Reinforced Clothes - Conflict with Mage Armor?

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

The Reinforced Clothes apparently give an armor bonus that does not stack with, for example, the bonus from the Helmet of Armor. Is there a reason? Should it be changed? If so, to what?

[Rayenoir]

It's the fact that in NWN, Mage Armor gives a +1 to the following modifiers:  Armor, Deflection, Dodge, and Natural.  All modifiers except dodge do not stack, so if you have a modifier of +1 or better in any of the four except dodge, then the +1 that MA gives you is disregarded.  *shrug* Just how it works.

Would be nice if the respective spells gave the mods they gave in PnP (like Mage Armor giving just an armor modifier, and Shield giving a shield modifier), but I guess it's a coding limitation or a balance issue. (after all, Mage armor and Shield are both force effects and thus effect touch AC, but NWN can only do touch AC with dodge and deflection modifiers, and if both gave to dodge AC, that'd be pretty broken since all dodge modifiers stack).

[Filatus]

Nah, mage armor can be changed to +4 Armor class bonus. One of the problems is that it would make the Helmet of Armor far to powerful.

[Thunder Pants]

there was a time when mage armor gave it's +4 bonus in only armor bonus, it was moved back to the nwn standard because it was found that this made most armors worthless, especially with the helmet of armor

the problem with the change is mostly that no first level spell should make mithral armor worthless

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

My issue here isn't with the Mage Armor, so much as the Reinforced Clothes. The full Helm benefits stack with normal armor, so why not Reinforced Clothes? All they are is very, very light armor. The question is how to apply the bonus, so that it would stack like normal armor would; the Reinforced Clothes are still just Clothes, only they've got an AC modifier on them, so as far as NWN is concerned, they're magic, despite thier In-Game mundanity.

EDIT: I can already hear the comments about how making Reinforced Clothes act like regular armor in terms of Mechanics, would disrupt the game balance by making them too powerful, but... Really, now. Consider how much effort and skill goes into making just one set of even Iron Reinforced Clothes. And that's only the AC bonus of Padded Armor. All Reinforced Clothing is, is clothing, woven with a bit of metal so as to provide protection while still leaving the wearer totally unencumbered.