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<blockquote data-quote="Gryph" data-source="post: 5875642" data-attributes="member: 98071">Yes, but.&nbsp;The bounded matrix of descending AC was responsible for a lot of the ability of early versions of the game to have monsters of broadly varying power levels be a creditable encounter for a wide variety of levels. It means that multiple level adventuring parties can work.&nbsp;Some of the recent WoTC columns referencing bounded AC and flatter math seems to be a recognition that, taking advantage of ascending AC and the intuitive implication of ascension that there needs to be no enforced upper limit, was problematic.&nbsp;You can certainly put limits on max AC to reinstitue the 21 AC range (or 19 for the really old school) and still make it ascending, but I would argue that the very quirkiness of descending AC kept players from questioning the lower limit.&nbsp;When the whole system is non-intuitive and unabashedly a game construct there's not much point argueing the starting and ending points. When you create a simple and elegant system that seems to intuitive, you really have to do some heavy explaining when you decide to break its intuitive nature by putting a top limit.&nbsp;I also dislike 20 auto hits and preferred the 6 AC band of hit on 20 that allowed very low ACs to be unhittable by the lowest level PCs/NPCs.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Gryph, post: 5875642, member: 98071"] Yes, but. The bounded matrix of descending AC was responsible for a lot of the ability of early versions of the game to have monsters of broadly varying power levels be a creditable encounter for a wide variety of levels. It means that multiple level adventuring parties can work. Some of the recent WoTC columns referencing bounded AC and flatter math seems to be a recognition that, taking advantage of ascending AC and the intuitive implication of ascension that there needs to be no enforced upper limit, was problematic. You can certainly put limits on max AC to reinstitue the 21 AC range (or 19 for the really old school) and still make it ascending, but I would argue that the very quirkiness of descending AC kept players from questioning the lower limit. When the whole system is non-intuitive and unabashedly a game construct there's not much point argueing the starting and ending points. When you create a simple and elegant system that seems to intuitive, you really have to do some heavy explaining when you decide to break its intuitive nature by putting a top limit. I also dislike 20 auto hits and preferred the 6 AC band of hit on 20 that allowed very low ACs to be unhittable by the lowest level PCs/NPCs. [/QUOTE]

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