Luminous Armor question

[Zhepna]

Hi,

I never used the spell Luminous Armor and I have a question:
I understand that I cannot use this spell if I use an armor. Can I still use a shield?

[Crake]

Hi,

I never used the spell Luminous Armor and I have a question:
I understand that I cannot use this spell if I use an armor. Can I still use a shield?

You can use luminous armor while wearing other armor, but the bonuses don't stack. You additionally can use a shield, and the bonus will stack, as it's a different kind of bonus.

[Firest Kathon]

To be precise, luminous armor gives an armor bonus to AC, which does not stack with the armor bonus granted by mundane armor. A shield gives a shield bonus to AC, which stacks with the armor bonus. See the stacking modifiers section of the basics chapter (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/theBasics.htm).

[Telonius]

Note that it's only the enhancement bonus that doesn't stack. Other armor abilities would still function normally. So if you have a +1 Light Fortification Ghost Touch Padded Armor, and cast Luminous Armor, your resulting coverage would be 5 AC from the Luminous Armor, plus Light Fortification and Ghost Touch.

[SnugUndies]

Note that it's only the enhancement bonus that doesn't stack. Other armor abilities would still function normally. So if you have a +1 Light Fortification Ghost Touch Padded Armor, and cast Luminous Armor, your resulting coverage would be 5 AC from the Luminous Armor, plus Light Fortification and Ghost Touch.

Well hold on, including the Ghost Touch enhancement seems like kind of a misleading choice. It makes the enhancement and armor bonus of the armor it's applied to count against incorporeal attacks. Thus, you'd get the padded armor's +2 armor bonus against incorporeal creatures, not the +5 from luminous armor.

Now, the bonus from luminous armor could inherently apply against incorporeal attacks, making the Ghost Touch property of the padded armor redundant... but that's not entirely clear. Shield (and mage armor) are distinctly force effects, which applies against incorporeal touch attacks, but luminous armor is described as a "protective aura of light," and it's anyone's guess whether light as a material has similar properties. Yet again, Book of Exalted Deeds isn't the most well-edited work out there.

[Troacctid]

Now, the bonus from luminous armor could inherently apply against incorporeal attacks, making the Ghost Touch property of the padded armor redundant... but that's not entirely clear. Shield (and mage armor) are distinctly force effects, which applies against incorporeal touch attacks, but luminous armor is described as a "protective aura of light," and it's anyone's guess whether light as a material has similar properties. Yet again, Book of Exalted Deeds isn't the most well-edited work out there.
It definitively does not. Nothing in the text suggests that it would. However, the -4 penalty from the light would apply to incorporeal attackers normally.

[SnugUndies]

It definitively does not. Nothing in the text suggests that it would. However, the -4 penalty from the light would apply to incorporeal attackers normally.

Yes indeed, hence my point.