magic bonus that stack or not.. some help plz

[Kerilstrasz]

Ok.. what i know..

assume chainshirt with +5 bonus to AC
assume shield with +5 deflection bonus to AC
assume neck of +5 Natural armor bonus to AC

because all of these are different types of bonus they stack (right?)
if all or 2 of the above had the same type of bonus they overlap and you get less..

the question is about ranged weapons and ammunition...
assume bow with +5 magic bonus
assume arrow with +5 magic bonus
the total is 5 or 10??? are there different kind of bonuses that i could apply?

Note: I m interested for "to hit" effects, not damage..

[Gildedragon]

You mean enhancement?
Yeah they don't stack.

however if you had a +5 bow and a
+1 flaming freezing acidic shocking arrow you'd get a

+5 flaming freezing acidic shocking attack

Ditto if you had an arrow or bow some of its to-hit bonus came from luck or an antipathy towards a creature type

[Glimbur]

Because the enhancement bonuses on the bow and arrow don't stack, and you are focused on hitting better, you'll have to look at special enhancement that help you hit better.

-Brilliant Energy ammunition is expensive, and not helpful against dragons or other monsters, but it does let you ignore armor and shield bonuses.

-Distance on your bow will very occasionally help you hit better.

-Bane, on the part that already has more enhancement, will improve your enhancement. (as an aside, Bane arrows are nice for the +2d6 damage even if the bow has more enhancement than them.)

-Ghost Touch is, again, situationally helpful for hitting more often.

-Seeking is probably the best bang for your buck in terms of +hit and not enhancement. But it depends on how often your enemies have miss chance.

-Speed is another attack, so if you don't get Haste often it might be nice. Pricey though.

In the Magic Item Compendium...

-Illusion Bane is similar to Seeking and good for the same reasons.

That's all I could find. There are, of course, also spells that will help but that's a larger list.

[TuggyNE]

Ok.. what i know..

assume chainshirt with +5 bonus to AC
assume shield with +5 deflection bonus to AC
assume neck of +5 Natural armor bonus to AC

Shields do not, in general, provide deflection bonuses. They provide shield bonuses (and plusses give them enhancement bonuses to their shield bonus). An item that does give a deflection bonus is the ring of protection.

So a +5 chain shirt has a +9 armor bonus, a +5 heavy shield has a +7 shield bonus, and ring and amulet can give +5 deflection and natural armor bonuses respectively.

[Kerilstrasz]

Shields do not, in general, provide deflection bonuses. They provide shield bonuses (and plusses give them enhancement bonuses to their shield bonus). An item that does give a deflection bonus is the ring of protection.

So a +5 chain shirt has a +9 armor bonus, a +5 heavy shield has a +7 shield bonus, and ring and amulet can give +5 deflection and natural armor bonuses respectively.

so when it comes to armors, enchantment bonus is "Armor" bonus and on shields enchantment bonus is "shield" bonus? so i treat them as defferent types so they stack???

[TuggyNE]

so when it comes to armors, enchantment bonus is "Armor" bonus and on shields enchantment bonus is "shield" bonus? so i treat them as defferent types so they stack???

More precisely, they're enhancement bonuses to shield or armor bonuses. Similarly, the amulet of natural armor actually gives an enhancement bonus to natural armor, so it stacks with races that have natural armor, with magic armor/shields, and so on.

[Kristinn]

so when it comes to armors, enchantment bonus is "Armor" bonus and on shields enchantment bonus is "shield" bonus? so i treat them as defferent types so they stack???

An armor grants an armor bonus to AC. A +X enchantment on an armor grants an enhancement (not enchantment, notice the terminology) bonus to the armor bonus.

A non-magic breastplate has a +5 armor bonus to AC.
A +5 magic breastplate has a +10 armor bonus to AC.

There are no stacking issues in this case, as the enhancement bonus on the magic breastplate applies NOT to AC, it applies to the armor bonus of the armor.

Similarly, a heavy shield grants a +2 shield bonus to AC. An +5 enchantment on a heavy shield grants a +5 enhancement bonus (notice again the terminology) to the shield bonus of the shield. The shield bonus now granted to AC is +7.

Again there are no stacking issues:
The armor bonus of your armor and the shield bonus of your shield are increased by separate enhancement bonuses.
Your AC is increased by an armor bonus and a shield bonus.

[Harrow]

Yes, the enhancement bonus on armor and shields is a bonus to your armor bonus. Think of them like Barkskin, which increases your natural armor bonus.