D&D 5E Ac query

[Glomb175]

My pvp arena is in a few hours, all of my characters have quite high AC, 17-20, this is because I gave them enchanted custom dragon armour, it's fine against NPCs because they roll 20+ attack rolls, but against each other, I don't think anyone is going to ever hit. I'm going to take away any potions or scrolls they have pre-arena and give them a 'starter pack' of sorts, but I don't really want to take away their armour as well. Any suggestions ?

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[Xaelvaen]

Assuming primary attack stat of 16 and level 1 - 4, that's a +5 to hit. Necessary roll will fall between 12 and 15 for a successful hit. With the damage to hit point ratio, if you want the combat to require tactics and have some longevity to it, these are actually pretty good numbers to require. If you're hitting 60% of the time, it won't last too long in an arena-style setting.

Of course, all of that above-listed information is made without having any idea what the purpose of your arena may be, nor what function it serves to the narrative / gameplay.

 

[Glomb175]

My bad. They're level 5-6, some of them have +7 to hit but that's the high hitters. The lowest AC is 17 and the highest is 21. I decided to strip them of their OP armour and give them each hide armour (AC12 + dex mod (max 2)). Perhaps this is now too weak? I'm kind of up against it because we're starting in 30 minutes although the PvP probably won't start for another 2 hours.

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[Glomb175]

I could change it to breastplate ?
(14 + dex mod max 2)

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[Xaelvaen]

So ranging +5 to +7 vs. AC 16? 9 - 11 is then your hitting range; 50% to 60% isn't awful. Breastplate might be what you're looking for.

 

[Wulffolk]

I know this is too late of a response to be useful to you, but I would just let them have their stuff. Most players don't like having their toys taken away. I don't see much of a problem with their AC as it was.

 

[Sunseeker]

Players, unlike monsters, have higher AC and lower HP. (because hitting monsters feels good). You want your players to hit less. Typically I've found that if monsters hit players 25% of the time, players should hit monsters 75% of the time. So players vs players should probably average out to around 40% chance to hit each other, which is often enough to keep them from rolling too many strings of misses, but rare enough to stay alive.

 

[Glomb175]

Well I left them with their AC, it lasted a lot longer than expected and over all they were quite bored. It went ok, there were a fair few comments in regards to the rogue having such a high AC, ultimately the main problem was that even though my whole party requested pvp, none of them actually wanted to fight each other, so they spent the whole time just hiding and not attacking. Eventually they realised that the longer they refuse to fight, the longer it will take.

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