Armor / Weapon Enhancement Question

[Jakoli]

I'm sorry if this is an obvious answer question but I'm not sure I understand something about Magic Gear from what I've read on the d20pfsrd.com site.

My question is about enhancement abilities that have a "Base Price" as a gp cost but NOT (?) a specified Bonus "Cost."

Examples like Benevolent (+2000) is listed on the +1 Armor Bonus Table; or Jousting (+3750) is listed on the +2 Armor Bonus Table. As compared to something like Balanced (+1 Bonus) or Spell Resistance [13] (+2 Bonus).

The thing I don't get is how those enhancement abilities interact with the +10 max enhancement bonus and actual cost of the weapon.

Lets say I start with a +2 Chainmail and I wanted to add Benevolent.

Is that now considered a total "+3" Chainmail armor (+2 & Benevolent), and would I pay the difference of 5000gp from a +2 enhancement to the +3 enhancement or the listed +2000gp? Then if I wanted to upgrade to a +3 Benevolent Chainmail would I need to pay out the difference of 16000 - 9000 (difference of a generic +4 to +3) or 16000 - 6000 (presuming 4000 for the +2 armor and +2000 for Benevolent)?

This question is meant to help me understand higher powered enhancement abilities.

Like changing +5 Chainmail into +5 Righteous Chainmail

vs

Changing +1 Righteous Chainmail into a +5 Righteous Chainmail?

Adding the Righteous Property to +5 Armor only costs 27000?

Where as adding +4 to "+6" Armor costs 64000? (100000 - 36000)

Thanks in advance for any help/clarity you can give me!

-Jakoli

[Gilarius]

The 'add a specific amount of money' options are always that amount, they do not affect the number of enhancement plusses.

The table lists them where they seem most appropriate in terms of power.

[Jeanmiwan]

Jakoli wrote:

Lets say I start with a +2 Chainmail and I wanted to add Benevolent.

It's now a "+2 Benevolent Chainmail".

According to magic detection, it has an aura equivalent to a "+3 magic armor", but it still only gives a "+2" bonus to AC.
If I'm right, you'll pay the "+2 enhancement" and add +2000 cost of Benevolent. It's cheaper because it doesn't really give a "+3" enhancement.

If upgrading to "+3 Benevolent Chainmail" (I'm not quite sure how you'd do this in-game), you'll have to pay the difference between "basic +2" and "basic +3"
According to magic detection, it'll be an aura equivalent to a "+4 magic armor", though, as explained before.

The basic enhancement is limited to "+5" and you can add magic properties to push out the aura up to "+10 magic item" equivalent.
So "+5" enhancement and "+5" equivalent of added magic properties or "+2" enhancement and up to "+8" equivalent of added magic properties.
Either cases would give a "+10 magic item" equivalent aura if scanned with magic detection.
But NO "+9 Flaming Sword".

You MUST have at least a "+1" basic enhancement before addig properties, though. NO +10 added magic properties on a "+0 magic chainmail"