Bracers that stack?

[delericho]

"Enhancement" bonuses were mentioned earlier. These aren't a separate bonus type, but simply an addition or increase to another bonus.

For example, a +2 Enhancement bonus on your armor adds to your Armor Bonus. A +2 Enhancement bonus on your shield would stack with the Enhancement bonus on your armor, since it's enhancing your Shield bonus. A second Enhancement bonus to either armor or shield wouldn't stack though.

Here's a question:

As noted by the OP, dastana provide an armour bonus that explicitly stacks with the armour bonus from padded armour (or some others).

If the padded armour is magical and has an enhancement bonus, this effectively adds to the armour bonus.

Likewise, if the dastana is magical and has an enhancement bonus, this effectively adds to the armour bonus.

But, do the two enhacement bonuses stack? They're both adding to armour bonuses so, per the normal stacking rules they should not, but on the other hand, they're each adding to a different source of that armour bonus and then two sources explicitly do stack, so...

(IMO, the real issue here is the dastana, which probably shouldn't exist, or at the very least they should be re-written: "If worn with light armour, dastana increase the armour bonus by 1. If worn with medium or heavy armour, dastana have no effect. If worn on their own, dastana grant an armour bonus of +1". That way, the stacking issue goes away - even magical dastana, when worn with magical light armour, will only increase the armour bonus by 1.)

 

[Empirate]

I like your retooling of the Dastana, @delericho , but I think that your earlier statement that it "probably shouldn't exist" is entirely more to the point. Dastana are metal bracers. Most armor already includes some form of arm guards. So wearing metal bracers along with it shouldn't do anything. This is reflected in the Dastana rules which say it can only be worn usefully with "padded, leather, or chainshirt armor". These kinds of armor don't have arm guards, so wearing a Dastana with them is fine from a logical standpoint. What is strange is that a Breastplate is not included, and that's where we leave logic behind and go into rulespace.

The mechanical implementation ought not to be for the Dastana to provide an AC bonus on its own; or even to just increase the existing AC bonus of the armor worn beneath the Dastana. Because there already is a way in the rules for getting better AC bonus than "padded, leather, or chainshirt armor". I.e., wear the next best thing! That may bump you up to medium armor in the case of Chainshirts, but whatever, wearing more armor than a Chainshirt will obviously encumber you quite a bit! Why introduce a new mechanic into improving armor types, and a mechanic which plays havoc with the stacking rules, when there's a perfectly fine mechanic already in place?

I'd do away with the Dastana as a mechanical entity entirely, and instead merely have it as a cosmetic thing. You're wearing light armor, but one step better than leather? Call it "leather cuirass along with metal arm guards" all you like, but mechanically, it's just Studded Leather. You want better protection than with a Chain Shirt, maybe by adding something to protect your forearms? Sorry, but that's just so much metal that it bumps your armor up to medium. "Chain Shirt plus metal arm guards" may be your description, but by the rules, you're now wearing what amounts to Chainmail. You want to "go unarmored, but block the occasional blow with your metal wristguards"? Well, mechanically, you're now wearing Padded armor.

 

[Greenfield]

Here's a question:

As noted by the OP, dastana provide an armour bonus that explicitly stacks with the armour bonus from padded armour (or some others).

If the padded armour is magical and has an enhancement bonus, this effectively adds to the armour bonus.

Likewise, if the dastana is magical and has an enhancement bonus, this effectively adds to the armour bonus.

But, do the two enhacement bonuses stack? They're both adding to armour bonuses so, per the normal stacking rules they should not, but on the other hand, they're each adding to a different source of that armour bonus and then two sources explicitly do stack, so...

Since the base Armor Bonuses explicitly stack, and the enhancements are to these bonuses, then yeah,they stack.

That was kind of the point of the original post, in fact.

(IMO, the real issue here is the dastana, which probably shouldn't exist, or at the very least they should be re-written: "If worn with light armour, dastana increase the armour bonus by 1. If worn with medium or heavy armour, dastana have no effect. If worn on their own, dastana grant an armour bonus of +1". That way, the stacking issue goes away - even magical dastana, when worn with magical light armour, will only increase the armour bonus by 1.)

 

[delericho]

Since the base Armor Bonuses explicitly stack, and the enhancements are to these bonuses, then yeah,they stack.

Having checked the SRD... yeah, you're right.

So, I think I'm back to my position that dastana should be disallowed.

 

[javcs]

If you want to get real tricky with armor stacking, dip into Oriental Adventures. It includes both Dastana - and Dastana's close sibling, the Chahar-Aina.
Both are in the Shields and Other Additions section of the table.
I think Dastana and Chahar-Aina were intended to stack with one another, but that isn't explicitly stated.