D&D 3E/3.5 D&D 3e Revised... Hooray for Battle Strain!

[Michael Morris]

Over on the 3e revised rumors page it's been revealed that touch AC's will be listed seperately in the revised MM. This is good news for a lot of spells, particularly, Battle Strain.

Battle Strain
Transmutation
Level: Red 6, Sor/Wiz 7
Components: V, S
Casting Time: One Action
Range: Personal
Effect: 60' emanation
Duration: 1 round / caster level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes

The melee attacks of all creatures in the area of effect which fail to hit the AC of targets in the area of effect but are high enough to make a touch attack deal half damage to their target.


A criticism of this spell was that it might be clumsy to adjucate. With revised 3e having the touch AC's listed in the MM this makes this spell (and others with touch AC's) much easier to deal with.

So, what do you guys think??

 

[Drawmack]

I've never had a problem calculating touch AC on the fly it's just AC - Dex Bonus - Armor Bonus - Natural Armor Bonus which are all listed in the AC line. If they add a line to the descriptor block for this it'll be a huge waste of space. That would total out to adding like 4 - 6 pages to the MM for this one little thing.

 

[Shalewind]

Or they could just add on a little (Touch: XX) segment to AC line. That would add what, a page maybe two... (if that?)

Edit: I do love the spell. Neat idea. What color is it?

 

[DreamChaser]

I've never had a problem calculating touch AC on the fly it's just AC - Dex Bonus - Armor Bonus - Natural Armor Bonus which are all listed in the AC line. If they add a line to the descriptor block for this it'll be a huge waste of space. That would total out to adding like 4 - 6 pages to the MM for this one little thing.

IIRC, dexterity bonus is part of touch ac...as is size, deflection, dodge, etc.

The Monster Manual II added in touch attack ACs as a part of the AC line. It didn't add any space really and was handy to save a little mental math.

DC

 

[hong]

I've never had a problem calculating touch AC on the fly it's just AC - Dex Bonus - Armor Bonus - Natural Armor Bonus which are all listed in the AC line.

Don't you just _hate_ it when you do that?

Posts like this are why it'll be a great day when they start putting touch ACs (and flat-footed ACs) in the statblocks.