Tiny armor

[shai-hulud]

According to the chart in the SRD, armor for tiny or smaller creatures only offers half the AC of the same armor in larger sizes. Is this true for shields, as well? What AC bonus would Padded armor confer to a Tiny creature? Would it be +0? What about a Tiny Light Shield?

Edit:

Said chart is located here: SRD

The Tiny or smaller line has a superscript 1 with a footnote on the chart that says, "Divide armor bonus by 2."

 

[Ahnehnois]

The default rule is to round fractions down and the text doesn't say otherwise, so I'd have to say unenchanted tiny padded armor is +0; you'd need leather to get +1.

The text above the table refers to "armor and shields" as obeying these rules, but for "costs and weights" and the AC bonus note does specify the "armor bonus" is halved, so I could see shields not being halved but it's a bit unclear. If you halved the shield bonus and rounded that down that'd be tough, but not unfair, IMO.

I don't see anything in the FAQ or know of any other sources on the matter. However, I'm inclined to say the bonuses should be low on the basis of face validity. How much would tiny armor really do to stop the fist of a medium creature (let alone a weapon)? Not much.

It's worth noting that magical enhancements work normally-they don't get halved.

 

[pawsplay]

Technically, magical armor grants an enhancement to armor bonus. But I think it's fair to say that statement refers to the armor bonus of the worn armor, not to any armor bonus gained by a Tiny character.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Technically, magical armor grants an enhancement to armor bonus. But I think it's fair to say that statement refers to the armor bonus of the worn armor, not to any armor bonus gained by a Tiny character.

Yes, that is very fair to say. There's no good reason race choice should make all your armor enhancements cost double. Even non-humanoid forms don't have to take that kind of financial pain.

Shields: It's technically a shield bonus, not an armor bonus. Aside from tower shields (almost never used, IME), ruling it's halved would mean only heavy shields make a difference. I'd not halve them, but I could see "realism" arguments against that.

 

[pawsplay]

A Tiny character's shield covers as much of their body as a Huge creature's shield covers of theirs. Since shields work mainly by blocking rather than stopping penetrating hits, I think it words. Now, this does get into strange territory when a Large adamantine greataxe is used against a Tiny wooen shield, but D&D is pretty abstract on item breakage. If the shield is meant to be ineffective, the larger character would just sunder it.

 

[udalrich]

I don't see anything in the FAQ or know of any other sources on the matter. However, I'm inclined to say the bonuses should be low on the basis of face validity. How much would tiny armor really do to stop the fist of a medium creature (let alone a weapon)? Not much.

I'd expect it to be about as effective as a Medium creature's armor against the attack of a Huge creature. In either case the attacker is two sizes bigger.