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General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Low magic and inherent armor class dodge bonuses
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<blockquote data-quote="kenjib" data-source="post: 379274" data-attributes="member: 530"><p>I wanted to run a campaign where magic items are very, very, rare, and when found don't even always gain enhancement bonuses to accompany their special powers. Basically, an enhancement bonus isn't any more common than other types of powers like magic resistance, fortification, damage reduction, or the like. Likewise with magic weapons.</p><p></p><p>The problem here is that you end up with 20th level fighters running around with a 20 armor class while fully armored (full plate and large shield), which would not really work very well since he also has a +20 BaB and would thus always hit someone of similar caliber.</p><p></p><p>So, with that premise, is there anything wrong with giving characters a natural dodge bonus to their armor class as they increase in level? I was thinking that all PCs and NPCs get half of their raw BaB (not counting bonuses from strength, feats, abilities, and the like) as an armor class bonus to compensate for the resulting AC deficiency of such a magic item poor world.</p><p></p><p>Thus a first level fighter with full plate and large shield has a 20 armor class. At 10th level the fighter has a 25 armor class. At 20th level he has a 30 armor class.</p><p></p><p>Compare this to the baseline NPC listed in the PHB who has a 34 armor class by the time he is level 20. The extra 4 for the NPC is cancelled out by the fact that there are fewer enhancement bonuses on swords and stat boosting items.</p><p></p><p>A nice side effect of this is that a high level fighter still has a nice armor class when unarmored, which makes lots of sense to me as it reflects his superior defensive skill, although I'm aware that increased hit points represent this as well.</p><p></p><p>Classes with slower BaB progressions also end up with a slower rate of AC increase, which makes sense to me. A rogue in leather with high dex would have around a 15 AC at 1st level, 19 at 10th, and 24 at 20th -- these numbers assuming he continually boosts his dexterity as he levels. A wizard without armor would go from 10 to only 15 at 20th level, thus would need to rely heavily on mage armor and shield spells and also make an investment in dexterity during character creation.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, does this seem like it would work out smoothly or is there too much disparity between classes? Should everyone just increase according to half their level instead of basing it on BaB or is it okay for there to be such a wide difference between classes?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="kenjib, post: 379274, member: 530"] I wanted to run a campaign where magic items are very, very, rare, and when found don't even always gain enhancement bonuses to accompany their special powers. Basically, an enhancement bonus isn't any more common than other types of powers like magic resistance, fortification, damage reduction, or the like. Likewise with magic weapons. The problem here is that you end up with 20th level fighters running around with a 20 armor class while fully armored (full plate and large shield), which would not really work very well since he also has a +20 BaB and would thus always hit someone of similar caliber. So, with that premise, is there anything wrong with giving characters a natural dodge bonus to their armor class as they increase in level? I was thinking that all PCs and NPCs get half of their raw BaB (not counting bonuses from strength, feats, abilities, and the like) as an armor class bonus to compensate for the resulting AC deficiency of such a magic item poor world. Thus a first level fighter with full plate and large shield has a 20 armor class. At 10th level the fighter has a 25 armor class. At 20th level he has a 30 armor class. Compare this to the baseline NPC listed in the PHB who has a 34 armor class by the time he is level 20. The extra 4 for the NPC is cancelled out by the fact that there are fewer enhancement bonuses on swords and stat boosting items. A nice side effect of this is that a high level fighter still has a nice armor class when unarmored, which makes lots of sense to me as it reflects his superior defensive skill, although I'm aware that increased hit points represent this as well. Classes with slower BaB progressions also end up with a slower rate of AC increase, which makes sense to me. A rogue in leather with high dex would have around a 15 AC at 1st level, 19 at 10th, and 24 at 20th -- these numbers assuming he continually boosts his dexterity as he levels. A wizard without armor would go from 10 to only 15 at 20th level, thus would need to rely heavily on mage armor and shield spells and also make an investment in dexterity during character creation. Anyway, does this seem like it would work out smoothly or is there too much disparity between classes? Should everyone just increase according to half their level instead of basing it on BaB or is it okay for there to be such a wide difference between classes? [/QUOTE]
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Low magic and inherent armor class dodge bonuses
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