Mage armor effect in 5E

[Tuendal]

So i have a player that is playing a wizard and has used mage armor. The spell shows AC:3 in the effects in combat tracker. Should FG recognize that effect and add that three ac to the characters base ac when attack rolls are made, or is this where it is just there as a show piece and my player should adjust the ac on his character sheet? I tried to adjust it in the combat tracker but apparently i'm not able to in the offense drop down on the GM's combat tracker.

Also, this brings up a question i had, why is AC not visible in the combat tracker? Players can pull up their party sheet, but seems like the should be able to see their own/party's ac at least.

[damned]

Hi Tuendal there is only so much room in the Combat Tracker. Around the table you cant see everyones AC either. You can add it or vote for it on the Wishlist if you like.

Effects dont change the Character Sheet display value - but if you look at the rolls you will see it is being accounted for.

[Tuendal]

Damned, that is what i thought was supposed to happen, but i'm not seeing it in the chat log.

Here is where the character cast Mage Armor - so his character shows AC:3 in the combat tracker. I targeted him with a goblin and did an attack roll

Effect ['AC: 3'] -> [to Balthazar]
Goblin: [ATTACK (M)] Scimitar [1d20+4 = 11]
Attack [11] -> [at Balthazar] [HIT]

So if Balthazar has a base AC of 11 with the effect of AC:3 it should be a 14, but as you can see the goblin rolled an 11 and that shows a hit against when it should have missed with an AC of 14. Correct?

I don't mind it not showing the change, but apparently it isn't calculating the effect (or we haven't done something properly - which is probably more likely the case).

[Tuendal]

ok, i think i figured out what we were doing wrong. The goblin already had him targetted and when he cast mage armor while we were doing our testing, it appears that that doesn't update the goblin's attack. If i untargetted and then re-target i get the following now.

Balthazar: Mage Armor
Effect ['AC: 3'] -> [to Balthazar]
GM: [EFFECT] AC: 3 [UNITS HR] [8]
Goblin: [ATTACK (M)] Scimitar [1d20+4 = 11]
Attack [11] -> [at Balthazar] [HIT]
Effect ['AC: 3'] -> [to Tarv'ish] [by Balthazar]
Goblin: [ATTACK (R)] Shortbow [1d20+4 = 12]
Attack [12] -> [at Tarv'ish] [HIT]
Goblin: [ATTACK (M)] Scimitar [1d20+4 = 23]

.. Here i removed all targets the goblin had and reapplied and now i see the following
Attack [23] -> [at Tarv'ish] [DEF EFFECTS +3] [HIT] <- So now i see the DEF EFFECTS.
Goblin: [ATTACK (M)] Scimitar [1d20+4 = 15]
Attack [15] -> [at Tarv'ish] [DEF EFFECTS +3] [HIT]
Goblin: [ATTACK (M)] Scimitar [1d20+4 = 22]
Attack [22] -> [at Tarv'ish] [DEF EFFECTS +3] [HIT]
Goblin: [ATTACK (M)] Scimitar [1d20+4 = 11]
Attack [11] -> [at Tarv'ish] [DEF EFFECTS +3] [MISS]
Goblin: [ATTACK (R)] Shortbow [1d20+4 = 11]
Attack [11] -> [at Tarv'ish] [DEF EFFECTS +3] [MISS]
Goblin: [ATTACK (M)] Scimitar [1d20+4 = 15]
Attack [15] -> [at Balthazar] [DEF EFFECTS +3] [HIT]

Is this a possible bug where casting this doesn't update the goblin's attack if the caster is already targeted?

[damned]

I dont think its targetting - I just did a demo and it all worked - I applied the mage armour after the targetting was in place..
You are right in that it wasnt working - you can see the difference in the descriptions...

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=15574&d=1475892695

[Tuendal]

Ok, so let me ask this question because this seems to be part of the issue at least in how we are doing this. When the player casts mage armor this is what i see in the combat tracker.

expanding the effects line in the GM combat tracker, i see

On VSBL/ALL AC:3 0 (duration) 11 (initiative to adjust on) and on the line below AC:3 i see Targets: Balthazar. While this is in there, it seems the rolls don't count the effect. Now if i click on it, it goes away, and then the Def Effects start to show up.

There must be something we are doing wrong that I'm not seeing.

[Tuendal]

15575

So in the shot above is what i think is the problem. Not sure why.

[damned]

I dragged the Effect button from the spell section on to my Wizard before running my test above.
It produced the message output as per above graphic.
I did have targetting first applied - I just dragged it straight to my wizard in the CT.
It doesnt show a Target in the CT entry on mine the way Ive done it.

[Tuendal]

ok, figured out where we screwed up. Looks like one of us jacked with the "Effect Target" for mage armor, with that set to self, it was doing some funky stuff.

[El Condoro]

We have a sorceror with mage armor, too. Since MA is 8 hours duration, effectively it is always ON. The sorceror has told me this is his default spell, so he casts it and loses a 1st-level slot. I have an effect that is added to the CT without a duration (Mage Armor;AC: 3) and it just stays there. The effect is always applied when the sorceror is (melee, ranged) attacked.

[LordEntrails]

We do it the way El Condoro does and have never seen any problem. I can test something if needed.

[Tuendal]

that's probably what we will do since it is an 8hr spell, my problem was trying to figure out why it wasn't adding the effect to the goblin's roll during our testing. It turns out that we messed with the Effects Target and set it to self, which prevented FG from recognizing the effect correctly. I created another wizard with mage armor and compared the two which is how i found the issue. Just a normal PEBKAC issue (Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair)

[Zacchaeus]

Indeed, effect targeting is a specific type of targeting. See here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/5E_Effects#Effect_Targeting) for more information. Mage Armour may be cast on a target or self so I would normally leave the targeting blank and just drag it to the target whether that is the caster or another party member.