AC issue - bracers combined with armour
reduke
Member Posts: 8
Running BG2 Beta, no mods.
I have a thief wearing Bracers AC3. If I then also equip them with Aegers Hide +3, which is AC3 but AC5 for piercing and missile, then this overrides the bracers AC3 setting for piercing and missile, and the char sheet shows the +2 modifiers.
It doesn't matter which I equip first.
Is this intended? It doesn't seem like it should be.
I have a thief wearing Bracers AC3. If I then also equip them with Aegers Hide +3, which is AC3 but AC5 for piercing and missile, then this overrides the bracers AC3 setting for piercing and missile, and the char sheet shows the +2 modifiers.
It doesn't matter which I equip first.
Is this intended? It doesn't seem like it should be.
0
Comments
It's probably intended, or at least an unavoidable game limitation, because they're basically effects that the items constantly generate and they're all independent. Or put another way, You're getting AC 3 from BOTH items at the same time. But since they're flat bonuses, they overlap, and so you only notice one. The Armor type mods are also bonuses, but they're actually cumulative, not flat, and so you'd notice them whether you had the bracers on or not.
Actually, having said that, I'd expect you'd still see the armor type mods with Bracers AC 2. Except as subtledoctor says below, the AC 2 bracers would override the AC 3 armor when doing a similar, non-cumulative effect.
edit-meant to say they overlap, not stack.
<-- Despises save or else disablers.
This thread is really interesting, I would never have thought that an armor's modifiers were applied separately like that. So if I'm rolling with a Stalker, say, and I give him the Bracers of A.C. 3, I should still equip a suit of Studded Leather even though it's not boosting my base AC, just for the modifiers. Neat!
AC is ok, but there are clear limits to it, and it's evident by ToB that the system gets broken at high levels. Where a well applied secondary effect such as DR (either flat or %, or even both) makes all armors more attractive and more useable and desirable instead of just packing on whatever's got the best AC.
Although I suppose in a system where eventually you hit or get hit with every attack, the heaviest and most absorptive armor still wins.
-Cumulative, no matter the source
-Uncapped, from what I know. Never actually pushed it very far but it would be useless. I know that monks get a huge AC against missile, about -15 bonus IIRC. EDIT: Apparently they are capped at -20, not that you'd be able to reach that for anything but missile attacks though.
-Allow you to exceed the AC Cap, and are unrelated to the "Normal" AC: If you have - 20AC from spells, innates and items, you can add - 6 thanks to Dex (which gives - 6AC for dex>24), another - 2 with single weapon style, and then the extra modifiers come in, so for example wearing a golden girdle and a full plate armor, you'll get an extra - 7 against slashing attacks for example, or alternatively, potions of absorption give you a fancy - 10 AC against blunt attacks, so that would prevent event the great Demogorgon from hitting you if you quaff a couple of them
Any way to get rid of or tune the AC hardcap?
Armor Class modifiers from Dexterity and Weapon Styles are not capped.
The attack roll itself isn't capped, but overflows from negative to positive. Given the way that the attacker's THAC0 and attack roll modifiers, and the defenders Base AC and specific AC modifiers interact, any one of them can overflow the to-hit equation.