Better wearing no armor if you gain no Def bonus?

JEDubz · Post by **JEDubz** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 12:07 pm

Okay here's my issue, help me here...

I've got 3 sets of Bracers of Def +4

I've got my Mage Wearing One, but the other two just sit around because if I put them on my Ranger or my Rogue, their defense doesn't go up.

However I've noticed this...

If I put a pair on the Rogue, and then take off her Studded Leatehr +2, she still has the exact same defense(21), only saves a lot of weight. But then I don't get the "Max Dex Bonust +6" What exactly is that?

Wrath-Of-Egg · Post by **Wrath-Of-Egg** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 11:54 pm

max dex bonus is how much you gain dexterity bonus to your armor class.. so if you have +8 in dexterity... and armor has 6 max dexterity bonus so you would get only 6 dexterity bonus... so without armor you would get your whole dexterity bonus to your armor class...

Kydrilyra · Post by **Kydrilyra** » Sat Jul 31, 2004 12:02 am

sounds like your better off without that armor since you get higher in case you want higher dex

JEDubz · Post by **JEDubz** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 9:09 pm

Thanks guys is this the same way it would be in AD&D... I'm way cnofused lately.

Kydrilyra · Post by **Kydrilyra** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 6:34 am

your quite welcome, now i may be wrong but i THINK the game goes by the rules for 3rd edition D&D...someone else may know more

SDMoNoLitH · Post by **SDMoNoLitH** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 11:15 am

Yes, IWD2 uses almost complete 3E AD&D rules.

Armor Bonus is the base bonus that is added to your armor class.

Max dexterity bonus is the maximum bonus that dexterity can provide to your armor class.

Example:

Studded leather gives +3 Armor bonus and +5 max dexterity bonus.

If a character with 10 dexterity puts this armor on, their AC will become 13. however, if a character with 20 dexterity puts this armor on (+5 modifier), then their AC will become 18. If a third character with 14 dexterity puts this armor on, then their AC will be 15. etc.

Notice that the heavy armors provide a large armor bonus and little to no dexterity bonuses. The lighter armors are the opposite. Medium armor tends to be a good mix.

Overall, because of the way 3E is implemented here, monsters tend to hit regardless of your armor class. This is why max hit points per level is enabled by DEFAULT and why high constitution is a recommendation for any character class.

The above is especially true for those of you who played Icewind Dale. It was possible to go through the Vale of Shadows with a -1 to -2 AC and rarely take a hit. In this game, even characters with armor classes of 18-19 get hit by goblins far more. I'm told that's because of the way the Base Attack Bonus system versus Armor Class works in 3E.

Wrath-Of-Egg · Post by **Wrath-Of-Egg** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 11:19 am

well it depends if you turn dificulty down you wont take much hits...

but if you turn it up then it will be almost like in hof... for lower levels...

SDMoNoLitH · Post by **SDMoNoLitH** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 11:24 am

I still take the same number of hits with difficulty down. I played Very Easy and was ready to tear my hair out on some of the more difficult battles (entering the Severed Hand is almost impossible)

Wrath-Of-Egg · Post by **Wrath-Of-Egg** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 11:47 pm

perhaps for little secret for you....

in horde fortress those half goblins deal something like 10 damge per hit... but in hardest dificulty... they deal 60-80 damge...

severed hand arent so hard if you play with 1-4 player partys...

SDMoNoLitH · Post by **SDMoNoLitH** » Thu Aug 05, 2004 6:57 am

Yeah, I know what HoF does. I've never bothered to try it in IWD2 yet because even Very Easy gives me plenty of a curse-fest. I just solo'ed the whole game for the first time, and some of those fights were almost impossible because of the incredibly annoying bug that spawns the same number of monsters for one level 2X character as it would for 6. (BIS forget to take number of party members into account when they made the adjustment functions

)