Thac0 query

elephantpie

Hi there,

My first post here, so apologies if this has been asked/answered elsewhere already...

I've just started a new game of PT:EE, having not played the game since the PC version years ago. My memory of thac0 rules might be a bit rusty, but I'm confused by the combat data I'm getting in the first room of the mortuary.

As I understood it, the to-hit value was calculated by rolling d20, and seeing if the number reached your thac0, adding the enemy's AC to your roll. The thing is, I've been scoring "Hit" with some really terrible rolls - rolling a 3 with the nameless one, or a 4 with morte. TNO doesn't have any obvious modifiers (roll is listed as "3+0 = 3. Hit"), and thac0 is listed as 18. Does this mean that the AC of the zombie workers is something really insane, like 15? I always thought that no armour was AC10...

My only thought was that this might be an invisible product of the new version's difficulty settings, with the system bumping rolls up by 5 or so? Or perhaps I've forgotten how this whole thing works!

Any pointers appreciated.

Cheers!

Zaxares

THAC0 is an abbreviation for "To Hit Armor Class 0". Assuming that the zombie has the worst AC possible (which is indeed 10, although it could technically be worse if the zombie has any negative modifiers to their AC), that means that your Nameless One, with a THAC0 of 18, would have to roll 8 or higher (18, minus the zombie's AC 10) to hit the zombie.

I haven't gotten around to playing PST:EE yet, but the difficulty may indeed be factoring in somewhere. I think if you're playing on "Story" difficulty, you get a ton of bonuses (to the point where it's practically impossible to lose fights).

elephantpie

Hmm, yep that fits with what I thought. That is weird, then... A roll of 3 getting a hit with thac0 of 18 (for Nameless One), and a roll of 4 getting a hit with thac0 19 (for Morte), both seem to require a crazy AC of 15.

Playing on default difficulty setting (slider at 3/5), so wouldn't expect story mode buffer on this? But I only tried the first two rooms of the Mortuary, so perhaps there's a mini tutorial mode going on in the background that will ease off after the opening sequences.

OlvynChuru

@elephantpie Actually, you were right: the zombies have an AC of 15. I looked up the creature file of the Mortuary zombies, and they have AC 15:

elephantpie

Aha thanks OlvynChuru!

Guess there's no AC ceiling at 10 then. Those poor zombie workers - five points worse than no armour at all. Sheesh.

ElysianEchoes

I guess every stiff limb increases AC by one.

Zaxares

Haha, so Black Isle must have decided to make the initial zombies even weaker than normal. XD Under PnP rules, the baseline AC is 10 before any modifiers start getting added on. Well, mystery solved! Thanks Olvyn.

Insultion

It makes sense, to be fair. The dusties are pickling the poor sods, after all.

Zaxares

Maybe they're removing the poor sods' bones (for sale to unscrupulous necromancers) and substituting them with plywood rods purchased from an infamous gnomish clan in Faerun. XD

sarevok57

if you think 15 AC is bad, in bg1 rats of an AC of 20

which means even if a mage was dual wielding with weapons that it wasn't proficient with with 3 STR could still hit a rat without needing natural 20s to do it ( just need a 12 in the main hand and 16 in the off hand )

Zaxares

Sure puts Reevor's laziness to clean out his own warehouse in a new light, doesn't it? XD