explain armor
chichi32310
Member Posts: 17
I feel kind of stupid asking this but can someone explain the armor in this im used to rpg armor raising defense as a hole every time I think I have it I must be wrong because the number on the little shield next to my character goes down
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Your defense against physical attacks is determined by your armor class (AC), the *lower* the better. It gets better by using armor , protection items, having high dexterity, shields and also by magical buffs . If an armor or spell says , for example, "+1 to to armor class" it means that it's a bonus and it will make your armor class better , thus, lower.
In combat there are two modifiers that affect attack and defense:
Thac0 ("to hit armor class 0") is the value needed on a dice to hit armor Class 0 , so a if you got thac0 15 you're gonna need a 15 or higher on a 20 sided dice , *however*, if an armor class is worse than 0 you have a greater chance. For example, if you got thac0 15 and the enemy has AC 5, then you need a 10 or higher .
Are you still with me? In summary , the lower the thac0 the higher your chance to hit enemies with a weapon.
Fighters,Paladins,Rangers and monk's thac0 improve every level, a cleric or druid's thac0 improves by 2 every three levels , a thief or bard's thac0 improves by 1 every two levels and a mage or sorcerer's thac0 improves by one every three or four levels (I forgot, sorry) . That said, fighting classes are more reliable in combat than other classes.
So again, lower armor class means better defense and lower thac0 means better attack.
Finally, some armors may offer a bonus against certain types of weapons, check tha armor's description. Remember that certain classes cannot wear certain types of armor, and wizards can't wear any but can wear magical bracers of defense and cast protective spells.
Oh, about critical hits or misses : if you get a natural 20 on a dice it's always a hit, no matter what armor the enemy has, while a natural 1 is always a miss.
So mow go ahead and check your characters sheet at these two points: armor class and thac0 , and look for ways to improve it if necessary. You can improve your thac0 by being proficient in the weapon you're using and for fighting classss by achieving weapon specialization, magical weapons also give a bonus to thac0.
I know you asked about armor only, but I AC and thac0 are so connected that I felt like I had to explain it either.
True story this one, “Quirky” is the perfect word for it. It works fine, it just doesn’t work the way anyone would expect :-)
I’ve often wondered why 2/2.5e was designed this way. My real life p&p experience was limited, maybe it allowed for easier calculations or faster combat rolls or something?