ezo
Hero
Actually, it really isn't that big a deal if you care to track it.AC 10+dex+whatevery magical deflection is "miss" attack.
then you have 2+ AC for shield, when you block with a shield
above is a glance off armor.
I.E:
half plate with shield and +1 ring for AC
AC: 10+2+1+2+5, total 20
attack roll under 13(dex+ring) is complete miss,
roll 13&14 is deflected by shield,
roll 15-19 is glance of the armor.
OFC, it would be tiresome to remember all of those values, but it's an example how to describe a "miss".
This is a clip from my 2nd Edition custom character sheet:
Surprised: no dex
Shield-less: well, um... no shield
Rear: no dex, no shield
So, if you want to track it just put the different ACs on the character sheet or even in the creature stat blocks.
I mean, of course, for most people it isn't that big an issue and not worth the extra space. Also, neither 5E (nor the prior character sheet from 2E) accounts for target skill to parry, etc. which is also part of AC (but never passively factored in).
The easiest way to say "clean miss" is if you miss by 10 or more. So, in your example with AC 20, any total of 10 or less would be a clean miss. It doesn't factor in the dodge element of DEX, but is an easy rule to work with.
Agree! Which is why I said not to be an asshat about it.It’s all about the narrative framing by the DM.
IME any DM who is antagonistic in such a way will not have a game for long unless the players can go with it and riff on each other as well, and on the DM when creature wiff.We all have different styles. I deleted my previous posts because this topic seems to strike a nerve. My experiences have been that there’s a popular GM style that consistently interprets failures as character incompetence, rather than bad luck or oppositional force or “oh well, you missed, moving on”. I explained that I can see why some players power game because such DMs can often feel antagonistic that way.
Sure, but sometimes it certainly comes across that way...This isn’t necessarily about “over empowering the players” or “players are special snowflakes who can’t handle failure ever “. It’s about how we frame these events, contextualize them.
Powergaming won't help it, though. It might make you miss a bit less often, but if the DM acts like that when you miss, you will still miss on occassion and they will still act like that.Some DM styles can intentionally or not, create the friction of player vs. DM. If that’s what you want, good for you. It’s just one possible reason why some players may want to powergame though.
Frankly, I find the turn of the discussiion a bit ironic. PCs miss so rarely IME (65% average hit rate, often much higher...) that how often does this even come up??