Wearing Multiple Suits of Armor

[meyerwilliam]

Background
I know that multiple armor bonuses (bracers of armor, mage armor, leather armor) do not stack, they overlap.

General Question
If a character has a carrying capacity such that they can carry multiple suits of armor, can they wear them, if so, what are the effects?

Specific Question
If I am wearing a mithril chain shirt (no Armor check penalty) and then put on a suit of parade armor (armor check penalty -1, +2 circumstance bonus to diplomacy / intimidate), what happens?

1) You are not allowed to put on the 2nd suit of armor. Period
2) You are wearing two suits of armor, with the Armor bonus being +4 (chain shirt), an armor check penalty of -1, and a +2 circumstance bonus to Diplomacy/Intimidate
3) Other?

[Zhayne]

Armor bonuses do not stack. Suits of armor provide armor bonuses, so they do not stack.

Armor check penalties DO stack.

So, the second, by RAW, though I could see #1 being ruled. The oddity is that, despite all the item slots in the game, 'armor' is not one of them.

[KainPen]

see optional armor rules p.198 of Ultimate combat book, there are rules for this by piecing a whole suite of armor together, basically full plate is made from breast plate and other pieces or armor. with these rules you are wearing more than one type of armor, but you can't get any higher than full plate. This help support over lapping rules and realistic construction of armor. As you wear chain mail then strap on a breast plate then add gauntlets , greaves ect. to make a suite of full plate

[dgood1]

Sorry for the stupidity of these questions, but RAW don't clarify. Armor Bonus stacks with Enhancement Bonus, but if you can wear 2 suits of armor, it can stack a different way.

So, if I wear +4 Leather Armor (+2 AC, +4 enhancement), AND +1 Chainshirt (+4 AC, +1 enhancement), what happens?

Highest AC + Highest enhancement? (+8 AC)

or

Highest AC total of one suit? (+6 AC)

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Also, the total weight is now 40 lbs. Does this mean I'm slowed down by medium armor rules?

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How about their enchantments?

I assume if "Highest AC total of one suit" applies, then only the ones of that one appear.

But if not, then does that mean you can stack multiple suits of armor to stack multiple enchantments?

[Jeraa]

dgood1 wrote:

Sorry for the stupidity of these questions, but RAW don't clarify. Armor Bonus stacks with Enhancement Bonus, but if you can wear 2 suits of armor, it can stack a different way.

So, if I wear +4 Leather Armor (+2 AC, +4 enhancement), AND +1 Chainshirt (+4 AC, +1 enhancement), what happens?

Highest AC + Highest enhancement? (+8 AC)

or

Highest AC total of one suit? (+6 AC)

-----------

Also, the total weight is now 40 lbs. Does this mean I'm slowed down by medium armor rules?

-----------

How about their enchantments?

I assume if "Highest AC total of one suit" applies, then only the ones of that one appear.

But if not, then does that mean you can stack multiple suits of armor to stack multiple enchantments?

Enhancement bonuses increase the armors armor bonus, it isn't added separately to your armor class. +4 leather armor doesn't have a +2 armor bonus and a +4 enhancement bonus. It has a +6 armor bonus. Likewise, +1 chain shirt has a +5 armor bonus.

Even if you could wear multiple suits of armor, they don't stack to change the category. Two suits of light armor is still light armor, not medium armor. Their combined weight may be enough to increase your encumbrance to a medium load, however.

Besides, you can't wear 2 suits of magical armor. Magical armor occupies a body slot, and you only have one armor slot.

Quote:

Magic Items on the Body

Many magic items need to be donned by a character who wants to employ them or benefit from their abilities. It's possible for a creature with a humanoid-shaped body to wear as many as 15 magic items at the same time. However, each of those items must be worn on (or over) a particular part of the body, known as a "slot."

A humanoid-shaped body can be decked out in magic gear consisting of one item from each of the following groups, keyed to which slot on the body the item is worn.

Armor: suits of armor.
Belts: belts and girdles.
Body: robes and vestments.
Chest: mantles, shirts, and vests.
Eyes: eyes, glasses, and goggles.
Feet: boots, shoes, and slippers.
Hands: gauntlets and gloves.
Head: circlets, crowns, hats, helms, and masks.
Headband: headbands and phylacteries.
Neck: amulets, brooches, medallions, necklaces, periapts, and scarabs.
Ring (up to two): rings.
Shield: shields.
Shoulders: capes and cloaks.
Wrist: bracelets and bracers.

[SodiumTelluride]

Jeraa wrote:

Besides, you can't wear 2 suits of magical armor. Magical armor occupies a body slot, and you only have one armor slot.

