Rules Clarification: Do armor potency runes require investment?

[moosher12]

In the Core Rulebook, pg. 531, it says that "a suit of +1 resilient armor still gives you its item bonus to AC when not invested, but it doesn't give you its magical bonus to saving throws"

The exerpt does not mention whether the it is referring to the armor's original item bonus to AC, or whether it is referring to the armor's item bonus to AC after an Armor Potency.

I would be lead to think, rules as written, it sounds like an Armor Potency rune itself does not need investment, while other armor runes do, as it would be important to rephrase the exerpt as "a suit of +1 resilient armor still gives you its original item bonus to AC when not invested, but doesn't give you its magical bonus to saving throws or AC." if that was the case.

[shroudb]

from the core rulebook:

Quote:

If a suit of armor has any runes, it has the invested trait, requiring you to invest it to get its magical benefits.

so, a +1 armor that's not invested would still give you the AC bonus equal to its +0 counterpart (since that's not part of the magical effect of any rune) but in order to actually benefit from the rune, you would have to invest into it.

[moosher12]

shroudb wrote:

from the core rulebook:

Quote:

If a suit of armor has any runes, it has the invested trait, requiring you to invest it to get its magical benefits.

so, a +1 armor that's not invested would still give you the AC bonus equal to its +0 counterpart (since that's not part of the magical effect of any rune) but in order to actually benefit from the rune, you would have to invest into it.

While that's accurate, the part that brought this up is this is a general rule versus a more specific rule.

"A core principle of Pathfinder is that specific rules override general ones. If two rules conflict, the more specific one takes precedence."

Where the general rule says that the armor needs investment, while the more specific only says that still gives "its item bonus to AC." and only loses "its magical bonuses to saving throws"

[Cordell Kintner]

It means the normal item bonus, not the increased item bonus from potency runes, as that increase is a magical benefit which requires investing.

[Lucerious]

The basic rule with magic items seems to be that if one wears it, then one must invest in it.

[breithauptclan]

Since you can invest items that you get later in the day when you find them - not just during morning preparations - the problem is somewhat moot. 99.999% of the time if you find and put on a new set of armor that has runes, you are going to invest the armor in the process.

But in that 0.001% of the time when you put on magical armor and don't invest it, the rule will do what it says. But you need to quote the full rule.

Investing Magic Items wrote:

You can still gain the mundane benefits of an item if you don't invest it. A suit of +1 resilient armor still gives you its item bonus to AC when not invested, but it doesn't give its magical bonus to saving throws, and winged boots still protect your feet even though you can't activate them to fly.

So clearly the rules are consistent. Both the specific rule for investing armor and the general rule for investing magical items say that if you don't invest the armor then you will only be wearing the equivalent of mundane armor and have no magical effects or bonuses added to it.