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Stolemykitkats

So yeah. Hello fellow adventurers, Stolemykitkats is my name..... I have the original baldurs gate and I am very new into the game... right now im in boregost, I'll take any advice I could take. thanks! Forgot to mention, What is Thaco and Armor Rating? If you could teach meh, thanks!

Chow

THAC0 is how easily you can hit an enemy: you'll want to get it as low as possible, but most of the time you don't need to bother with it all that much. Just keep your warriors in the front, use weapons they're proficient in, and magical weapons are better than normal ones.

Armor rating, or AC, is how hard it is to hit you. Again, lower is better: a regular unarmored human has an AC of 10, and this is lowered by having a high dexterity and wearing armor.

Welcome to the forums, and hopefully you'll have fun with the game and good time with us.

etagloc

it is THAC0 its a zero and not an O
it means: "to hit armor class 0"

eks.
lets say you have TACH0 16.
you would have to roll a 16 on a 20 sided dice to hit a "monster" with AC0

eks.
if the monster has AC 3 you simply add 3 to your roll. lets say you roll 13... 13+3 = 16 so thats a hit for your TACH0 16 hero.

eks.
if the monster has -3 AC you substract 3. So you would have to roll 19. 19 - 3 = 16

and no matter what you will always get a hit on a roll of 20.

meagloth

Welcome!
What class are you playing?

Stolemykitkats

Sorry I havent been able to get on in a while but, I play as a ranger, and I just got past the gnoll fortress.For some reason I always have much trouble going through the area just before the fortress.. IF your wondering my characters stats, Lvl 3:39HP 18 STR/48, 18 DEX, 18 CON, 12 INT 14 WISDOM 12 Charisma. Imoen, Khalid, Jaheira, Minsc, and DynaHeir Is my team.

reedmilfam

Hamsters and Rangers everywhere rejoice!

THAC0 is odd sometimes because +1 applies to your roll to hit (which drops THAC0). You want LOW THAC0 and LOW AC. Period. It means that you get hit less, and hit others more often. This allows you to help lead with sword and boot (Boo handles the details).

Basillicum

I'm not sure if this is a bug but I tried clicking here a couple days ago but I still haven't met you.

elminster

Hello. Welcome to the forums.

Chow

reedmilfam said:

THAC0 is odd sometimes because +1 applies to your roll to hit (which drops THAC0). You want LOW THAC0 and LOW AC. Period. It means that you get hit less, and hit others more often. This allows you to help lead with sword and boot (Boo handles the details).

As a note, even though you'll want to have low THAC0, you're also looking for weapons with high bonuses, like +3 or something. It can be a little confusing at first.

I remember on my first playthrough, many years ago, I had everyone run around without armor and gave my character 14 dexterity at most, because that was the only way I could keep AC at 10. I thought it was the best possible.

LadyRhian

THAC0, as has been explained, is the number needed to hit Armor Class 0. Every character class starts out with a THAC0 of 20 at level 1. Warriors (Fighters, Rangers and Paladins) have the number go down by 1 with every level. Clerics go down by 1 every 2 levels, Thieves down by 1 every 3 levels, and Wizards by 1 every 4 levels.

AC stands for Armor Class. The lower the number, the harder it is for you to be hit. Armors made of harder materials (like metal armor over leather) protect better, and armors that cover more areas without gaps or holes (plate over chain, banded or splint) also protect better. Magic adds to the protective quality of armor, and dexterity subtracts from AC number because more agile characters are harder to hit, having a better chance to dodge blows regardless of armor.

High strength not only adds to your chance to hit someone, but also to the damage your weapon inflicts, having more force behind the blow. (This only applies to weapons wielded hand to hand, as generally arrow damage is dependent on the force and pull weight of the bow in question.)

CoryNewb

Great canon team! That is the team I used with my first charname on bg1 (but I was a fighter). These guys have tackled all of your questions this far, keep em coming if you have any issues!

Side note: space bar/pause are your friend.

Stolemykitkats

Basillicum said:

I'm not sure if this is a bug but I tried clicking here a couple days ago but I still haven't met you.

Hah. Thank you guys for all the help I understand the game a bit more now.. I'm not that active on the fourms but ill come on sometimes

Wilbur

Hello!
Also if the game is too hard/easy you can adjust the difficulty slider in the game options.

IXEBACHE

hey thanx guys all this time I thought the developers of the game miss spelled "TACO"
also i find it kinda odd that in these video game versions, the lower you number, the better your stats. whereas in the old 'dice rolling' games the higher your number the better your AC. and 'TACO' stats. but then I haven't played an old 'Dice rolling' game since like 1993 or so

Basillicum

@IXEBACHE The ruleset used in Baldur's Gate is actually based on AD&D 2nd from the 1980s.

Wilbur

@IXEBACHE

THAC0 = To Hit Armor Class 0.

Corvino

THAC0 and AC can get confusion due to being referred to as "+1 bonuses" and "-1 to AC". Generally if it's a bonus it's good regardless of the + or - sign, penalties are always bad.

With regard to the Vampiric sword - It's a Trap!