armour class

[timothy trotter]

As ive only just gotten my head around the thac0 and AC of baldurs gate, its annoying to find that IWD doesnt use this system so i'm unfermiliar with it. i purchaced some half plate armour for my drow paladin/fighter and his armour class seemed to get worse, it was 21 then it lowered to 21 when i switched my studded leather armour for this half plate.
his stats are:
str: 19
dex: 20
Con: 14
Int: 5
Wis: 7
Cha: 16
i realise this is a power gaming charicter, so dont have a go at me for it.
also when i gate mt fighter/cleric the half plate armour, it didnt make a difference to his AC. i have no idea as to how the IWD system works. help would be good.

[Marty4]

In IWD2, heavier armor restricts your movement and, while giving you a better armor class than studded leather, prevents you from taking full advantage of your dexterity. The half plate armor, IIRC, has a maximum dexterity bonus of 0, meaning that you can have absolutely no armor bonus from your dexterity. With 20 dexterity, you would be gaining whatever the armor gives, but losing the 5 armor class in return.

Your options would be to either use light or medium armors with this character, or to Dalekeep them into a slower buy with higher stats in other areas.

[pritchke]

So basically better armor is not always better especially for faster characters and if you can wear lighter armor than do so even if you lose a point or two of armor class to the good, you may decide it would be better for lighter armor. Also look at things like what abilities you can still use with lighter armor, and how much more weight you can carry and determine if the extra point or two of armor is worth it for that particular character.

[ 05-26-2005, 11:11 AM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[Bozos of Bones]

Dexterity does not affect how fast you can move.
basically, it's like this. If the target's going to be doing a lot of lockpicking, sneaking or trap disarming, shooting with bows, crossbows or other ranged weapons, or will find himself in alot of Reflex-save situations, then the light armor and high dexterity(16+) are the way to go. If he's going to be a berserker who could just use a bit of a bonus to his reflex save, but isn't overly dependant on it, take medium armor and medium dexterity(14). And if the guy is going to be plain old tanking and dishing out damage by the hundreds, forget all about dexterity, leave it at 10 or 12, and go for the heavy stuff.

[pritchke]

My apologies for the terminology, I meant faster in terms of reflexes, not how much ground they can cover in a short amount of time.

[ 05-26-2005, 12:12 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[timothy trotter]

i guess ive wasted a fair few points on giving all three of my tanks max dexterity then. is the des ac attained by wearing full plate and having a dex bonus of one? (not counting rings and other magical items). What is the best full plate in the game, im yet to find a decent item listing on the web, i found wiemers one, but it seemed to cluttered and un orginised.

[Bozos of Bones]

Not telling. all you should know now is that there are killer armors for all three types. Aim the dexterities of your characters so that they wear different armors.

[timothy trotter]

one with high end, say 20+ wearing studded leather, another with 14 wearing chain mail, my ranger who uses a bow will have the highest dex, so she can get her dex bonus for using missile wepons, she will wear leather armour until she gets 24 dex, then she will go with no armour. lastly ill have my main tank with a dex of 12 wearing full plate. sound right you?

[Aragorn1]

You can build high dex tanks, you just need to handle them differently from the usually high con ones. Choose different feats etc to compliment their abilities.

[Bozos of Bones]

There is a +7Max DEX armor, and two(normal and a HoF one) who don't have a maximum. Very useful for characters with sky-high dexterity who are not monks or robe-wearers.