Are armour with minus stat better than plus stat?

[Daft Punk]

can someone explain it? example: chain armor have minus stat to slashing.. so are -1 slashing are better than +1 slashing in armor? i never play d&d IRL. so kindly explain to me which stat make character harder to hit

[konstantynopolitaneczka]

it's pretty much self-explanatory

• slashing damage can be dealt with swords or claws
  
  
• if entity tries to hit you, they have to "fight" their odds against your AC (armor class) rating
  
  
• AC goes from -20 to +20
  
  
• +1 slashing AC gives enemy +1 penalty to only slashing weapons

[Daft Punk]

Originally posted by konstantynopolitaneczka:

it's pretty much self-explanatory

• slashing damage can be dealt with swords or claws
  
  
• if entity tries to hit you, they have to "fight" their odds against your AC (armor class) rating
  
  
• AC goes from -20 to +20
  
  
• +1 slashing AC gives enemy +1 penalty to only slashing weapons

so what minus stat do in armour? like -2 slashing,crushing,etc.

[philos3]

It means that your opponent takes a negative modifier to their to hit roll for that specific type of weapon. Let's say your opponent is an ogre using a morning star (typical weapon for them), that is a crushing type of weapon. So if your armor has a -2 to crushing then the ogre's attack roll loses 2 on the attack. Say it rolled a 14 then the roll would actually be a 12. If a goblin was also attacking you at the same time with a bow, which is piercing damage, their attack roll would be unmodified. So if they rolled a 14 it would remain a 14.

The final attack roll is compared to your actual armor class (AC) to see if it is a hit or not.

[Drake]

If you're talking about the regular mod of an armor type, minus is actually better, because of how AC and THACO work in AD&D 2E.
The less AC an armor provides, the more effective it is.

The hit formula in D&D 2E is THAC0 - AC = what the attacker needs to roll.
THAC0 means to hit at Armor Class 0. Becasue if your AC is 0, your hit roll is THACO - 0 = THAC0.

So if someone has a THAC0 of 12 and you have an armor of 5, 12 - 5 = 7. They need to roll 7 or more to hit you.

So if you armor is negative, it's actually adding AC to the roll. Let's say you have a full plate armor and are hit by a sword. The enemy THAC0 is 8. fullplate has 1 AC and -4 against slashing. So your AC against a sword is 1-4 = -3.
The hit formula is now 8 - (-3) = 8 + 3 = 11. They actaully lose hit chance becasue they now need to roll 11 instead of 8.

[konstantynopolitaneczka]

Originally posted by The machinist:

Originally posted by konstantynopolitaneczka:

it's pretty much self-explanatory

• slashing damage can be dealt with swords or claws
  
  
• if entity tries to hit you, they have to "fight" their odds against your AC (armor class) rating
  
  
• AC goes from -20 to +20
  
  
• +1 slashing AC gives enemy +1 penalty to only slashing weapons

so what minus stat do in armour? like -2 slashing,crushing,etc.

That's where it gets complicated because game is using advanced rules


For example: No AC bonuses:
THAC0 = 19, Enemy AC = 10; that means you have to roll higher than a 9 to hit the victim.
Same with negatives.
AC -6:
THAC0 = 10. Enemy AC = -6; that means you need to roll higher than a 16 to hit the victim.

But that's not all,
If you have item with 5 AC and another item with negative -5 AC then you would have 0 AC after equipping it right? Well not exactly. Instead you get -10 AC. Game calculates it as -5 + 5 = -10

It's mind mending for beginners so just remember this: the lower THAC0 and AC the better.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

In addition to the very brief explanation of Armor Class (AC) in the game's PDF manual ( https://files.beamdog.com ), here's the good page in the Wiki:
--> https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Armor_Class

[wendigo211]

With armor those "vs." modifiers indicate what armor class the armor would give you in the absence of other modifiers. E.g. if the armor says AC 3 (0 vs. Slashing) that means the AC is 3 points better vs. slashing than Bludgeoning, Piercing and Missile.

So, IIRC, Full Plate armor is AC 1 (-3 vs. Slashing, -2 vs. Piercing, -2 vs. Missile). A character with an 18 DEX (+4 AC modifier), Elves Bane girdle (+3 AC modifier vs. Piercing and Missile damage) and Ring of Protection +2 would have an AC of:

• -5 Vs. Bludgeoning. AC 1-4 (dex) -2 (ring)=-5
  
• -9 Vs. Slashing. AC -3-4 (dex) -2 (ring)=-9
  
• -11 Vs. Piercing. AC -2-4 (dex) -2 (ring)-3 (girdle)=-11
  
• -11 Vs. Missile. AC -2-4 (dex) -2 (ring)-3 (girdle)=-11

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