Announcing enemy AC

[Crothian]

Do you tell the players the AC of the opponent they are attacking? And then any discussion on the topic as to why or why not.

 

[dave_o]

Do you see a label that says 'AC'?

I don't, just because that's not how I do things. Typically, I have all character bonuses and such in mind and then say 'You hit' or 'You don't'. Of course, I'm a tad more descriptive than that.

I run a very narrative GMing style, so shouting out 'It's AC is 23!' would just ruin things.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Salutations,

If I want to speed up a battle, then I will tell them the ac so they can just tell me if they hit or not.

Or they may figure it out- and I don't need to say a word.

The latter is not always easy, since I am rather liberal in the use of circumstance bonus and penalties.

FD

 

[Skarp Hedin]

Well, I never tell them until they've figured it out on their own (i.e., "I got a 23 and he got a 24, and I missed, but he hit..."), at which point I'll sometimes let them handle letting me know if they hit or not. It can take them an awfully long time to analyze the hits and misses, so it rarely comes up.

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

If I just want to get a combat over with, I'll let them know what they need to hit. Other times they'll just figure it out on their own. Normally though, the AC is a mystery to the PCs.

 

[Jaws]

If a PC rolls a total of 15 (after modifiers and all that jazz) or lower and hits, then I usually tell the group the AC of the creature or the opponent.
But most of the time I try to give good enough descriptions of what the oppenent is wearing, or how the PCs attacks are being halted or deflected or what not. That way if they make an educated guess correctly, I will tell them the AC to speed up combat.

Peace and smiles

j.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

I'll usually let the players tell me their attack roll and tell them if it hits. After a while, though I may tell the players the AC in order to speed up combat.

 

[reiella]

I occasionally do, especially after noticing players saying outloud ac estimations .

One thing I do need to work on is being more subtle so that the players can get an idea if using Power Attack is a good idea or not.

 

[Numion]

I don't tell it right away. Usually 'reveal' it after a couple of rounds to speed things up.

 

[nsruf]

I don't tell it right away. Usually 'reveal' it after a couple of rounds to speed things up.

Same here. I am also more reluctant to give away the villain's AC than the grunts'. After killing a couple of grunts with identical stats, the PCs will know how high their AC is, anyway.