Natural armor and unarmored defense class features

Dark-kin can and Ss’erressen do have natural armor as a racial feature.

How does this stack, or work with class features like Unarmored Defense from Barbarian or Monk?

Do they overlap for the most benefit or is it one or the other?

By the standard 5e rules, they stack. Not sure if any changes might come for Arcanis 5e regarding this matter.

Edit:

They do not stack. http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/feature … nuary-2016

Interesting, this change was made at the beginning of the year as previously this wasn’t the case. Glad you brought this up and serves me as a reminder to check the rulings more often than once a year

It should be noted though that a Dark-kin’s bestial hide isn’t Natural Armor (as per the definition of the 5e D&D rules, though it does appear to fit more inline with the Sorcerer’s Draconic Resilience).

Hmm, I wonder if this means the Arcanis gawdz that be will re-take a look at Dark-kin’s Bestial Hide or keep it as concurrent to the 5e ruling you just linked.

Interesting, this change was made at the beginning of the year as previously this wasn’t the case. Glad you brought this up and serves me as a reminder to check the rulings more often than once a year

It should be noted though that a Dark-kin’s bestial hide isn’t Natural Armor (as per the definition of the 5e D&D rules, though it does appear to fit more inline with the Sorcerer’s Draconic Resilience).

Hmm, I wonder if this means the Arcanis gawdz that be will re-take a look at Dark-kin’s Bestial Hide or keep it as concurrent to the 5e ruling you just linked.

If I had to guess, this rule clarification is meant to reduce the no armor wearing, high AC crowd. I mean just as a first level black talon monk in 5th ed, with the racial natural armor, an dex of 16 and a wis of 14, my AC would be 18! 18 is platemail level of defense. So going off the armor in the players handbook 16-18 is very decent AC.

Which is why I was skeptical if they stacked, it seemed to good to be true, and it was.

When written, Bestial Hide was meant to reflect the sorcerer’s feature.

Hm. Are you saying, you think they will change the racial natural armor benefits for Arcanis 5th edition because of this rules change? Or just commenting on its original intention?

If I had to guess, this rule clarification is meant to reduce the no armor wearing, high AC crowd. I mean just as a first level black talon monk in 5th ed, with the racial natural armor, an dex of 16 and a wis of 14, my AC would be 18! 18 is platemail level of defense. So going off the armor in the players handbook 16-18 is very decent AC.

Which is why I was skeptical if they stacked, it seemed to good to be true, and it was.

I hear ya. Prior reading this ruling, my Dark-kin Barb was running around with AC 19 (Bestial Hide, 14 Dex, 16 Con, +Shield). Now, he’ll be a 17 w/shield. Not too shabby for someone wearing no armor at lv. 1.

That being said, Dex based Ss’ressen are still pretty BOSS *nods*

When written, Bestial Hide was meant to reflect the sorcerer’s feature.

Hm. Are you saying, you think they will change the racial natural armor benefits for Arcanis 5th edition because of this rules change? Or just commenting on its original intention?

Commenting on the original intention. I wrote Bestial Hide to reflect the wording of Draconic Resilience, because with 5e math you can’t have race adding to AC; it throws everything off and makes that race too powerful.

Commenting on the original intention. I wrote Bestial Hide to reflect the wording of Draconic Resilience, because with 5e math you can’t have race adding to AC; it throws everything off and makes that race too powerful.

Ah, I had not thought of natural armor causing such havoc within the rules, but a lot of things in 5e are strange. I enjoy the game and yet at the same time miss some aspects of older additions.

What Pedro was essentially saying is that you only get one method of determining your AC. For example, a Monk/Barbarian can use either the Monk’s method or the Barbarian’s. Everything that provides AC either provides a formula, or sets your AC at a specific value. There are very few bonuses in 5e in general, and especially AC bonuses, the Defense fighting style being one notable bonus.