Good point. If I remember correctly, if you try to wear more magical items than you have slots, the most-recently-donned item supersedes the others. So whichever armor you put on last would give you its magical benefits, and the other would be nullified completely (except for all its drawbacks, like weight and ACP).

[dgood1]

Thank you for clarifying. Took me some time to find that quote. :)
---

Quote:

Magical armor occupies a body slot, and you only have one armor slot.

I would assume that you can wear a +1 chainmail and "Bodywrap of Mighty Strikes" with no problems?

[Snowblind]

dgood1 wrote:

Thank you for clarifying. Took me some time to find that quote. :)

---

Quote:

Magical armor occupies a body slot, and you only have one armor slot.

I would assume that you can wear a +1 chainmail and "Bodywrap of Mighty Strikes" with no problems?

Yep.

Armor doesn't occupy the body slot. There is a seperate Armor slot.

[dgood1]

Thank you. :)

[The Mortonator]

There was a 3e divergent game I played where it did address having multiple armor suits on, but the cost was that you only got the armor bonus of the armor on top. The rest were clothes you just happened to have on under the armor. (Though you did get the benefits of any special mundane abilities such if a suit makes concealing a weapon easier that's fine.) There were rules like, you can't wear a light suit over a medium suit for obvious reasons. Basically just, common sense things though I think their example character wore two sets of medium armor. One of which was basically a sci-fi flight jacket.

I would probably rule in favor of that. Given that there is no particular reason really to not.

[Jeraa]

Yeah, I messed up on that. When I said armor occupies a body slot, I meant that armor occupies a magical item slot on the body. Not that armor actually occupies a "body slot". I should have been a bit more specific.

[andysowhatgg]

Thank you for clearyfing this for me aswell.

I would like to add what my GM does about this. We read the rules, disgussed this, and we thought it to be cooler to be able to wear chainshirt under a breastplate as an example. And we ruled that you could stack armors on top of eachothers, but the magic enchantments dont stack. and you could only activate the upper armors special abilities. but for each armor you stack, you will go up one armor catogory, light to medium if wearing 2 light armors. medium to heavy, if you wear 3 light or one light and one medium armor. example.

and we ruled that if you wear armor like this, the weight, spell failure, armor base stats (not magic enchantments) are added on top of eachother. and the dex bonus is imidiatly removed if wearing armor in this manner.

that way, you could wear 3 chain shirts on top of eachother, getting 12armor pretty cheaply yes. but you will never be able to recieve any dex bonus even if the three chainshirts would be mithral, so that means no saves against touch, and using feats like dodge or similar wouldn't give any extra AC.

[Melkiador]

This text was excluded from an earlier rules quote.

Quote:

Of course, a character may carry or possess as many items of the same type as he wishes. However, additional items beyond those in the slots listed above have no effect.

So the first magic armor put on is the only one that will work, until you take it off. It's just that it's nearly impossible to take off one suit of armor while you are wearing another suit over it.

[Merm7th]

Idea for a feat...

Magic Hoarder:
Prereq: 3 ranks in spellcraft

While wearing multiple magic items on the same body slot, she may switch which item she is receiving magical effects from. She can make one switch per round as free action.

Improved Magic Hoarder:
Prereq: Magic Hoarder, 6 ranks in spellcraft

When using Magic Hoarder, she may attempt a DC 20 spellcraft check. If successful, the switched items effects persists until the beginning of your next turn. On a natural 1 or when failed by 5 or more, neither work for 1d4 rounds.

[Gisher]

Melkiador wrote:

This text was excluded from an earlier rules quote.

Quote:

Of course, a character may carry or possess as many items of the same type as he wishes. However, additional items beyond those in the slots listed above have no effect.

So the first magic armor put on is the only one that will work, until you take it off. It's just that it's nearly impossible to take off one suit of armor while you are wearing another suit over it.

The Armored Coat description seems to use a different rule.

UE wrote:

Armored Coat

This sturdy leather coat is reinforced with metal plates sewn into the lining. An armored coat is more cumbersome than light armor but less effective than most medium armors. The advantage of it is that a person can don it or remove it as a move action (there is no "don hastily" option for an armored coat). If worn over other armor, use the better AC bonus and worse value in all other categories; an armored coat has no effect if worn with heavy armor. The only magic effects that apply are those of armor, clothing, or items worn on top.

Here it is the last donned armor which still functions magically.

[Melkiador]

That's just specific vs general. The first armor worn is active, unless you put an armored coat on it, which then becomes active.