Armour Advice

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Ok I'm at work so cant check my manual but I'm wondering what differnet armour does.

What does "Armor Check Penalty" do or mean?

What other effect does armour have?

Just wondering because I'm using heavy armour at the moment and wondering if it better to be using something light?

(Playing a Human Fighter weild a Greatsword).

Cheers

 

In 3rd E AC is treated very differently from BG games. In D&D, AC goes up, and your opponent will have to roll higher than that.
Example:

Joe the Fighter
Factor---------Attack Bonus
Longsword ---------------- +0
Weapon Focus (Longsword)-- +1
Strength 14 -------------- +2

Right, so when Joe attacks something with his L'sword, he rolls a d20 (twenty sided dice), then adds +3 to that. This is his attack roll.

Let's say Gruck the Orc has:
Factor ---- Modifier
Base Armour Class ------ 10

Dexterity 12 ----------- +1
Leather Armour --------- AC 2
Ring Of Protection +1 -- +1

So Gruck's AC is (10+1+2+1=14).
Joe whacks Gruck with his sword, and rolls a 10. He adds +3 to that, making it 13.
Grucks Armour Class is 14, so Joe has not hit Gruck, he needed 14 or more. etc etc

So thats how it works. Now an Armour Check Penalty reduces the bonus for the AC.

So let's say Gruck suffered the effects of a spell, making his Dexterity down to 8. This is a -1 Modifier. This means that he suffers -1 to all his Dexterity-Required Abilities (such as Dodge etc), and -1 to his AC. Therefore taking his AC down to 12. (10-1+2+1).

And if Joe had hit him now, and rolled say...a 9. It would be (9+3=12) 12! So Joe would hit the orc.

That's how it works, please correct me if i'm wrong.

Goph

 

Ok just a little confused here.

The armour I'm using at the moment has a -7 Armour Check Penalty. Is this good or bad? To me it sound bad, meaning the attacker can hit me more?? Is this right?

(its half plate BTW).

Thanks for the help

 

Well, a higher armor check penalty *can* be a bad thing ... if you are going to be affected by it. Basically, this "penalty" refers to your skills, *not* your Armor Class. Some skills are affected by the weight/type of armor, so for instance you'd have a much harder time stealting / spell-casting in half-plate cos the armor check penalty is higher ... but you are going to be hit less often since the Armor Class is higher than that of lighter armors.

hope this helps

 

Thanks for the help.

Does anyone know/is there a website which list what skills are affected by "Armor Check Penalty"?

It does not affect your attacking skill I hope?

Thanks again for the help

 

ShadeRaven's Neverwinter Nights Guide lists this information for each skill. From what I could see, only the following skills are affected by armor check: Hide, Move Silently, Parry, and Pick Pockets. Some innate class abilities like those of the Barbarian and Monk are also affected by wearing armor. Arcane spellcasting (Sorcerer/Bard/Wizard) is also affected by armor: the heavier the armor, the greater the chance of spellcasting failure. All irrelevent to fighters, except perhaps the Parry skill (depending on your play style).

 

Ahh thanks very much,

Usefull site that one

 

Another skill that significantly suffers from AC penalty is parry. It is practically useless when you like to go for heavy armor, pretty silly it is listed as a pally skill
I put some 10 ranks in parry for my moron-pally and ended up with a formidable skill of -2 (wearing full-plate and a shield).

I think it might be worth a try when you go for a two-handed weapon and a high dex combined with a medium armor, allowing a better dex-mod on AC

 

I've just found no use at all for parry. If you have to activate it... you can't use special attacks, can't move. All you can do is stand and wait for a good luck to come by. Perhaps it gets real good on higher levels, but my lvl9 ranger with almost max parry was far worse in any battle that might have required parry than my lvl8 ranger with points put to other skills and just attacking straight on instead.

 

Yea I'm begining to think that parry is useless skill as well. I have but quite a few points into it and when I use it, it does nothing (does not help using heavy armour,).


Think I'll start using other skill's like taunt etc etc.