D&D 5E AC and negative Dex modifier.

[drjones]

It's about decisions. My character has a low Dex. I can decide to structure their class and race choice to allow them to use heavy armor, or I can expect to get hit more often in physical combat. I have a weakness and need to make a decision about how to deal with it. To a lot of people, that is enjoyable.

 

[Ragmon]

I see not many of you understood what I was trying to say. Let me try it a different way.

So, I stand around in heavy armor (D&D 5 RAW), not jumpin around, I get a AC #.

Now, in L or M armor, they give a certain amount of armor + Dex, what if I choose not to move around, thus not trying to add dex bonus to my AC?

Trying to make it shot: IF I receive a penalty to DEX and I can add my DEX to my AC, is it a must or can I foroe usin my Dex (ex: Not trying to move around, just allow the armor to soak the hits).

I hope, I didn't phrase it in the way thats its understandable now.

 

[Ragmon]

I think this sort of thing is a little bit less obvious than it could be due to the term "to hit", because the "to hit" roll is more than just making contact with the target with your weapon; it also includes the idea that you've hit the target well-enough to damage it.

Some versions of this game, and other games, go a bit farther with trying to model if, for example, your weapon hit the target's shield or his breastplate or whatever -- situations which in 5E would generally be 'misses'.

An entirely different layer of abstraction is in hit points, where it's not always entirely clear if hitting a guy with 200 hit points for 1 point of damage is actually some sort of physical contact or not.

So I think there's enough abstraction in the combat system to allow the sufficiently-motivated player to make just about any argument in terms of what's "sensible".

Or just ask the giant elk, assuming you can speak Giant Elk; he's got a pretty good grip on what's sensible around these parts.



Cheers,
Roger

Your rather off topic. The topic is, If you have a negative DEX modifier, then do you add that to your L and M armor AC and if yes, why don't you add that to H armor AC. And can't you just forgoe adding DEX Ac to armor altogether as a choice.