natural Armor Defense bonus

[ZorroGames]

Not sure I understand this. Please explain. Probably obvious but Druids get exactly what when they use “natural armor bonus”?

Last night it as explained to my wife that you get the armor class of the animal shape unless you are monk or barbarian or have used magic like Blur and Barkskin. Period.

Natural Armor: 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your natural armor bonus. This is a calculation method typically used only by monsters and NPCs, although it is also relevant to a druid or another character who assumes a form that has natural armor.

[hymer]

Well, Blur doesn't affect your AC, and there are any number of other ways the AC can be affected than spells. Still...

If you are a barbarian, you can (if the DM lets you) choose between the animal's normal AC (10 + natural armor bonus + dex bonus) or the Unarmored Defense given by the barbarian class (10 + con bonus + dex bonus).
If you are a monk, you can (if the DM lets you) choose between the animal's normal AC (10 + natural armor bonus + dex bonus) or the Unarmored Defense given by the monk class (10 + wis bonus + dex bonus).
If you have Barkskin running on yourself, your AC is never lower than 16. It doesn't give any bonus to your AC, just sets a specific floor, which takes over from any other calculation if the AC would otherwise be below 16.

Those are the basic ways to calculate your AC in wild shape (not counting barding, which is armour for animals). After this basic way to calculate AC has been done, you can then add on bonuses from magical items, Haste spells, etc. It's very important to distinguish between the stuff that gives your basic AC (which are mutually exclusive), and the stuff that gives a flat bonus to your AC (which stack with each other and the basic AC).

[Unoriginal]

Not sure I understand this. Please explain. Probably obvious but Druids get exactly what when they use “natural armor bonus”?

Last night it as explained to my wife that you get the armor class of the animal shape unless you are monk or barbarian or have used magic like Blur and Barkskin. Period.

Natural Armor: 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your natural armor bonus. This is a calculation method typically used only by monsters and NPCs, although it is also relevant to a druid or another character who assumes a form that has natural armor.

There is no "natural armor bonus" for monsters. Natural armor is a fixed armor, just like leather armor is fixed at 12 AC and plate armor is fixed at 18.

Some monsters have a natural armor and a DEX mod already included.

So if you have an animal with 13 AC (natural armor), and the Druid turns into this animal, they'll have 13 AC. If the Druid has Monk or Barbarian levels and their AC from Unarmored Defense is higher than 13, they can use the higher AC. And with Barkskin cast on them they can't have a lower AC than 16.

[ZorroGames]

Edit: Answered above. Timing is everything.

Just what the heck is “natural armor bonus?” That is the key question in this case.

When I asked the DM I got a blank look. Pause. “You just use the AC in the statblock.”

Let’s ignore CR limits for a theoretical comparison.

So a Tiger is AC 12 DE +2 - no natural armor listed.

So a Polar Bear is AC 13 DE +0 - natural armor listed.

Is the benefit of “natural armor” the mere fact that the AC includes a built in bonus?

[Maxilian]

Edit: Answered above. Timing is everything.

Just what the heck is “natural armor bonus?” That is the key question in this case.

When I asked the DM I got a blank look. Pause. “You just use the AC in the statblock.”


Its as your DM says, regardless if it says natural armor or not, you use the AC in the statblock. (no +, no -, unless an ability states otherwise -examples posted above-)

[Requilac]

Edit: Answered above. Timing is everything.

Just what the heck is “natural armor bonus?” That is the key question in this case.

When I asked the DM I got a blank look. Pause. “You just use the AC in the statblock.”

Let’s ignore CR limits for a theoretical comparison.

So a Tiger is AC 12 DE +2 - no natural armor listed.

So a Polar Bear is AC 13 DE +0 - natural armor listed.

Is the benefit of “natural armor” the mere fact that the AC includes a built in bonus?

The bolded statement is true. If a monster has an AC which is higher than 10 + its dexterity modifier, it gets some sort of armor. If this is a humanoid typically it is a manufactured armor, but if it is a monster it is natural armor. The only reason natural armor exists is as an explanation for why a monster's AC is such a higher number. Which is why the polar bear has natural armor, because 10 + its dex modifier would only be 10, but it has 13 AC, so it has natural armor listed to explain why. The tiger doesn't have it because its AC is 12 which is 10+ its dex modifier. That's all there is to it, all natural armor is is a bonus to AC which doesn't come from its dex modifier. Page 276 of the DMG under the Armor Class secton has more info on this matter.