What's with the Armor Class of Drizzt and Shandalar?
OlvynChuru
Member Posts: 3,076
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've heard that Drizzt in Bg1 has -16 AC. How does that make sense? Let's see what he has:
Twinkle gives -2 AC
His armor gives -9 AC
If he somehow had 24 Dex, that would give him -6 AC
So, that's a total of -7 AC, and that's assuming that he has 24 dexterity. I mean I get that the rest of it was given to him simply by setting his AC to a low number, but how does it make sense? I guess the rest of his armor class comes from the suit of plot armor he's secretly wearing. Even if you kill him, that suit automatically resurrects him.
Okay, now about Shandalar. I think his AC is even more ridiculous. I've never been able to hit him with anything other than a natural 20. I mean, sure he's an archmage, but since when do even archmages have such insane armor class?
Twinkle gives -2 AC
His armor gives -9 AC
If he somehow had 24 Dex, that would give him -6 AC
So, that's a total of -7 AC, and that's assuming that he has 24 dexterity. I mean I get that the rest of it was given to him simply by setting his AC to a low number, but how does it make sense? I guess the rest of his armor class comes from the suit of plot armor he's secretly wearing. Even if you kill him, that suit automatically resurrects him.
Okay, now about Shandalar. I think his AC is even more ridiculous. I've never been able to hit him with anything other than a natural 20. I mean, sure he's an archmage, but since when do even archmages have such insane armor class?
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In PnP Drizzt has a base of -8 AC. His stats are found in heroes lorebook but if you can't check that then its also here.
http://www.candlekeep.com/library/articles/drizzt-2nd.htm
Once you factor in that, his 20 dexterity, and the defender you can see where the -14 comes from. It wouldn't otherwise be obvious.
Clearly in the case of Elminster and Shandalar they wanted them to be very difficult to kill. Considering however that these are high level mages giving them extremely low AC is actually being really generous. But for the record Shandalar's AC is -24 after his dexterity bonus is factored in and Elminsters is -13.
I'm fine with these NPCs being extremely overpowered, but giving them much higher AC then they'd normally have with their equipment is kind of nonsensical.
In the case of Shandalar his AC acts as a means of preventing his death prior to him teleporting away. They could have just written his script so that the first thing he does is teleport away at the first sign of danger, but they decided to let him cast a bunch of spells instead.
High AC basically just grants him almost the same thing that he would have for 4 rounds by casting Improved Mantle (which didn't exist in the original game). Its just an easier way of doing that.
Of course it's still a mystery where he gets even -8AC because +4 chainmail and -4 Dex bonus only gets to -3. He'd need to be using all of his defender as defense to get to -8AC.
Not sure where he's getting 5 attacks from either - should be 3.5 by my reckoning.
There was talk of presumably him in an interview with Ray Muzyka many years ago.
http://web.archive.org/web/20020723190746/http://desslock.gamespot.com/features/baldursgate/scinterview-3.html
All these weeks I've been searching an answer. And here's how a F/M/T can end with -25 AC at the end of BG1.
Potion of Defense = 0 AC
Dexterity 25 (from several potions of Mind Focusing that give +3 DEX each) = -6
Helm of Balduran = -7
Claw = - 8
Ring of Protection +2 = -10
Twinkle = -12
Large shield +2 = -15
Cloak of Balduran = - 16
Blur = -19
Improved Invisibility = -23
Protection from Evil = -25
That was quite a task, @Gotural but I still don't understand where another -3 are coming from if it's a solo play
Another -2 AC can come from having a skald sing.
Another -2 AC can come from having a cleric cast Defensive Harmony.
That's a lot of research to try and figure that out though, @bengoshi, bravo.
My unbuffed AC was more in the -12 range.
What I meant in my previous post is that reaching a very low AC isn't that hard for a Mage like Shandalar, but his physical resistances are indeed "cheaty".