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AC simplifies "harder to hit at all" and "harder to actually damage" into a single stat, which is frankly a positive. It's about simplifying combat enough that

AC simplifies "harder to hit at all" and "harder to actually damage" into a single stat, which is frankly a positive. It's about simplifying combat enough that you can keep things moving. I've played enough TTRPGs to appreciate simplicity in combat: some developers truly believe that people want to sit around watching other people roll dice and do math for ages. If, for some reason, you only care about hitting a target, and not penetrating their armor or actually damaging them, the DM can always adjust the effective AC accordingly. And I'd argue that the feats and spells are largely fine. Sure, there's not dramatic variation but that's because in a simple system there's only so much you can do, and DnD has a spell that mechanically covers every such niche. Combine that with the desire to have some mechanically similar but differing in roleplaying implications, and you've got DnD's spellbook.

jstarfish 3y ago
> AC simplifies "harder to hit at all" and "harder to actually damage" into a single stat, which is frankly a positive. Agreed. In practice, if you're shot while wearing a bulletproof vest, the bullet isn't penetrating the armor, but it's still doing concussive damage to your skin and organs-- you can even still die from internal bleeding. This varies by caliber, range, penetrative ability of the round, etc. For D&D, this would be the difference between being shot by an arrow while wearing plated mail, versus taking a cannonball to the chest. The calculation needs to be "was the attack successful" and the technicalities handwaved away. You take damage from the arrow depending on whether it pierces a gap in the armor. You take damage from the cannonball depending on whether it hits you or misses. > some developers truly believe that people want to sit around watching other people roll dice and do math for ages. It's cheap and quick to do any number of calculations in CRPGs, but it's a snorefest when you bring that approach to IRL gatherings after everyone's been drinking. At that point you might as well try to play FATAL.

jstarfish 3y ago

> AC simplifies "harder to hit at all" and "harder to actually damage" into a single stat, which is frankly a positive. Agreed. In practice, if you're shot while wearing a bulletproof vest, the bullet isn't penetrating the armor, but it's still doing concussive damage to your skin and organs-- you can even still die from internal bleeding. This varies by caliber, range, penetrative ability of the round, etc. For D&D, this would be the difference between being shot by an arrow while wearing plated mail, versus taking a cannonball to the chest. The calculation needs to be "was the attack successful" and the technicalities handwaved away. You take damage from the arrow depending on whether it pierces a gap in the armor. You take damage from the cannonball depending on whether it hits you or misses. > some developers truly believe that people want to sit around watching other people roll dice and do math for ages. It's cheap and quick to do any number of calculations in CRPGs, but it's a snorefest when you bring that approach to IRL gatherings after everyone's been drinking. At that point you might as well try to play FATAL.