Infiltrator archetype Natural Armor

[RtrnofdMax]

Depending on the creature type selected, there are many that give either natural armor +2 or natural armor (+2). What does that mean exactly?

1) You gain a natural armor bonus of +2.
2) You gain a +2 untyped bonus to natural armor.

If 2), does this mean your existing natural armor bonus would increase?

[blahpers]

1).

In case you think the parentheses count, ask yourself which is more likely: that the designer wanted some adaptations to give a natural armor bonus and others to give an untyped bonus to the natural armor bonus but chose to use something as subtle as parentheses to distinguish them rather than at least a word or three, or that the writer or editor had a minor lapse in maintains the list's parallel structure?

[RtrnofdMax]

I don't think the two are different, but I think both don't communicate what they do. Most of the time, bonuses are spelled out. This doesn't say whether it's untyped, enhancement or whatever other type of bonus. It's also not unheard of to have something increase an existing natural armor bonus.

Look at Improved Natural Armor: Link

That feat is very clear about what it does.

[Kazaan]

Ok, here's the breakdown of Natural Armor that can be applied to anything:

You have a natural armor bonus to AC; AC is the target score of the bonus, natural armor is the type of bonus. Natural armor from multiple sources doesn't stack because same bonus type to the same thing doesn't stack. Some things give a bonus to the bonus (yo dawg). So you could have an enhancement bonus to natural armor bonus to AC alongside a sacred bonus to natural armor bonus to AC and they work in conjunction because they are two different bonus types to a single target (natural armor bonus) which, in turn, is acting on its own target (AC). Now, if you had multiple enhancement bonuses to natural armor bonus to AC, those wouldn't stack; you'd pick the best enhancement bonus, add it to your natural armor bonus, then add the composite natural armor bonus to your AC. Untyped bonuses always stack so if you have several untyped bonuses to natural armor bonus to AC, they all will composite into the single natural armor bonus which, in turn, is added into your AC. Lastly, Improved Natural Armor doesn't give you a "bonus" to your Natural Armor Bonus but rather sets the base higher. It is neither a typed nor an untyped bonus to natural armor bonus to AC; it is an increase in the base value of the natural armor bonus.

Given that the instance of parentheses seems to be less frequent than without, I'd say that the parentheses indicate a bonus to natural armor bonus (which would add into a pre-existing natural armor bonus if your ranger has one) and that all the others are a base natural armor bonus in which case, if you have a pre-existing natural armor bonus, you must pick the best one between what you have by default and what the adaptation ability grants. That makes the most sense to me. The only ones I see that have parentheses are Animals, Goblinoids, and Undead.

[RtrnofdMax]

So to distill your explanation, with my understanding of Natural Armor, you have three categories of Natural Armor.

1) Bonuses to Natural Armor, which don't stack with each other. Examples: Wild Shape Natural Armor, Racial Natural Armor, etc.
2) Untyped increases to Natural Armor, which do stack with existing bonuses to Natural Armor. Examples: Improved Natural Armor feat, Elven Druid Favored Class bonus.
3) Typed increases to Natural Armor, which stack with other types, but not the same type. Examples: Barkskin/Amulet of Natural Armor.

I think this is well understood. What is not well understood is what category the Infiltrator bonus falls into.

[GoldEdition42]

And activating these bonuses, whatever you choose, is a Standard Action? The description in the APG does not specify.

[RtrnofdMax]

This was touched upon in other threads. Extraordinary abilities are usually no action as they happen reactively. If they aren't activated reactively (which is clearly the case, in my opinion) they are standard actions.