As a DM, once initiative is rolled, I do not keep track of player AC, or any number on their sheet for that matter. I have a vague idea of their hit points, but I have a lot more going on on this side of the screen. Remembering if the fighter is holding their shield, or if someone has some special modifier applied to them is taking up unnecessary bandwidth. So I can take a guess that 29 hits your AC, but I always want to make sure.
Same. All I know about my party’s AC is that one of them is tickling 20 right now, and I have no Idea which it is. Granted, I run PF2E, so even if it’s a sure hit, I still need to know if it crits
Well that’s a crit then, besides cover and other temporary bonuses could influence the AC.
Depends on your system. I’ve not actually played a TTRPG where that’s how crits worked. I believe that’s how it works in PF2E, though, which I really wanna try. Just can’t manage to convince the nerds I play with.
Pathfinder. For people that play D&D and think “I wish this had more complicated rules…”
But yes, that’s how crits work in Pathfinder - if you beat the target number by 10, that’s a crit success. Conversely, if you miss the target number by 10, that’s a crit fail.
For people that play D&D and think “I wish this had more complicated rules…”
2e generally has rules that are on par with 5e, or even simpler in many cases, just written in a way that makes them sound like a software development reference text. The number of times I’ve been “Ohhhh, they mean X! Why didn’t they just say so?!?!?”
Or pathfinder: for people who wish DnD had more balanced rules that they don’t have to houserule/homebrew to make it good
I wouldn’t say more complicated, more like “more complex rules”
I could try and get into a semantic argument about the difference between “more complicated” and “more complex”, but I won’t 😉
Full disclosure: I play Pathfinder. I haven’t touched D&D in years…
I started with PF1E, so 5E kinda feels… overly simple at times lol
PF2E’s pretty fun. The Remaster makes things a pain to look things up, but that’s more on WotC and should be largely fixed in a year when Archives of Nethys finally gets caught up
Works similar in kids on brooms/bikes, except it’s beating it by 5, though you usually aren’t rolling a d20
Depends on your system. D&D 5e has no rule that this would be a crit, as far as I know.
Pathfinder 2e actually.
Nat 20 increases the quality of a check
Nat 1 decreases the quality of a check
+10 above DC increases
-10 below DC decreass
Add item, status, circumstance (e.g. flatfooted which adjust your AC by -2 or cover which increases it) bonuses and you get the actual result of a check.
Like if they rolled a 20 and had a +9 modifier?
Reminds me of a Lich concept in DnD I saw a while back where the Lich owned a couple of Manual of Quickness of Action, which raise dexterity by 2 but can only be used once every century. So the lich read them every century to max out Dexterity at 30. Thats a Modifier for AC.
The name was Messorum Praecucurrit which is latin for “He Ran Ahead of the Harvest”
It has base 40 feet/turn movement, Mobile feat: +10 ft, Longstrider spell: +10 ft., optionally unarmored movement for either +25 or +10, Boots of Speed: Double speed, Haste spell: Double speed, and can use Wind Walk if needed so max 340 without dash or wind walk. If they use Dash with Bonus Action, action, and haste action then it’s another x4 modifier so 1360 feet/round, and if a round is 6 seconds then that’s 226.666 feet per second or actually even less if you consider the round split between first party taking their turn and second party taking theirs then it becomes 453.333 which isn’t close to mach one but it’s not bad for feet on the ground until somebody invents a gun.
Wears his phylactery on a gold chain around his neck, doesn’t give a Fuck.
If they fire an arrow at him, have them roll dice as if it even matters, then compare numbers and go on a long tangent about how the arrow travels 8 feet in 0.04s at which point the party has to roll a DEX and PER check to see lich stand up and casually walks at 210 feet per second or 8.4 ft in 0.04 seconds to place the arrow gently back into the archer’s quiver, then sit back down. If they fail the check, they blinked and missed it. Party has no idea what his stats or abilities are and have to figure it out what is happening via passing a check or guessing.
Lich is a passive, true nuetral, doesn’t kill the party, gives them each some sort of boon and sends them on their way, because you don’t live to 2000 by making enemies. Basically runs an adventurer casino where they make it to the end and receive loot or they become loot for the next party.
you don’t live to 2000 by making enemies
You only live that long by making enemies. That’s what gives the setting juice. A few dozen deified egos playing tug-of-war with the Prime Material Plane for an eternity.
I don’t begrudge the core concept. Players need to understand there’s always a bigger fish, especially in a game where you play fast and loose with the min-maxing. But if one wizard can do the math on this, you have to believe its not the only one. The whole perk of being an unkillable necromancer is that you can rub people the wrong way without ever suffering for your hubris.
Whether that’s a direct affront - taking the eye-teeth of a seventh born son on his 13th name day, because its a valuable material component - or indirect - hanging out in a big tower doing strange magicks far longer than the local divine orthodoxy considers “inoffensive in the eyes of Heaven”, you’re going to have some people who revile you.
Setting up an Angelic/Demonic entity impatiently waiting to collect its soul or establishing some bitter rivalry with another arcanist adds more history and flavor to the character as a set piece, even if there’s never a pay-off or a material change in the status quo.
I feel like a world where people stumble around every corner tapping surfaces with with 10 foot poles has sufficiently high fatality to make the Lich a rarity.
Let’s say you start with 8 DEX, to reach 30 with 1 book would take 1100 years. With two books, 600 years. Run of the mill wizards can’t do the build.
But yeah, it’s just a concept, so you can give it whatever sort of character or background you like.
I feel like a world where people stumble around every corner tapping surfaces with with 10 foot poles has sufficiently high fatality to make the Lich a rarity.
Seems like a world that deadly would have a surplus wizards investing in automatic instant resurrection.
Yeah, but it’s a bit problematic because they call those “phylactery” and they consume flesh and souls very often to function. You could write a setting where NewYou Station magic exists but at that point it’s not a medieval fantasy.
Why do you think every 10’ of soil is a potential pit trap if not to catch the prerequisite number of people for soul harvesting?
Hell, getting a conga line of ambitious unwitting adventures to plow themselves through one of your local death mazes feels like a collections technique when you’re farming sentient but uneducated mortal humanoids.
DM:
