I apologize for the clickbait title. Since laundry lists have seemed to fail me for the last 4-5 attempts, I'm going to go with a singular topic. I was looking over the Kobold's favored class bonus for Oracle, and it got me thinking: is it unintentionally really strong, or am I misinterpreting it? For the sake of brevity:
Oracle: Add +1/4 to the armor or natural armor bonus granted by oracle spells she casts on herself.
My main question is: does this bonus affect typed armor or natural armor bonuses, such as enhancement or profane, or does it provide an increase to solely untyped natural/normal armor bonuses?
The reason I ask is because the Oracle gets about 1 spell which adds untyped natural armor, and it's an 8th level spell. This is not including Mysteries, but even Nature takes a while before granting an untyped natural armor bonus.
With that said, my other question is: as written, does this favored class stack with itself?
For example, let's say the Oracle casts Stone Shield (+4 armor bonus) and Divine Vessel (+2 natural armor bonus), and is level 16 having taken only the FCB. Would the result be (4+3) armor and (2+3) natural armor?
I would say it stacks in the way you have shown at least for one armor bonus increase and one natural armor bonus increase.
It should work with typed armor bonuses, too but I would say those do not stack.
curious, if I cast divine favor can I give myself a +1 natural armor at lv4?
Doesn't grant an armor bonus, so no.
That said, it is a bit vague. It specifically calls out armor or natural armor bonuses...so I assume shield of faith and deflection is right out. Wonder what the list of applicable spells would be?
As divine favor doesn't give an AC or natural AC bonus how would you?
you add 1 natural armor to what the spell would normally give you. so that would make a total of one.
Level 1:
- Ice armor
- Iron beard (with gm permission)
Level 2:
- Instant armor
It might work with magic vestment or not.
@chess pwn: You increase a bonus you get. But divine favor does not give an AC bonus to increase so there is nothing to add to.
Be a Nature mystery Kobold! Get a +10 barkskin at level 20! Yay!
Instant Armor has an implied armor bonus, therefore I would suspect this would not apply to that spell. It's why I used Stone Shield as an example, it's the only spell other than Iron Beard to directly state the Armor Bonus that's available to Oracle (sans Mysteries)
After looking over the specifics of bonuses, they are indeed within separate categories and thus could be ruled as only functioning with untyped bonuses, but that leaves a dreadfully short list of spells to work with:
1) Ironbeard-Can be disallowed because racial spell.
2) Stone Shield-Burns a first-level spell per round of combat, on top of normal spellcasting.
3) Instant/Ice Armor-Probably disallowed because not directly granting an armor bonus.
4) Divine Spirit-8th level spell for natural armor.
After those four, it depends on the Mystery selected, and even then the range is small.
5) Shapechange-9th level spell for natural armor(polymorph). Limited to Juju.
6) Animal Shapes-8th level for natural armor(polymorph). Limited to Nature.
7) Vermin Shape I-3rd level for natural armor(polymorph). Limited to Outer Rifts.
8) Wood might have a revelation if spell-likes are considered sufficient.
It seems like an awfully limited set of spells, though I guess +10 AC at 20 is still not a joke, assuming Ironbeard is allowed on any race.
I don't know anything about Oracles, so I am just going by the line you quoted. 'Add +1/4th to the bonus for armor and natural armor for oracle spells you cast on yourself.'
Wouldn't it mean that if you cast mage armor on yourself (let's just assume these are oracle spells so I don't have to look them up) that if it normally gives you +4 to armor, then it it gives +1 more, for a total of +5 armor?
Similarly, when I looked at Divine Vessel, it appeared to say you gained +3 natural armor bonus (I think your example said +2). So it would not grant any additional bonus, since rounding 1/4th down for 3 would be 0. So you just get the +3.
So for example purposes (again, just assume these are oracle spells in case some aren't):
mage armor: +4 armor bonus; gets +1 for +5 total.
shield: +4 shield bonus; gets nothing because not an armor or natural armor bonus, still +4.
Divine Vessel: +3 Natural armor; gets +.75 (rounded down) so still +3.
barkskin: +2 natural armor bonus; gets +.5 (rounded down) so still only +2 until the caster reaches 9th level when the spell would grant up to a +4 bonus, increasing it by 1/4 to +5.
tree shape: +10 natural armor bonus; increases by +2 to +12.If a spell gave you a +16 armor bonus, a kobold oracle casting it on himself would get +20 instead (1/4th more).
Or am I misinterpreting what you were asking?
As for the 'typed' part of your question, usually the type is spelled out. You get a +1 'armor' bonus to AC, or a +1 'profane' bonus' or a +2 'deflection' bonus. I don't think there's many cases where you will get a +2 profane armor circumstance bonus from one spell. But as long as it provides an 'armor' or 'natural armor' bonus, it increases by 1/4th but just that bonus.
Doesn't quite work like that. Remember, this is an FCB. It adds .25 to the armor bonus granted for every time you take the FCB. If you take it over all 20 levels, it looks like this:
Kobold casts Mage ArmorKobold gets a +4 armor bonus from the spell
Kobold gets an additional bonus from the FCB .25(20) = 5
Kobold ends up with +9 armor bonus from Mage Armor with the FCB
Oh, interesting. So it isn't a one time ability like a trait or something. I just went with how the quoted ability read. So a 4th-level kobold oracle is just adding a straight +1 to the AC bonus for spells that increase 'armor' or 'natural armor' bonuses, regardless of what the increase is.
So then, in the OP's case, where he's 16th-level. He just adds a flat +4 to the a spell like mage armor (again, assuming it's an oracle spell on cast on himself) so it provides +8 AC.
Stone shield would provide no increased bonus, it's +4 to AC but from cover.
Treeshape would be +14 natural armor (normally +10), and
Divine vessel, normally +3 would be increased +7 natural armor.Does that sound right?
Sounds right to me. And pretty cool. Gotta build me a kobold oracle now!
Instant Armor has an implied armor bonus, therefore I would suspect this would not apply to that spell. It's why I used Stone Shield as an example, it's the only spell other than Iron Beard to directly state the Armor Bonus that's available to Oracle (sans Mysteries)
I really don't see a reason why ice armor and instant armor should not work. They give an armor bonus and that is what the FCB applies to.