AC per level

[genshou]

As I said, it worked great for Highlander's unarmoured Immortals - D&D rules' ablative hit points actually make far more sense for Highlander Immortals than they do in a regular game! One problem I can see is the special case of lone high-AC hero vs hordes of low-AB mooks - if you roll the attacks before the parry, the hero will pretty well never get hit _at all_. There are various ways around this although the lack of facing makes it harder (eg you can only parry 3 separate attackers/round, who must be nominated in advance) but the simplest is probably 'natural 20s always hit'.

Yeah, I can see that being a problem. Yes, natural 20's should definitely be impossible to parry.

As for being surrounded by 8 foes while unarmored... the class defense to AC would definitely be unrealistic then, assuming you chose to just sit there in the middle of it all and try to avoid getting skewered, which is roughly akin to dodging rain drops. In that case, I'd rule that to use class defense you'd have to move. ie leap into the air, tumble past a foe, whatever. But you can't just sit pinned in a square, surrounded by 8 foes. Now if you're held in the air (not immobile though), and being attack simultaneously from all 26 adjacent squares, by 4 tiny creatures in your own square, and all the 10 ft. squares by opponents with reach, you're just SCREWED. No matter what your class defense bonus to AC is, there are just some situations where I rule it can't be used.

 

[herald]

I myself have been having this arguement with myself since I want to run a game in the reniassance rather than medieval time period. It should stand to reason that a more experianced fighter should keep himself out of harms way in melee combat than some one less experianced.

It would seem to me though that armor should allow someone to avoid damage or "Soak" damage as it were.

This of course opens up a whole can of worms. Here is what I have considered in my Reniassance game.

1) Metal armor has become expensive and out of fashion. You might see a breast plate, but chain mail is just about run it's course and Plate while popular with the nobles, is just about only afforded by the very rich.

2) As another option. Classed based AC bonus, but the bonus only works in little to no armor.

 

[Psion]

Running a Second World Sourcebook game right now, naturally I have to consider how to handle aspects of d20 modern that don't appear in D&D, class bonus to defense ("AC") being one of them.

The Second World Sourcebook gives a couple options along these lines. The one I use gives all of the D&D classes defense bonuses by level, but makes it harder to increase your AC in other ways (shield bonuses and deflection bonuses no longer stack, neither do armor and natural armor, except for a "synergy bonus".)

I like it. So far it works well.

 

[widderslainte]

Shouldn't this be under House Rules?

 

[Xavim]

Another way would be to impliment the Dex bonus to AC along with the character's level as a dodge bonus, and make Armour give a damage reduction equal to its current Armour bonus. Leather would give DR 2/- whereas Full Plate would give DR 8/- this would reflect the near impossibility of hurting someone in Full plate with a dagger (unless your a skilled assassin type ) The sneak attack would give enough damage to get through the armour and so forth.

Shields would stack with this aswell as giving an armour bonus to AC.
I'd also combine this with the parry rule. I used it in 2e a fair bit. And a skilled swordsman just might be able to take 8 people, asumming they fight like people tend to and don't rush him all at once.

 

[herald]

Another way would be to impliment the Dex bonus to AC along with the character's level as a dodge bonus, and make Armour give a damage reduction equal to its current Armour bonus. Leather would give DR 2/- whereas Full Plate would give DR 8/- this would reflect the near impossibility of hurting someone in Full plate with a dagger (unless your a skilled assassin type ) The sneak attack would give enough damage to get through the armour and so forth.

Shields would stack with this aswell as giving an armour bonus to AC.
I'd also combine this with the parry rule. I used it in 2e a fair bit. And a skilled swordsman just might be able to take 8 people, asumming they fight like people tend to and don't rush him all at once.

I thought of this too, but I'm not so sure that I would want my low level characters in plate mail then. But this could work.

 

[genshou]

Shouldn't this be under House Rules?

No, sorry. We already tried that. This thread's ultimate goal is a realism discussion. People are just posting house rules at present to back up their ideas. Which are mostly good ideas. I say "mostly" because some of them only work in some campaign flavors. The ideas themselves are excellent.

Still, maybe we are going a bit overboard with the house rules?... Just a thought.

 

[genshou]

Another way would be to impliment the Dex bonus to AC along with the character's level as a dodge bonus, and make Armour give a damage reduction equal to its current Armour bonus. Leather would give DR 2/- whereas Full Plate would give DR 8/- this would reflect the near impossibility of hurting someone in Full plate with a dagger (unless your a skilled assassin type ) The sneak attack would give enough damage to get through the armour and so forth.

Do you think a 20th-level knife fighter could get past the armor's DR, with no magic to deal more than 8 pts. of damage? Only on a crit within your rules... yet any knife fighter I know could slip that dagger right up through those chinks in the armor... because they are well-trained. That's why its deflection vs. absorption, AC vs. attack bonus to reflect skill at getting past the armor. If you want to go with DR, it's simply not realistic unless you overhaul HP completely in favor of VP/WP. Which is a hell of a lot of work, but I've done it for you. You can e-mail me to find out more; I'm not posting house rules for HP replacements in a non-house rule AC per level thread. So there

Besides, like I've said before, medieval armor was built for deflection for the most part. It doesn't absorb the force of the greatsword, it keeps the greatsword from striking you. I would apply DR instead to bludgeoning damage.

Of course, DR is too powerful with so many HP already. That's why DR is baaad idea except in VP/WP system. *Shameless self-plug* Oh yeah; I'm so great. Woohoo.

 

[Valiantheart]

All I would like to add is go see "Kill Bill" to see a high level unarmored warrior dodge a bunch of blows

That and I am very much in favor of class based dodge bonuses.