Armor Class for non-fighters

[skraus1]

If you mean the wraiths not the wights that is because they ignore physical armor like platemail

No I meant the wights. The 50 ac I quoted was in a white dragon robe.

[Rameses]

This Barbarians AC breakdown...

Base: 10
Racial: 1
Armor: 6
Rage Potion: -2
Barb. Rage: -2
Haste Potion: 1

Grand total: 14

Fearsome Effect: Priceless

I am, Rameses!

[nabrendel]

You mean things like Axe-block, Spear-block, Hammer-block or Adamantine? Or possibly Invulnerability?

Yes those exist and you are fooling yourself if you consider wearing it at higher levels.. in PnP those are great armors to have at any level because you aren't getting sucker smacking for large amounts of damage.. 5 pts is nothing, or 2-3 pts per swing isn't much at all

now if there was say.. improved swordblock dr 10 slashing.. or greater sword block dr 15 slashing.. *That might be worth wearing.. I know my barbarian would love it and so would my squishes... and invulnerability is **** as most things after lvl 6 are swinging magic

[Sojourner]

Yes those exist and you are fooling yourself if you consider wearing it at higher levels.. in PnP those are great armors to have at any level because you aren't getting sucker smacking for large amounts of damage.. 5 pts is nothing, or 2-3 pts per swing isn't much at all

now if there was say.. improved swordblock dr 10 slashing.. or greater sword block dr 15 slashing.. *That might be worth wearing.. I know my barbarian would love it and so would my squishes... and invulnerability is **** as most things after lvl 6 are swinging magic

I wouldn't say that they are nothing -- 5 points per hit, over 15 hits, is 75 HP you just saved yourself.

If you can't get your AC over 40, then the only thing you have left to do is either A) increase DPS to kill the mobs faster or B) increase your DR to take less damage when you do get hit.

Just get some greater elemental robes, and then some xxx block robes, and wear whichever one will give you be best DR/resistance value for whatever you're facing.

[nabrendel]

True if you survived 15 hits.. to mitigate 75 pts of damage.. sure it adds up but my point is just that.. on a squishy it won't matter what you wear you don't have enough hp's to really survive being double tapped by most high end monsters.. let alone two or three.. conversely for higher hp classes it does add up but again you are faced with the fact you either kill it so fast it doesn't really matter or you take a long time to kill it and the Cleric is able to heal you for 100+ hps anyways so you might be saving him one spell.. which is nice but yeah

[Val'lochar_Del'Armgo]

with +5 armour and a barkskin- I think my sorc would get to 44 if she could get her hands on that shield from the raid.... would be nice to have if I'm caught needing to scrap- she already has alot of high quality longswords and rapiers, 160 hp, heavy fort, +5 protection item, 18 str, and her own haste, GH, resists and blur....

only problem would be getting into a group that would let me roll for it. Most groups refuse.

[Raithe]

Hmm, I don't think I like how this pans out. I understand that fighters built for AC should get some protection but if seems pointless for anyone other than a fighter built for AC to wear any armor at all apparently.

Something seems kinda wrong about armor having no effect at all. Being a bard it is really stretching it to get even a 40 AC but evidently a robe would probably offer more protection as you have at least have some greater elemental protects on it. That seems silly.

I know this goes against pnp rules but I'd like to see armor at least give some kind of damage reduction for wearing it at least. There should be some kind of advantage for non AC built fighters to be wearing it.

Yes, the D20 system (developed to use dice) is pretty absurd. Having a reasonable armor class should affect any monster's ability to damage you, regardless of how little that effect is. The truth, however, is that moderate AC has no effect in Gianthold. I do not run a character (even my fighter), nor have I seen any character (except for maybe 1 dwarf) that should actually be pitting his/her AC against the mob's attack. What's more is that 95% of fighters who have an AC that makes a difference will kill things so much more slowly than the rest of the field (mages, barbarians, rangers with multi-shot, backstabbing wounding rogues) that they really aren't serving any practical purpose unless specific tactics are developed beforehand.

The number one reason to wear a particular armor in a level 14 quest is entirely based upon it's looks. If it looks good, wear it!