magic armor enhancement bonus and touch attacks

[Davelozzi]

I know that the armor bonus for wearing armor does not apply to touch attacks, but does the enhancement bonus granted by magic armor apply?

 

[Camarath]

No. The Enhancement Bonus on your armor is still counts as an Armor bonus so it does not apply against touch attacks.

 

[The Souljourner]

Yeah, the thing it's enhancing is actually the armor's "Armor Bonus". It has a +3 enhancement to it's armor bonus. We usually abbreviate that to say it has a +3 enhancement bonus, but that's not exactly accurate.

Even if it had a +3 luck bonus to the armor bonus (it's lucky I found such good armor!), it still wouldn't count towards touch attacks, because the thing it's modifying, "Armor Bonus", doesn't apply to touch attacks.

-The Souljourner

 

[Davelozzi]

No. The Enhancement Bonus on your armor is still counts as an Armor bonus so it does not apply against touch attacks.

Thanks for th quick response. Is that actually specified anywhere in the rules or is that just your understanding. I flipped around but couldn't find anything concrete myself.

 

[Camarath]

Thanks for th quick response. Is that actually specified anywhere in the rules or is that just your understanding. I flipped around but couldn't find anything concrete myself.

Table: Estimating Magic Item Gold Piece Values
Effect Base Price Example
Armor bonus (enhancement) Bonus squared x 1,000 gp +1 chainmail
AC bonus (deflection) Bonus squared x 2,000 gp Ring of protection +3
AC bonus (other)1 Bonus squared x 2,500 gp Ioun stone, dusty rose prism

ARMOR
In general, magic armor protects the wearer to a greater extent than nonmagical armor. Magic armor bonuses are enhancement bonuses, never rise above +5, and stack with regular armor bonuses (and with shield and magic shield enhancement bonuses). All magic armor is also masterwork armor, reducing armor check penalties by 1.

Note that the Armor bonus is not that same thing as armor class.

ARMOR CLASS
Your Armor Class (AC) represents how hard it is for opponents to land a solid, damaging blow on you. It’s the attack roll result that an opponent needs to achieve to hit you. Your AC is equal to the following: 10 + armor bonus + shield bonus + Dexterity modifier + size modifier

 

[Davelozzi]

Excellent, you have convinced me, thanks!

 

[dcollins]

To me the clearest indication of this is that DMG Table 8-1: Bonuses From Magic (3.0 DMG p. 177) indicates that an "Enhancement" bonus "Improves: Armor's bonus". That is, it increases the actual armor bonus (not itself a bonus to AC).

 

[Kemrain]

Is there a way to make armor that magically improves your AC beyond what the armor gives, and not give an enhancement bonus to it's armor bonus? Armor with Force shielding or something? Armor that boosts Dexterity? What if I wanted armor that helped against incorporeal touch attacks?

- Kemrain the Curious

 

[The Souljourner]

Ghost Touch armor (a +3 ability) makes your armor's armor bonus count against incorporeal attacks (technically incorporeal attacks shouldn't be called touch attacks, they're not, it's just that your armor bonus generally doesn't help, which means they act a lot like touch attacks most of the time).

You could add a special ability to your armor to give you a deflection bonus to AC or a boost to your dexterity... its the same as adding abilities onto any item - the rules are in the DMG under item creation.

-The Souljourner