Reduce person + armor

[Kamai]

I have a small character with armor that has gotten of an item that does continuous reduce person. The character is currently using a chain shirt. Now it says in the 3.5 PH, pg123, in determining the cost and weight of armor, that armor made for tiny and smaller creatures only gives half of its armor bonus. Would the armor reduced by the reduce person effect have this same effect, and if so, what are good reasons for doing so?

 

[Starbuck_II]

I have a small character with armor that has gotten of an item that does continuous reduce person. The character is currently using a chain shirt. Now it says in the 3.5 PH, pg123, in determining the cost and weight of armor, that armor made for tiny and smaller creatures only gives half of its armor bonus. Would the armor reduced by the reduce person effect have this same effect, and if so, what are good reasons for doing so?

Yes, but only if you are a small person reduced to tiny.

Why they reduce the armor bonus? I haven't a clue but they decided to.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Ok, I've got a related question.

In the instance of going Small --> Tiny, would only the base bonus of the armor get halved,* or would the enhancement bonus also be affected? I would never let that happen, but something tells me RAW says yes.

*And, I think this is one of those instances that should be an exception to the "round down fractions" rule.

 

[Angrydad]

Ok, I've got a related question.

In the instance of going Small --> Tiny, would only the base bonus of the armor get halved,* or would the enhancement bonus also be affected? I would never let that happen, but something tells me RAW says yes.

*And, I think this is one of those instances that should be an exception to the "round down fractions" rule.

The only conceiveable reason I can think of for halving the armor value as it gets smaller is to prevent people from gaining a good AC bonus from armor and then shrinking themselves down to size Tiny to gain further AC bonuses for being small. There's also no reason to reduce the enhancement bonus for getting smaller. That'd be my ruling on the whole scenario.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Well, I thought RAW might reduce enhancement bonus because the enhancement bonus adds to the total armor bonus of the armor and counts as part of the armor's benefit to AC, or some such.

 

[Runestar]

I see no reason why smaller armour would grant a lower AC. It still covers the same proportion of the smaller PC's body compared to a medium-sized suit of armour on a human, or a large suit of armour on an ogre or giant.

You don't see huge fullplates granting 3 times their normal AC, do you? Nor would colossal fullplate barding grant the tarrasque an extra +64 AC...

Are you sure you are reading the PHB correctly? No such rule exists to the best of my knowledge. Small and medium sized armour cost the same as far as I can remember...

 

[Kylas]

While were on the subject... does magical amour normally re size to fit wearer? Does this resizing go through different size categories or only within the current size.

 

[Runestar]

Magic weapons and armour do not automatically resize to fit wearers of different sizes, but I think a concession can be made for people of the same size category but of different builds (since 3e does not bother with such a distinction). Else, the various pricing guidelines would make no sense (why bother spending 8x the cost to craft a colossal fullplate, when you can just make it +1 and have it resize?

Other magic eq (such as cloaks, gloves, boots etc) do though.

 

[irdeggman]

Magic weapons and armour do not automatically resize to fit wearers of different sizes, but I think a concession can be made for people of the same size category but of different builds (since 3e does not bother with such a distinction). Else, the various pricing guidelines would make no sense (why bother spending 8x the cost to craft a colossal fullplate, when you can just make it +1 and have it resize?

Other magic eq (such as cloaks, gloves, boots etc) do though.

Rules Compendium pg 83

"As long as you're the same size category and the the same general shape as the armor's original owner, the armor functions normally for you. . . .Armor doesn't resize to fit a wearer of a different size category, nor does armor constructed for a humanoid-shaped creature fit a non-humanoid shaped creature."

 

[irdeggman]

I see no reason why smaller armour would grant a lower AC. It still covers the same proportion of the smaller PC's body compared to a medium-sized suit of armour on a human, or a large suit of armour on an ogre or giant.

You don't see huge fullplates granting 3 times their normal AC, do you? Nor would colossal fullplate barding grant the tarrasque an extra +64 AC...

Are you sure you are reading the PHB correctly? No such rule exists to the best of my knowledge. Small and medium sized armour cost the same as far as I can remember...

Note on table at bottom of page 123 (where it talks about multipliers for weight and cost for different sizes of armor)

"Divide armor bonus by 2" {for tiny or smaller armors}

But cost is the x1 multiplier for small and medium armors.