AC and weapon damage

[Rykaar]

Hi, folks,

I currently run an Arcana Evolved campaign that I've been slowly houseruling in the direction of Star Wars SE, since I rather like most of its rules and know that it is a precurser to 4e at least to an extent. I have a utility I built in MS Access to manage battles and character/monster generation, and now I'm hoping to try to get a development jump on 4e if I can at least pan a little gold out of the rumor stream here.

So, what do we know about how AC and Damage will be calculated? I know Ref/Fort/Will are going to be like AC in that the attacker needs to match or beat them, but where SWSE and D&D differ hugely is the importance of armor, with AC actually being a separate stat in 4e (that much is confirmed, I believe, at least based on the Spined Devil stat block).

I haven't found too many discussions focusing specifically on AC and damage, and I'm not sure this site has a search mechanism (there's supposed to be one at the top of the page according to the FAQ, so I'm either blind or it's missing).

Thanks in advance!

 

[Reaper Steve]

Not much more is available other than what you already know.
A DDI article called 'The Core Mechanic' confirms that AC is different than Reflex defense.
No one knows yet how different they are.
Main speculation is that either:
1) AC = Ref + armor bonus, or
2) AC adds armor bonus but not Dex bonus.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

You need to be a community supporter to access the search feature.

foiled again, what the Reaper said. Though I do know Reflex defense replaces Touch AC.

 

[Reaper Steve]

Though I do know Reflex defense replaces Touch AC.

Which is a huge improvement!

Also, from the 4E spined devil stats, we can conclude that different attacks attack different defenses. It's melee attck lists'vs. AC' and it's Spined Rain lists 'Vs. Reflex.'

 

[Rykaar]

Thanks folks. And good to know about the community supporter info--though the link is broken now, and frankly it's a bit lame to tie a search utility to paid support. But meh, I'll probably upgrade

Regarding AC, I guess more than anything I was looking to know how much level will contribute. Same with damage done by attacks.

It's interesting if the formula will be Ref + (AC bonus OR Dex bonus). That means critters of roughly your level will still be able to have considerable success hitting you if you're unarmored, but lower level creatures will more than likely miss due to your level creeping the number out of their likely range to hit. I like it. Skill matters, but skill plus a magic shield and plate armor matters a lot more. In the existing 3e, skill doesn't count for bupkiss generally.

Since it's generally a 1 attack per round model in 4e, I was figuring level would play directly into damage as well.

I gotta admit if that's the case, I'm onboard with it. The characters drive the numbers, much moreso than the shiny toys they're wearing.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Thanks folks. And good to know about the community supporter info--though the link is broken now, and frankly it's a bit lame to tie a search utility to paid support. But meh, I'll probably upgrade

I think one of the reasons for this was that the Search function requires a lot of resources on the Server, so a lot of searches require a stronger (more expensive) server. So I think it's pretty fair. (And the community account is certainly worth it, because a lot of supporters ensures that EN World continues to thrive. And I really wouldn't know where to go without EN World . I should have gotten one earlier! )