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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 7916247" data-attributes="member: 7006">That was always the most amusing part for me about the whole argument regarding whether cover or shields stack with barkskin (and what the magic of the spell actually does to people when it is cast.)  That through the specific order of doing things that adjust your AC... you can make the case that indeed, your AC should go down if cover/shields bonuses are applied the same way.I talked about it over 5 years ago, but what the hell... I'm just waiting for my kids to go to bed so why not type it all out again cause I find the argument and explanation so amusing!  Here we go!- A naked druid with no DEX bonus has an AC of 10.  Cast barkskin on them, their body hardens like bark and they gain essentially 6 points of "armor" making their AC 16.  Simple!- Same naked druid holding a shield has an AC of 12.  Cast barkskin on them, they now gain only 4 points of "armor" and their AC is 16.  We are now left to wonder why the druid's magic has gotten worse just because the person was holding a shield.  LOL!- Same naked druid behind an arrow slit (3/4ths cover) now has an AC of 15.  Cast barkskin on them, the druid's magic only grants them 1 point of "armor" to make their AC 16.  Wow... that druid's magic really sucks now!  Same exact spell keeps getting worse!  For some reason... the primal gods apparently just don't like druids to stand behind large objects when facing their enemies!- Same naked druid gets barkskin cast on them to start with, granting them 6 points of "armor" and an AC of 16.  Great!  The magic is working at full power again!  Yay!  But then... someone hands the druid a shield.  And the shield does nothing for the druid whatsoever!  Their AC is still stuck at 16.  Which begs the question... did the magic of the barkskin get worse at that exact moment automatically by 2 points through no effort or work on anyone's part (because the two points that kept the AC at 16 were now granted by the shield)... or did the shield itself stop working?  The barkskin spell stayed exactly the same, but the laws of physics regarding large metal objects held in front of a druid no longer applied?  Questions... questions...- And now the kicker... same naked druid stands behind an arrow slit and gets the +5 bonus for AC for 3/4ths cover.  The druid is then handed the shield for +2 more points of AC, giving them a grand total of AC 17.  The druid then has barkskin cast upon them.  What happens?Does the magic from the spell just not work at all... and thus the druid's AC remains at 17 due to cover and shield... or do we go along with the second point in the previous example, where the magic stayed the same and it was the shield that stopped working?!  If that's the explanation, then does the druid's AC drop from 17 back to 16 under the argument that if the shield stopped working when used with a barkskinned druid, then cover should stop working too! Barkskin gives 6 points of AC all the time... and the other things that adjust a druid's AC just don't work. Neither the +2 nor the +5 apply towards AC calculation, and the only thing that works is the flat AC 16 from the spell.Druid Magic!  Gotta love it!  It either powers itself down for absolutely no reason whatsoever in certain situations... or it somehow renders large objects placed in front of druids completely incorporeal!  Which one is it?  Hmm?  Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?!?  <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=":)" /></blockquote>

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