D&D 5E Low AC for Monsters

[Darkone]

Hello,

I would like to know if i am missing something with the Armor class for monsters, what i mean is how come a Red Dragon have 22 AC (Elder type)?
a high level character will easily bypass it.

Do i need to apply something?

Thanks for the replies

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

No, you don't need to apply something - the game is designed so that hitting your opponent's AC isn't a rare event.

High level enemies, and characters, endure combat through their hit point totals, not through frequently missed attacks.

 

[Prism]

My high level fighter would not easily bypass AC 22 with his +12 to hit. In fact he would hit it about 50% of the time

 

[bedir than]

No, you don't need to apply something - the game is designed so that hitting your opponent's AC isn't a rare event.

High level enemies, and characters, endure combat through their hit point totals, not through frequently missed attacks.

Also, resistances and immunities are part of the equation. Even if you hit a high CR monster you aren't likely to do much to it.

 

[Celtavian]

Parties hit them quite easily. You have to decide if you like it the way it is designed or if you want to raise the AC. I've raised the AC on quite a few creatures to slow down the damage done to them and prolong battles. I don't like short battles for certain creatures. 5E monsters can be easily adjusted until you get the feel you want for a battle. Resistances aren't that useful as they become easy to bypass if you incorporate magic items (which almost everyone does) and lots of characters can do damage types that no one has resistance to such as a paladin's divine smite or warlock eldritch blast.

I'd definitely encourage you to mess around with monster stats until you get the feel for the monster you want as far as strength goes. Don't be constrained by what you see in the Monster Manual.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Hello,

I would like to know if i am missing something with the Armor class for monsters, what i mean is how come a Red Dragon have 22 AC (Elder type)?
a high level character will easily bypass it.

Do i need to apply something?

Thanks for the replies

You need to recalibrate your expectations. In 5E, 22 AC means "harder than steel". The fact that high-level PCs can damage AC 22 is deliberate.

As Aaron says, 5E is designed more around hit point attrition than passive or active defenses. That being said, if you want dragons to be tougher you can beef them up a little. Couatls have an AC of 19, but since they also have Shield it's really AC 24. I don't see any harm in an ancient dragon having access to Shield and other spells--in my game, adult dragons always come with at least a few levels of Dragon Sorcerer because I want them to actually be impressive monsters and not just sacks of HP.

(That way, the wizard gets to feel awesome about his contribution to the fight when the dragon tries to Shield and the wizard Counterspells the Shield, so the fighter hits for huge amounts of damage. Go teamwork!)

 

[Darkone]

Thanks for the advice's, really helped

 

[Tony Vargas]

One of the design goals of 5e was 'fast combat,' missing slows combat down. Simple as that.

 

[Dorian_Grey]

Personally if a creature is going to be the main opponent of the PCs, I always beef them up. Shield spells, magical items, intelligent combat tactics (i.e. anything a Bond villain would do? They don't do it), etc etc. However, if the players are just out and about and WHAM! Red Dragon! I'd personally just let the creature stay as is.

 

[Sunseeker]

No, you don't need to apply something - the game is designed so that hitting your opponent's AC isn't a rare event.

High level enemies, and characters, endure combat through their hit point totals, not through frequently missed attacks.

This is correct. 5E is designed so that players hit things a lot, but it takes a while to kill stuff (but not too long). Game developers (both TT and VG) have discovered that people like to win. Hitting is winning. Not hitting is losing (even if on monsters that you hit rarely against, you only have to deal a fraction of the damage), and people don't like that.

5E is designed largely for gaming noobs. From the expected difficulty charts to the challenge ratings themselves, the low AC and the high HP of monsters, 5E is basically designed to make it hard to fail. It's not very heavy on party cohesion. It's not very heavy on the Trinity, it's not very heavy on optimization. This is further demonstrated by the relative high AC, low-HP model of the players. The players are not designed to be hit. Monsters are. Getting hit feels like losing. This is reinforced by the often low damage of monsters (see the difference between MM monsters and how the DMG suggests monsters should be designed).

3E had high AC, low HP and high damage. Monsters and players were glass cannons. 4E had high AC and high HP. Combat was a slog as it took forever to kill anything. 5E has low AC, high HP and low damage. Combat goes by quickly, but it's very exciting.