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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5015124" data-attributes="member: 4937">Yeah, this is the sort of wierd confusing thing you have to try to explain when you have not only repeating 20's, but a natural 20 doesn't actually always hit. But, yes, AC 0 with a +1 bonus should literally be read as, "Use the AC 0 row of the attack matrix but move up one", just as the 'AC vs weapon modifer' literally means, 'Move up/down on the attack matrix by n rows'.  For most purposes, it doesn't matter whether you think of this as adjusting the throw of the dice or the position on the table but it does matter a great deal for the repeating 20 portion of the table. For example, you might think that an orc with a +1 bonus to hit needs a 19 to hit an AC -2 (because 19+1 = 20), but in fact, the +1 bonus actually just adjusts the row you read off down 1 which means the poor orc still needs a 20 to hit.  The +1 bonus however does matter a good deal if the orc is facing an AC -7, because without that +1 bonus it can't hit the target number of 21, but since we have moved out of the range of the repeating 20's simple arthimatic works again (it doesn't matter if we move down to the -6 row or adjust the dice up to 21 by addition).  Of course, in point of fact, that AC -7 is probably actually an AC 2 with a +9 bonus (at least in the case of a PC), meaning you move up 9 rows on the table and read of the -7 line, then adjust back down for the orcs +1 to hit bonus, and so read off the -6 line.</blockquote>

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