How does natural armor and unarmored defense combine?
I have long wondered how races/species with natural armor gain any advantage from class feats and other effects that come from being unarmored. I may have missed something very clear on this and, if so, I’d really appreciate anyone who can point me in the right direction. But it seems to me that RAW don’t address this, RAI probably count natural armor as armor and therefore prevent that character from ever benefitting from certain class fears etc., but my gut tells me that this feels unfair.
I have often homebrewed a rule that characters with natural armor are so used to this being part of their actual body (rather than worn armor) that they can still benefit from the class feats, adding together the bonuses received from natural armor and feats like unarmored defense.
I am interested to see if anyone else handles it the same or differently, any other insights, and whether the edition you are playing makes a difference to this?