Braceers of Defense AC8

buckbeach

I'm confused as hell about the Armor Class. I thought the lower the better, and then this item comes in to play changing the user to AC 8. So I go to sell it and I can get 1500 gold. Pretty value for something that turns you into a wimp. What am I missing???

kjeron

They have no Strength requirement, and there usable by Mages who cannot wear armor. Otherwise, they belong to vendors and mods.

Alleroz

Bracers are mostly for classes that can't use armor. Like mages.

justfeelinathome

Also, they won't put your AC any higher if it is already lower (because of armor, mainly).

Dex bonuses apply after the fact as well so a mage with the bracers could easily have something like AC 3 (8 - 4 from Dex - 1 from a Ring of Protection).

...still nothing to write home about. Though certainly never hurtful and always nice to fetch a coin.

rapsam2003

justtravelinthrough said:

Also, they won't put your AC any higher if it is already lower (because of armor, mainly).

Dex bonuses apply after the fact as well so a mage with the bracers could easily have something like AC 3 (8 - 4 from Dex - 1 from a Ring of Protection).

...still nothing to write home about. Though certainly never hurtful and always nice to fetch a coin.

Considering that spells such as "Armor" can be cast on top of all that, it helps a bit. I prefer Bracers of Defense AC5 myself, but you don't get those until SoD.

DevardKrown

the Base AC of CHARNAME/party npc's is +10 Naked.
From there the best armor you are wearing is added , not all characters can wear big Shiny Plate armor , so Armor Bracers have a Niche.

lets say you wearing those AC8 Bracers , that would set it down to AC 8 ...then Dexterity Bonus if any , and magical Rings, shields, cloaks, and class Bonus get added. bringing you down to your final AC.
if the example character would be a Mage casting the LVL1 Spell "Shield" on himself he would gain a temporary AC of 4 ..which is Better than the Bracers ...so Dex/Rings and all the doohickeys get calculated from a AC4 instead of 8 making the bracers useless as long as the spell runs.

in General Mages/Sorcerer don't really need them they get a Couple progressively better Armor Spells (going down as far as AC1) but the Bracers go down to a quality of AC6 in BG1 and AC3 in BG2 for people who want to use the Spellslots for something else than just beefing up armor.

Zilber

rapsam2003 said:

justtravelinthrough said:

Also, they won't put your AC any higher if it is already lower (because of armor, mainly).

Dex bonuses apply after the fact as well so a mage with the bracers could easily have something like AC 3 (8 - 4 from Dex - 1 from a Ring of Protection).

...still nothing to write home about. Though certainly never hurtful and always nice to fetch a coin.

Considering that spells such as "Armor" can be cast on top of all that, it helps a bit. I prefer Bracers of Defense AC5 myself, but you don't get those until SoD.

Untrue. Bracers ac8 set the base ac to 8, as does leather armor, as does the armour spell. These don't stack.

BelgarathMTH

Armor spell is AC6. There's a set of bracers that will do the same, which makes the spell moot as soon as you find them.

GreenWarlock

Yes, it would have been nice for armor to give a small level-based boost so that it stayed relevant for longer, but this is how the PnP spell works.

rapsam2003

rapsam2003 said:

Considering that spells such as "Armor" can be cast on top of all that, it helps a bit. I prefer Bracers of Defense AC5 myself, but you don't get those until SoD.

Zilber said:

Untrue. Bracers ac8 set the base ac to 8, as does leather armor, as does the armour spell. These don't stack.

BelgarathMTH said:

Armor spell is AC6. There's a set of bracers that will do the same, which makes the spell moot as soon as you find them.

Notice the use of "such as"? There are other spells that increase mage survivability, such as "Spirit Armor", "Stoneskin", "Blur". Yes, these don't necessarily all increase AC, but they do increase survivability. Increasing AC really doesn't matter for mages once you get other survivability spells. Therefore, you save a spell slot by using items like Bracers of Defense AC5.

BelgarathMTH

@rapsam2003 , My post was merely a correction of the misinformation in Zilber's post. Armor spell sets AC to 6, not 8.

rapsam2003

BelgarathMTH said:

@rapsam2003 , My post was merely a correction of the misinformation in Zilber's post. Armor spell sets AC to 6, not 8.

Fair enough. I apologize if it seemed like I was jumping down your throat.

sarevok57

if im not mistaken the bracers are also very useful for monks, since in BG1EE it seems, monks get an AC bonus, not having their actual AC being affected as they grow up levels, so the bracers could stack with that, but that was back in 1.4, don't know if they changed that or not in the newest patch

Zilber

BelgarathMTH said:

@rapsam2003 , My post was merely a correction of the misinformation in Zilber's post. Armor spell sets AC to 6, not 8.

While the 8 was wrong (sorry) the armor spell is a poor choice for an example of a spell that improves the AC, as it disregards the bracer's value. It sets a new AC, which happens to be better than bracers ac8 (but not ac6). A spell like defensive harmony does improve the AC instead of setting a new one.

Wowo

Bracers AC 8 are better than Leather Armour (also AC 8) due to AC penalties on Leather Armour to particular damage types (vs piercing iirc). In addition, you shouldn't wear both as the penalties still apply.

lunar

Wowo said:

Bracers AC 8 are better than Leather Armour (also AC 8) due to AC penalties on Leather Armour to particular damage types (vs piercing iirc). In addition, you shouldn't wear both as the penalties still apply.

Exactly. Leather offers no protection against bandit arrows, kobold/xvart swords and tasloi spears. Bracers does.