Touch AC question...

[IceBear]

I got that. My problem is this: Mage Armor can keep a supernatural incorporeal entity from touching me, but not Joe the Barkeep? Seems odd to me, but maybe it's just me.

Because - at least how I've rationalized it in my games - most touch attacks just have to touch you (or your armor) to pass the effect along. For incorpreal attacks, I believe the being actual has to touch YOU. For example, the spectre's hand passes through your breastplate and where it touchs you, you feel your life force being drawn out. vs The spectre's hand reaches for you but it screams in rage when it's hand fails to pass through your mage armor.

BTW - I'm a little confused by the Joe the Barkeep thing. If he doesn't have mage armor on him, why should be be harder for the spectre to hurt?

IceBear

 

[AuraSeer]

I got that. My problem is this: Mage Armor can keep a supernatural incorporeal entity from touching me, but not Joe the Barkeep?

Perhaps. The wording of that rule is bad. See the thread IceBear linked to.

 

[officeronin]

Wouldn't the dexterity bonus be limited by the armor even in a touch situation? No books handy, but doesn't MW chain have a max Dex of lower than 4?

OfficeRonin

 

[AuraSeer]

Wouldn't the dexterity bonus be limited by the armor even in a touch situation? No books handy, but doesn't MW chain have a max Dex of lower than 4?

Good point. Chainmail has a max dex bonus of +2, and MW-ness doesn't affect that.

So the touch AC is (10 +2 (dex) +5 (deflection) ) = 17.

 

[Doc Ezra]

BTW - I'm a little confused by the Joe the Barkeep thing. If he doesn't have mage armor on him, why should be be harder for the spectre to hurt?

IceBear

Perhaps badly phrased. What I meant was "mage armor can keep a spectre from touching me, but can't keep Joe the Barkeep from touching me." But the thread you linked handles the issue nicely.

 

[IceBear]

Perhaps badly phrased. What I meant was "mage armor can keep a spectre from touching me, but can't keep Joe the Barkeep from touching me." But the thread you linked handles the issue nicely.

Ah ok. So how have you decided to handle incorpreal touch attacks? Just curious.

IceBear

 

[Doc Ezra]

Ah ok. So how have you decided to handle incorpreal touch attacks? Just curious.

IceBear

Not so much as a "touch attack" as "an attack that ignores AC bonuses provided by physical barriers." Makes the most sense to me.