Defense Roll

[Christian]

Because it says so in Unearthed Arcana.

But UA is actually wrong, it should be 12+NPC's total attack bonus because of the way checks versus a DC work in d20 rules.

Sure an' begorrah, you're absolutely right, Mr. McS!

 

[Meatpuppet]

It's the same as the way psionics worked in 3.0. It never seemed to work real well. Our psion had a good enough bonus, and would target weak saves I think. So if he hadn't been rolling, but had been taking 10, then the monster would probably have blown the save. Since he was rolling, he had a 50% chance of being absolutely screwed. Putting in the spell roll was double jeapordy for him, and always seemed to result in the player going "CRAP!"

So we never used that for wizards, and took it out for the psion and let him use 10 as the base for his powers.

But wouldn't the spell roll variant give a "new life" to those low level spells who tend IMHO to be completely useless for high level characters?

 

[Thaniel]

How bout setting attacks on a base of 10 and rolling for AC?
Just for gits and shiggles.

 

[MythicParty]

I know this is a Necro, but my group is looking to institute a few new rules for the New Year & the 'defense check' from UA is one of them. However DanMcS said that UA was wrong: instead of an Attack Score being calculated by 11 + enemy’s attack bonus it should be 12 + enemy attack bonus.

The reason he said was " because of the way checks versus a DC work in d20 rules." I'm having a brain block & not understanding this, & its a bit unnerving to think UA was wrong.

Can anyone help?

 

[MythicParty]

Also, realize that this thread was originally about Defense Rolls (where, per the DMG, the '10' in AC + 10 can change) & I'm resurrecting it to talk about defense check from UA. Its the same sort of mash-up my group gets when we discuss Hero Points & Action Points, so apologies in advance on the topic shift as well as the Necro.