bonus.
To keep things simple, let's say we have a Kensai with an intelligence of 20 (So he's got +5 int), who is 5th level. He gets a +5 dodge bonus to his armor class from the Kensai's Canny Defense ability. His 6th level is taken in the Duelist PRC. Remember that dodge bonuses to AC stack, which one of these things happens?
A)His Canny Defense ability from Kensai is the same Canny Defense as he'd have from Duelist, and therefore his dodge bonus stays at +5, as he's only got +5 int
B)His Canny Defense ability from Kensai is not the same as the Canny Defense ability from Duelist, and therefore his dodge bonus goes up to +6 (+5 from magus levels, +1 from Duelist levels)
I'm sure there are other possibilities that could be worked out, but from where I'm sitting it looks like an either or thing.
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It's the same ability and you can't get the same ability twice.
It stays maxed at +5 as per the Int.
I thought that was the case, but I see a problem with your reasoning. Channel Energy. A Cleric 1/Paladin 4 can channel energy as either a paladin, or a cleric. Either do a 1d6 channel or a 2d6 channel. They are the same ability, and the paladin even says "As a cleric" in the channel energy description. They don't stack, so a paladin 4 / cleric 1 does not channel the same a cleric 5 does (3d6). However, these are dodge bonuses to armor, which always stack. That's the issue here. If it said "gains the canny dodge ability from another source, the affects stack", then the canny defense would be maxed to your int, regardless of your level. But because they don't say they stack, are they counted along separate tracks, just the same way channels are?
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Another point is the Rogue 5/ shadowdancer 2 combo. Both classes grant Evasion. However, because you already save for none from rogue, saving for none from shadowdancer doesn't do anything extra. You take none of 0 points of damage when you save. Good. The evasion ability from the shadow dancer still exists, it doesn't go away, but it's benefits aren't noticeable. The problem with the canny defense is that, again, having the abilities stack maxes you at your int, but not having them stack gives you a benefit, because dodge armor
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It's not the same thing. The channeling ability is open ended based on class level. The Duellist/Kensai ability is close ended capped on the Int stat.I thought that was the case, but I see a problem with your reasoning. Channel Energy. A Cleric 1/Paladin 4 can channel energy as either a paladin, or a cleric. Either do a 1d6 channel or a 2d6 channel. They are the same ability, and the paladin even says "As a cleric" in the channel energy description. They don't stack, so a paladin 4 / cleric 1 does not channel the same a cleric 5 does (3d6). However, these are dodge bonuses to armor, which always stack. That's the issue here. If it said "gains the canny dodge ability from another source, the affects stack", then the canny defense would be maxed to your int, regardless of your level. But because they don't say they stack, are they counted along separate tracks, just the same way channels are?It's the same ability and you can't get the same ability twice.
It stays maxed at +5 as per the Int.
It's capped on both, actually. You can only have 1 dodge armor bonus per level, up to your max int.
(EDIT: Also, I'm not trying to make it seem like the abilities being tracked separately is how it should be, just that I want to know why it is the way it is, when there are things that point in both directions from the rules)
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I would say if anything, the abilities stack, much like Sneak Attack. At this point, you'd still only be getting +5, but you'd have the potential at that point for up to +6.
So, my understanding would be option A.
If they're coming from different sources, then they still won't actually stack together to give you a higher bonus because they're both giving you access to the same bonus (your INT mod). You'd have two different abilities giving you the same thing. It'd be like the way Weapon Finesse and Agile Maneuvers can overlap, but don't actually give you double Dex to maneuvers performed with a finessable weapon.