OK, OK i know this might have been asked many and many times but i just cant find it and cant keep playing without understanding it...
why does my armor class is negative? i mean my main char has -8 def, i believe its good since naked i have 10, but why the hell is it negative? in my opinion it should be positive.. (but i dont know much about rpg's) and something else wut THACO? and why my weapons have this kind of damage: 1d12+4(barbaric sword bought in the trademarket)
plz someone help me understand these stuff, i would be most grateful=]

P.S. those pictures in the back of the Trademarket, waukeens promenade) are from Dungeons & Dragons? my brother said it wasnt but im almost sure it is.. anyways is it?

OK, rules 101. Any questions can wait till later.

AC AND THACO:

AC is Armour Class, THACO is To Hit Armour Class Zero. (The pedant who just asked "THACZ?" can and will be shot at this point) The way they work is simple - You take your TAHCO subtract your targets AC from it, and try to roll over that number on a d20. You make it you hit, you dont you miss. Go through that procedure and youll see why lower numbers are better - it makes it work out that higher die rolls are better, and therefore is more natural in use. Thats only an issue in PnP though, and is reversed in the new 3rd edition rules.

Exceptions - a natural 1 always is a critical miss - not only you dont hit (Even if your THACO and targets AC say you do), but you miss your next attack). A natural 20 is always a critical hit - even if you need more than 20 - and causes double damage. Unless you opponent has a helmet or is immune to critical hits, in which cae you hit for standard damage. Some weapons get a critical on a natural 19 as well.

D-NOTATION:

This is a system for specifying die combinations and modifiers. 1d12+4 mean roll 1 12-sided die and add 4. 2d6+4 means roll 2 6-sided dice and add 4. The two seem equivalent, but the latter will tend more to the average result, which is the way I like it. Judge your weapons by minimum and average damage - do not calculate based on maximums.

The pictures - I hear that they are from d&d but havent looked for myself yet.

This is of course 2E rules. Icewind Dale II and Never Winter Nights use 3E which utilizes the AC as +...so better armour adds to your ac..making the higher the number the better...

Hmmm, finally i got to know why that damn thing is negative, thank u man. I should look for weapons with 2d6 + 4 thats wut u mean, right!?
P.S. wuts: "rules 101, any question can wait till later"?

Thank god for 3rd edition D&D. The rules make WAYYYYYYYY more sense, much simpler and a lot more easy to get new players in the damn game.

Anyone familiar with the acronym "RTFM"??
THAT makes a lot more sense IMO.

P.S. no offense intended, I didnt make up the acronym [img]smile.gif[/img]

:D
After having posted on topics such as this more than 10 times, im starting to like that expression too ...
:D But hey, the only reason that i can explain things such as THAC0 and AC and such, - if i have the time to type it- , is because a long long time ago i asked the question myself [img]smile.gif[/img]
TFM isnt allways that clear on everything, they ought to give some practical examples or something ...

Anywayz ..
Vlad Tepes,
If you wanna know all there is about THAC0 and AC, want more explanations and more examples .. just use the search-option
(below Post a new Topic somewhere)
and you're bound to find an incredible amount of information on it [img]smile.gif[/img]
Have fun [img]graemlins/shine.gif[/img]

Most peolle have trouble with THACO... good thing they can get decent explenations... but they are also in the manual rnt they???

Thanks Daan i took a look on that after the first explanations.. and about the manual i dont have it... i'm using my cousins game, so i dont have the manual =]
thanks 4 ur help doods.