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Message: <blockquote data-quote="juggerulez" data-source="post: 6726200" data-attributes="member: 98250">the main issue about beasts is about their "natural armor". It's not an armor per say (it's not something it dons) but it is still a "protective item" which counts as armor.technically you should be able to disregard your natural armor in order to benefit of better options, such as monk's and barbarian's unarmored defense, magic armor spell, and so forth. This means that you *override* your natural armor with the enhancement of your chosing, i.e. as monk bear, your ac would be 10+wis+dex instead of 11+dex (11 because your natural armor works as if it was a padded armor, mechanics wise, increasing your base ac from 10 to 11), even magic armor overrides your natural armor, bringing your ac to 13 (13+dex rather than 11+dex).What you *can't* actually do is stacking "base armor modifiers", such as magic armor, with your unarmored defense. They won't stack. never.it's a bit confusing because there is no official errata, only tweets, but the AC formula is:*base AC* (1) + *shield bonus* (2) + dexterity + circumstance bonus(es) (3)<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">base AC is always 10, it "gets altered" by donning a suit of armor or gaining a "supernatural enhancement" (e.g. magic armor or unarmored defense or natural armor, which never stack between them). At this given moment in history, you can't get over 18 without fudging with the rules. No, magic suits of armor do NOT increase this value over 18: they have a base AC provided by the type of armor AND THEN add a magic enhancement value in the circumstance bonus slot.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"> shield bonus is the AC increment provided by using a board in your off-hand. You can only benefit from ONE source of shield bonus (i.e. you won't get it twice by using two shields, you Dark Souls Enthusiast <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> ). The type of AC bonus is "Armor (Shield)" which is the only other source of "Armor()" type of AC other than any suit of armor. Suffice to say, this Armor bonus can't go beyond 2 (at the present days) and magically enhanced shields will still provide an armor bonus of 2: the magical enhancement is stored in the "circumstance bonus" section.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"> circumstance bonus(es) are all those bonuses that stack together and come from feats (e.g. duelist), magic enhancements (e.g. the magic component of a suit of armor), spells (e.g. Shield, Shield of Faith), etc. Several bonuses don't stack, that's why you put the magical enhancements of your armor and shield in this section. For instance:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">if you have a magical suit of armor +2, casing "shield of faith" on yourself won't provide you any further ac bonus!</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">You have a plate +1 and a cloak of protection +1? the AC bonus effects won't stack but you will still get the +1 to saving throws!</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">You have a +2 shield and come by a floating shield? you will be able to use both? yes! will their AC bonus stack? nope! not even the armor(shield) component will!</li> </ul></li> </ol>This might not be 100% accurate because i'm not too much into combing the tweet feeds, but should still provide you a general idea of how things work. Rule of thumb: if *by following the PH rules* you can easily reach 19-20 AC on a level 1 character, then you're probably doing something wrong <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />The only classes capable of doing so are the Human Fighters and Paladins (scale mail + shield + medium armor master and 16 DEX + defense fighting style) followed by Human Barbarians (19AC) who cannot benefit of the fighting style. The other classes shouldn't be able to top them (unless going to min-maxing lands) without spells.correct."unarmed attacks" are all those attacks you deliver without involving a weapon of any sort, not even an improvised one. a "non monk" nor a "non tavern brawler feat owner" will always deliver a damage of 1 + str or dex with an unarmed strike. This means you can dish damage with whatever you wish, being it a fist, an elbow, a knee, a head butt, a tail lash... literally whatever. A shapeshifted druid will deliver unarmed attacks as if it was a monk striking with his elbows, but instead he will use the form's features (paws, hooves, etc,) to implement the same mechanics.</blockquote>

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