Magic Armor?

[gallagher]

hey, i was wondering, i couldnt find the table online and i dont currently have any books in front of me, but what does adding a +1 modifier do for armor?

say i had Masterwork Full Plate, which is a +8 armor, max dex of 2, check penalty of -6... what would a +1 (and additional plusses) do for my armor? does it increase my AC? decrease the check penalty?

[PairO'Dice Lost]

AC goes up by +1, and that's about it. Additional pluses up to +5 increase AC by that much, and you can add special abilities up to a +5 equivalent as well.

[Temotei]

In general, magic armor protects the wearer to a greater extent than nonmagical armor. Magic armor bonuses are enhancement bonuses, never rise above +5, and stack with regular armor bonuses (and with shield and magic shield enhancement bonuses). All magic armor is also masterwork armor, reducing armor check penalties by 1.

From the SRD.

[Hawriel]

The enchantment bonus also is added to saves to prevent distruction of an enchanted item.

[sonofzeal]

"Each +1 of enhancement bonus adds 2 to the hardness of armor, a weapon, or a shield and +10 to the item’s hit points."

[awa]

keep in mind also that all magic items are also masterwork which lowers armor check penalty by one (was not sure if you had included that in)

[Vizzerdrix]

And can make the armor give off light as a torch (or is that just weapons?)

[herrhauptmann]

Weapons only. 30% chance for randomly generated items.

[Grumman]

AC goes up by +1, and that's about it. Additional pluses up to +5 increase AC by that much, and you can add special abilities up to a +5 equivalent as well.
Not quite: the maximums are (enhancement) ≤ 5 and (enhancement) + (special) ≤ 10. This means you can have more than +5 worth of special abilities if you don't have the maximum enhancement bonus.

[Vizzerdrix]

Weapons only. 30% chance for randomly generated items.

Ah. Good thing for throwing weapons and ammo then.

[gorfnab]

Ah. Good thing for throwing weapons and ammo then.

Tracer rounds...I'll have to remember that trick because normally I get non glowing weapons so that I don't give away my position. But glowing arrows or throwing daggers could be of some use in certain situations.

[Grumman]

But glowing arrows or throwing daggers could be of some use in certain situations.
A glowing harpoon would probably be better. You could use other glowing ranged weapons for signalling, but a glowing harpoon is harder for your target to leave behind.