Newb question -armor check penalty
Snuggles the Psycho Shepherd
>
> Hi,
> I am not quite grasping the concept of the armor check penalty.
> If heavy armor has a +8 armor bonus and a -8 armor check penalty
> doesn't that cancel each other out?
> Thanks for any help.
Armour Check Penalty only applies to *Skill Checks*. It's one of the
modifiers talked about for a FULL SENTENCE on page 74...
If you want more info check out the open gaming documentation (someone
have the link? / try searching www.wizards.com) or pick-up/check-out a
copy of the Dungeons & Dragons: Players Handbook
--
-Snuggles the Psycho Shepherd
"Oi! I was gonna reply with RTFM but I know the rules and it was still
hard to find! :p"
EVoL
> I am not quite grasping the concept of the armor check penalty.
> If heavy armor has a +8 armor bonus and a -8 armor check penalty
> doesn't that cancel each other out?
> Thanks for any help.
-8 armor check penalty is to your skills point not to armor bonus.
-e.
Snuggles the Psycho Shepherd
Amendment. ACP only applies to skills with physical involvement. (In
Pen&Paper D&D this includes climbing and swimming) An example of a skill
in NWN affected by the ACP is parry. So when you try to parry if you
have heavy armour the penalty counts against your parry check.
--
-Snuggles the Psycho Shepherd
"Ah likes sheep!"
Jeff Alexander
> Hi,
> I am not quite grasping the concept of the armor check penalty.
Don't feel bad. Like many rules from D&D 3rd Edition, armor
check penalties are barely mentioned in the NWN manual.
There are some skills that require full-body freedom of movement.
The heavier your armor is, the harder it is to do them well. In NWN,
the four skills this applies to are Pick Pockets, Hide, Move Silently,
and Parry. Any time you try to use any of these skills, you apply not
only your modifiers for skill level, Dexterity, and any magic items,
but also your Armor Check Penalty.
By the way, shields have Armor Check Penalties, too, and they're
not listed in the manual. Small shields are -1, large shields are -2,
and tower shields are -10. (That's right, "negative ten".)
> If heavy armor has a +8 armor bonus and a -8 armor check penalty
> doesn't that cancel each other out?
Your Armor Check Penalty is not an Armor CLASS Penalty.
Skills and Armor Class are two different things.
Oh, and just to confuse you a little more... you see that column
that says "Max Dex Bonus"? That should be "Max AC Dex Bonus". Your
armor limits how much your Dexterity can help boost your AC but not how
much it helps you do anything else. If your Dexterity is 16 and you're
wearing full plate, your Dex will only raise your AC by one point but
you'll still get +3 to hit with ranged weapons.
John Twernbold
> Oh, and just to confuse you a little more... you see that column
> that says "Max Dex Bonus"? That should be "Max AC Dex Bonus".
And that table is wrong, too. :-) Half-Plate has a Max DEX Bonus in-game
of +1, not 0 as shown in the manual. Another table error I noticed was for
the morningstar, which has a damage of 1-8 in-game, but is listed as 1-6 in
the manual. I suspect these are a result of game changes made after
printing, since the manual's info for Half-Plate is closer to the original
D&D stats, and this was probably adjusted in the game due to balance
reasons.
--
Bold
aka John Twernbold
jtwernbold (at) yahoo.com