Piecemeal Armor question

[0-hr]

(level 5) Piecemeal Chainmail Armor +1 gives you a +2 bonus to AC as a reaction, once per encounter.

I'm assuming that this means the DM rolls to hit you.
You see that he hit by just one or two.
You use the armor ability to turn that into a miss.


Is that correct?

I can see where a DM might not be in the habit of telling the players how much a bad guy misses by. But if you have to decide whether to use this armor's ability without knowing whether it is going to make a difference, then it is hardly ever going to be useful. Best case, I supposed, would be for the DM to say something like "he barely hits you" as a 'code' for a hit which could be turned aside by the armor?

 

[Lakoda]

I like to hide most of my rolls for this very reason. If they don't know how well I rolled then telling them I hit by 1, 2, 9, etc does not matter.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

In most games I play or DM, we can't remember all the PCs ACs. We say, "Does a 20 hit your AC," and they'll say yes or no, or use their power.

Even if the rules don't say you get to know, I'd allow the player to know how much the DM misses by because of 4e's rule zero. It's not fun to waste your power if it doesn't make a difference.

 

[Starfox]

I'm with Matthew on this. I think its an integral part of 4E that you know these things, so you know when to use your powers.