Poor Dex Bonus helps AC?

[JChung2003]

Right. However, PHB pg. 8 does not say anything about Dexterity modifiers affecting Armor Class when you cannot react to an attack, e.g., if you are flat-footed.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I'm not going to get into the "It also doesn't say that your Dex modifier doesn't apply to Caster Level checks" argument.

Especially since this particular situation is already resolved elsewhere within the rules.

-Hyp.

 

[Angcuru]

I don't agree with the idea that you appy the dexterity penalty when flat-footed. The whole dex bonus is the basic dodge-the-spear-so-you-don't-get-impaled-type-thingy: I.E. doding, I.E. dex mods. If you can't dodge, you can't get a bonus. But if you REALLY SUCK at dodging and you can't dodge, the penalty should not apply. How can you be so clumsy that you are easier to hit than a person of average dex when not actively avoiding attack? If you don't know you're being attacked, you can't dodge it BADLY, so you can't really apply penalties when flat-footed. If dex doesn't apply, it doesn't apply in either case.

 

[Hypersmurf]

That's just it - you can Dodge when you're flat-footed. Just not exceptionally well.

If you couldn't dodge at all, you'd have a Dex penalty to AC of -5.

You can only dodge as well as the average, untrained human - Dex 10, no feats.

If your dex is less than 10, you can't dodge even that well.

A Dex penalty to AC doesn't represent dodging into a blow. A rock has a Dex penalty of -5, and it ain't dodging nowhere. It just represents dodging less well.

Personally, I think it would make more sense if a flat-footed creature were limited to the average Dex bonus of his race. So a human has a max flat-footed Dex bonus of +0, an elf +1, a pixie +3... even if they have a Dex of 32. Why is a pixie limited to a human's average dexterity?

But the bookkeeping on that gets annoying.

-Hyp.

 

[Ranger REG]

I don't agree with the idea that you appy the dexterity penalty when flat-footed. The whole dex bonus is the basic dodge-the-spear-so-you-don't-get-impaled-type-thingy: I.E. doding, I.E. dex mods. If you can't dodge, you can't get a bonus. But if you REALLY SUCK at dodging and you can't dodge, the penalty should not apply. How can you be so clumsy that you are easier to hit than a person of average dex when not actively avoiding attack? If you don't know you're being attacked, you can't dodge it BADLY, so you can't really apply penalties when flat-footed. If dex doesn't apply, it doesn't apply in either case.

Simply because you have less-than-average Dex than that average joe. You're a klutz even when you are flat-footed.

If you want to make it fair, here's a simple alternate rule: When flat-footed, Dex score is reduced to 1. Now everyone have a -5 penalty. Now don't even try to defend those who already have a Dex score of 1 to begin with.