Barding for Familiars (PFS)

[kaisc006]

Anything preventing me from purchasing barding for my Owl? Also, I know that the armor bonus is halved. Do I round down or up and does this affect magical enhancement bonuses as well?

[SlimGauge]

Since your owl has no armor proficiency, stick with ACP 0 and try to stay under a light load.

I don't believe the magical enhancement bonuses are halved, only the base armor bonus.

Core Rulebook page 8 wrote:

Unless otherwise noted, whenever you are must round a number, always round down.

[sic]

See also this thread about an armored hawk.

[DM_Blake]

No. There is precedent and rules for barding for flying creatures, so that can be applied to owls too. Usually you drop fractions (round down) as per the CRB.

Magical bonuses on armor are not "Armor" bonuses, they are "Enhancement" bonuses to your AC. The rule for halving the "Armor" bonus on tiny barding therefore does not apply to the "Enhancement" bonus on that same barding.

[SlimGauge]

DM_Blake wrote:

Magical bonuses on armor are not "Armor" bonuses, they are "Enhancement" bonuses to your AC.

I don't think so. If this were true, your enhancement bonus to AC from your armor enchantment would not stack with the enhancement bonus to AC from your shield enchantment.

Instead, your armor bonus to AC is enhanced (by +N), or your shield bonus to AC is enhanced (by +N).

[hogarth]

Reminds me of a psion PC I had in 3.5E D&D. He had a Diminutive psicrystal with barding -- plus armor spikes. :-)

[Kazaan]

AC is a composite value, part of which is your Armor value. A +X enhancement on a piece of armor translates to "enhancement bonus of X to your armor bonus to AC". Tiny or smaller armor cuts the base value in half, but doesn't affect the enhancement bonus because that's handled separately, just as a +1 enhancement gives the same +1 to a tiny dagger as it would to a colossal one despite the difference in damage dice. The enhancement bonus doesn't apply directly to your AC, but it's not an inherent physical property of the armor either.