About Armor Class

[Tepes Nightmare]

since the beginning of the game I find that devil commander who has 18 AC, will always dodge my attack, like 9 of 10 times. So spend hundreds of hours experimenting on combat system and I decided to tell myself that high AC is meta, so I managed to push my own AC above 18 and now it seems most enemies should just suicide than fighting me, this AC system is kinda broken, whoever has super high AC is just like an untouchable god

[DontMisunderstand]

Not exactly, but you're also not entirely wrong. Higher AC means melee attacks miss you more often. 18 AC means incoming attack rolls need to be 18 or higher after their modifiers in order to hit. Low level characters will typically only have a +4 or +5 to hit, so 18 AC vs low level characters will have them missing 70% of the time. However, that's not always the case. To-hit bonuses can get quite high, there are lots of situational modifiers that increase or decrease effective AC, and most spells entirely ignore AC anyway. Yes, high AC is good, but it's not the be-all end-all of combat.

[LordAnubis]

There are also ways of increasing your chances of hitting a creature with high AC. In the prologue fight with Commander Zhalk, the best way is to have Shadowheart cast "Bless" on herself, your PC and Lae'zel. Also it helps if you prepare "Command" on her before the fight, then Command him to drop his weapon. You'll have a much easier time trying to kill him since he won't just murk the Mind Flayer in 3 or 4 turns.

[✙205🍉🐆→]

I wouldn't say that, I play Solasta: Crown of the Magister
19 AC, I am easily hit by enemies at level 1

[Kyutaru]

Originally posted by Tepes Nightmare:

since the beginning of the game I find that devil commander who has 18 AC, will always dodge my attack, like 9 of 10 times. So spend hundreds of hours experimenting on combat system and I decided to tell myself that high AC is meta, so I managed to push my own AC above 18 and now it seems most enemies should just suicide than fighting me, this AC system is kinda broken, whoever has super high AC is just like an untouchable god

That's why you have spells. Spells don't target AC. They target other defenses like your ability scores.

[Tepes Nightmare]

Originally posted by DontMisunderstand:

Not exactly, but you're also not entirely wrong. Higher AC means melee attacks miss you more often. 18 AC means incoming attack rolls need to be 18 or higher after their modifiers in order to hit. Low level characters will typically only have a +4 or +5 to hit, so 18 AC vs low level characters will have them missing 70% of the time. However, that's not always the case. To-hit bonuses can get quite high, there are lots of situational modifiers that increase or decrease effective AC, and most spells entirely ignore AC anyway. Yes, high AC is good, but it's not the be-all end-all of combat.

I know, but in the situation of the enemies, they are kinda too dumb to chain an effective BUFF/DEBUFF combo on me to actually hit me, so I guess that's why I rule the battlefield ever since I go 'FK it, I will do the same ♥♥♥♥ to you now'

[LordAnubis]

Originally posted by Tepes Nightmare:

Originally posted by DontMisunderstand:

Not exactly, but you're also not entirely wrong. Higher AC means melee attacks miss you more often. 18 AC means incoming attack rolls need to be 18 or higher after their modifiers in order to hit. Low level characters will typically only have a +4 or +5 to hit, so 18 AC vs low level characters will have them missing 70% of the time. However, that's not always the case. To-hit bonuses can get quite high, there are lots of situational modifiers that increase or decrease effective AC, and most spells entirely ignore AC anyway. Yes, high AC is good, but it's not the be-all end-all of combat.

I know, but in the situation of the enemies, they are kinda too dumb to chain an effective BUFF/DEBUFF combo on me to actually hit me, so I guess that's why I rule the battlefield ever since I go 'FK it, I will do the same ♥♥♥♥ to you now'

Play on tactician and report back on the AI using buffs/debuffs.

[Tepes Nightmare]

Originally posted by LordAnubis:

Originally posted by Tepes Nightmare:

I know, but in the situation of the enemies, they are kinda too dumb to chain an effective BUFF/DEBUFF combo on me to actually hit me, so I guess that's why I rule the battlefield ever since I go 'FK it, I will do the same ♥♥♥♥ to you now'

Play on tactician and report back on the AI using buffs/debuffs.

I started with balanced difficulty so I will stick to it until I beat the game, for now, I find this AC is quite dominant, tactician or not, the AC system has made me a god so far.

[Morgian]

Don't worry about AC. It was nerfed to death since D&D 3.5. You will soon find out that there is not much progression, while the attack bonus of everyone does go up. So you will get hit more and more often the higher you get.
Yes, higher AC is better, but it is not as good as it used to be.

[Tepes Nightmare]

Originally posted by Morgian:

Don't worry about AC. It was nerfed to death since D&D 3.5. You will soon find out that there is not much progression, while the attack bonus of everyone does go up. So you will get hit more and more often the higher you get.
Yes, higher AC is better, but it is not as good as it used to be.

that's good to hear, because I find some enemies just abuse this number to dodge most of my party's attacks, even if he is just one man surrounded by 4 of us

[Shintai]

Look on the good side, at the end of the game you can look the most fashionable without worrying about AC ;)

[Tepes Nightmare]

Originally posted by LordAnubis:

There are also ways of increasing your chances of hitting a creature with high AC. In the prologue fight with Commander Zhalk, the best way is to have Shadowheart cast "Bless" on herself, your PC and Lae'zel. Also it helps if you prepare "Command" on her before the fight, then Command him to drop his weapon. You'll have a much easier time trying to kill him since he won't just murk the Mind Flayer in 3 or 4 turns.

well,just to be curious about how it will go, so I tried your method, but still tons of missed attack, even if I have high ground and blessed buff, and the hit rate increased to 60%, still missed a lot, cantrips will be counted against his AC, and my spell missed because his other stats are high too, shadowheart's command only has a 50% success chance when he is cursed of his wisdom, so anyway, at this early stages of the game, high AC is everything, cause I can only cast slots costing spells 1 or 2 times and no big deal, mostly rely on normal attacks and cantrips.

[Tepes Nightmare]

Originally posted by Shintai:

Look on the good side, at the end of the game you can look the most fashionable without worrying about AC ;)

tempting but that doesn't change the fact at early stages of the game AC is mindlessly good, enemies with high AC make my gaming frustrating, and my characters with high AC make the combat cheap as hell, or just watch 2 dudes with super high AC trading MISS with eachother, almost looks like...dancing

[AEIOU]

While this thread is here and this is my first time doing this. Correct me if I am doing this wrong please. Every time I have a 21 ac the ai just goes for my other allies and not me unless i am the last one standing. For the actual ai to target me I need 20 ac. Is there any reason to this. Again please correct me if I am not the correct steps.

[Cur]

AC is really strong early game and anything above 18 will make you durable for all of Act 1 and some of Act 2. But as enemies get more spells and conditions it becomes less important in favor of initiative and resistances.

There are effects that can turn your party hostile against you. Beware of situations where your 24 AC God gets mind controlled and starts beating the ♥♥♥♥ out of your party. Be prepared to calm emotions when ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan.

[JF]

Originally posted by goldenkai9n3g:

While this thread is here and this is my first time doing this. Correct me if I am doing this wrong please. Every time I have a 21 ac the ai just goes for my other allies and not me unless i am the last one standing. For the actual ai to target me I need 20 ac. Is there any reason to this. Again please correct me if I am not the correct steps.

Just like you, AI can see to hit chance and will choose to target opponents that are easier to hit when they can. I've found it's useful to have melee tank with sentinel feat to get in some free hits in those situations.