My question is, if I had a +5 leather armor (+7 total to armor), and +8 bracers of armor (+8 to AC from armor bonus), what would be my AC? I remember back in the day, the sgae answered for 3.5 that you would add the highest armor bonus to the highest enhancement bonus to armor. So, my AC from both items be +8 (the highest bonus from the items), or 13 (+8 from the bracers, +5 from the enhancement bonus from the armor)?
Thanks in advance!
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My question is, if I had a +5 leather armor (+7 total to armor), and +8 bracers of armor (+8 to AC from armor bonus), what would be my AC? I remember back in the day, the sgae answered for 3.5 that you would add the highest armor bonus to the highest enhancement bonus to armor. So, my AC from both items be +8 (the highest bonus from the items), or 13 (+8 from the bracers, +5 from the enhancement bonus from the armor)?
Thanks in advance!
You'd get the +8 from bracers only, as it is better than the +7 from the enchanted armor (and works against incorporeal attacks as well).
Enhancement bonuses apply to a specific item, so you can only combine them if they are enhancing different types of armor (Natural Armor, Armor, and Shield are the usual 'enhancement' targets): Your armor is +2 Armor enhanced to +7, while the bracers are +8 Armor, and you can only have one Armor bonus applied to your AC. Either one would 'stack' with a +5 Shield or a Barkskin spell, however...
The one area of contention here is non-enhancement bonuses on the armor: While your leather armor provides no AC bonus, you could technically enchant it as +1 Spell Resistance Leather Armor, but you should expect table variation on this...
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Both items grant an armor bonus, and thus don't stack. An enhancement bonus to armor bonus is always applied to an item, never to a character, and thus for stacking purposes, a +5 leather armor and a splint mail (+7 native AC) are identical.
Bracers of armor address this directly. If that text didn't exist, then you should indeed get both sets of special abilities, as long as none of those are the same. But the armor bonuses would never stack, because of the rules for bonus stacking.
Bracers of armor and ordinary armor do not stack. If the wearer receives a larger armor bonus from another source, the bracers of armor cease functioning and do not grant their armor bonus or their armor special abilities. If the bracers of armor grant a larger armor bonus, the other source of armor ceases functioning.
Bonus: Bonuses are numerical values that are added to checks and statistical scores. Most bonuses have a type, and as a general rule, bonuses of the same type are not cumulative (do not "stack")—only the greater bonus granted applies.
That's different from 3.5 then. There was a thing called "chahar aina" that you could wear over your armor, giving you extra armor bonus for light armors but also greater speel failure and armor check penalty.
In a Dragon Mag someone asked what would happen if you had a +something chahar aina and a +something chain shirt, and the answer was just as I said. I would argue than having the armor and bracers slots, plus the price of both items, balance the bonus you would receive to your AC, but I understand the logic behind that.
Thanks everyone!
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That's different from 3.5 then. There was a thing called "chahar aina" that you could wear over your armor, giving you extra armor bonus for light armors but also greater speel failure and armor check penalty.
In a Dragon Mag someone asked what would happen if you had a +something chahar aina and a +something chain shirt, and the answer was just as I said. I would argue than having the armor and bracers slots, plus the price of both items, balance the bonus you would receive to your AC, but I understand the logic behind that.
Thanks everyone!
No, it was this way in 3.5 as well: You couldn't stack multiple Armor except for specific 'add on' pieces.
Char-aina was an armor add-on that worked this way, but it has been replaced with Four-Mirror armor (which is a complete armor set rather than something you add to existing armor) in PF: The add-on pieces were poorly thought out (or at least very poorly explained) and have generally been dropped as a 'bad idea' (except for the Armored Kilt which still confuses people on how exactly it is supposed to work). In any case, these items are exceptions as specifically spelled out in their descriptions.
It should probably be noted these 'add-on' pieces were introduced in the Oriental Adventures book, which also happened to limit the base armor selections significantly (no chain shirts in the 'default setting' as I recall)...
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It’s actually different than 3.5. In that version you couldn’t add special abilities to the bracers. And since bonuses of the same type couldn’t stack, there wasn’t much need for the text about one shutting down the effects of the other.
These items appear to be wrist or arm guards. They surround the wearer with an invisible but tangible field of force, granting him an armor bonus of +1 to +8, just as though he were wearing armor. Both bracers must be worn for the magic to be effective.