Armor Class is a Sucker's Game in Pathfinder (Here's A Way To Beat It)

Combat in RPGs, when boiled down to its bare essentials, comprises trying to hit the enemy as hard and as often as you can while attempting not to get hit yourself. While there are a lot of different mechanics for this throughout the gaming spectrum, Pathfinder opts for the passive defense mechanism of armor class. You take your Dexterity modifier, the value of your armor, the value of your shield (if you have one), unique feats and class features, magic items, protective spells, circumstance bonuses, and you add all of those up to determine how good an attack needs to be to actually hit you.

Pretty standard stuff, really.

Crap.

If you've played a long-running campaign, though, then you know armor class is a sucker's game the longer the story goes on. And as someone whose characters draw critical hits like a magnet draws iron, I'd like to share some of what I've learned on the subject of making sure you don't get smashed to a pulp whenever initiative is rolled.

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Diminishing Returns on Your AC

Let's lay some foundational points, here. I'm not saying that armor class is a bad mechanic. I'm not saying that it's broken, or that you shouldn't use it at your table. What I am saying, though, is that if you want your armor class to actually provide a lot of protection as you level up then it's basically the only thing you're going to be investing your resources in to allow you to keep pace with your enemies.

You spent HOW much on that?!

I'll give you a perfect example from my recent Rise of The Runelords playthrough. For that campaign I was running a paladin with a Dexterity focus. At lower levels all it took was decent armor and a shield to avoid getting hit a majority of the time. Sometimes the GM got in a lucky shot, but the character sometimes went through entire encounters with barely a scratch. By the time the party's level hit double digits, though, it didn't matter how high my armor class was. I had enchanted armor, a boosted Dexterity bonus, natural armor, a shield bonus, deflection modifiers, boost spells from the party enchanter, and the huge bonus from active smite on a target, and I was still practically guaranteed to tank at least 2 hits per big bad per round.

Why the change?

Well, part of it is that once you hit high single digits to double digits for character level, you start dealing with one big threat a lot more often than you do squads of smaller threats. While one big threat stands less of a chance of winning (because the party gets more actions, and is therefore more likely to cream that single enemy), these enemies tend to have huge attack bonuses that are practically guaranteed to hit at least once when they unload on a PC. And it's usually more, which can be a problem if those hits are all targeted at one PC instead of spread out among the party. Or, even worse, enemies tend to pack potent magic that targets your touch AC or your saving throws (thus ignoring a lot of buffs), or they opt to try to grapple characters, which targets your combat maneuver defense instead of your armor class.

So, to sum up, the higher your character level gets the less often enemies rely on purely physical attacks to harm you... and when they do rely on physical attacks, they tend to come from massive enemies with huge bonuses to hit so that even the tankiest of tanks is going to lose a hefty chunk of hit points by the time the GM is done rolling dice.

Thinking Beyond Armor Class

Now, for the record, I'm not saying you shouldn't invest in your armor class. Getting a good AC is going to save you from a lot of damage over the long-term, and you'll often be able to shrug off attacks from smaller minions, traps, and other sources of damage that can still pose a serious danger if you go running into battle with nothing but a bedsheet and a buckler.

All right, I'm ready. Let's do this!

There are three categories of defense that I find a lot of players don't invest in, but they can often provide you far more protection than spending all of your gold to get the best magical amulets, shields, cloaks, and armor you can find to boost your armor class. Those areas are:

- Attack Negation

- Miss Chance

- Damage Reduction

The first category is, admittedly, one of the rarest out there. Not only that, but it tends to be pretty narrow in its application. However, this covers class abilities like the swashbuckler or duelist parry, as well as feats like Deflect Arrows, Missile Shield, and Ray Shield. It also covers feats like Snake Style, Cut From The Air and Smash From The Air as well. The idea is that these abilities directly counter an attack that might otherwise hit you, allowing you to use your own prowess instead of relying on your armor class. These abilities tend to have a small pool of uses (they require you to spend attacks of opportunity, or they only function once per round), but they are ideal for characters with high attack bonuses (or just Improved Unarmed Strike) who want to use that offense as a defense.

These don't help much with magical attacks, of course. For that you need a counterspell, or for the caster to miss you entirely... which is where the second category comes in.

Miss chance is what happens when an attack should hit, but due to poor lighting, a magical effect, etc., there's a percentage chance that it doesn't land. You've got either a 20 percent miss chance for concealment, or a 50 percent miss chance for total concealment... and these are going to be far more effective than pumping all your money into your AC just to eke out another 1-4 points that won't stop you from getting your teeth knocked out.

This can be done at all levels, depending on the situation you're involved in. A first level tiefling when fighting humans can use their darkness spell-like ability to lower the lighting conditions in an area, granting themselves a 20 percent miss chance due to concealment. Orcs fighting in total darkness in a cavern can get a 50 percent miss chance if they snuff all the lights in an area. Tossing down a smoke stick creates a cloud of vapor that makes attacks pretty likely to miss you, and is a good strategy if you're all sitting ducks in a hallway with an archer or a blaster at the other end. An invisible character gets that 50 percent miss chance, while a blurred one gets the 20. Magic items like a cloak of displacement are going to be worth more than their cost in terms of blood and suffering when it comes to how much pain they save you. And what's even better is that a miss chance can often save you from precision damage like sneak attack, meaning that even if the rogue or assassin manages to strike a blow, that mountain of d6s isn't going to accompany it.

While some would argue that mirror image isn't technically a miss chance spell, I'll remind folks about it here, because it is a life saver.

What if they don't miss, and you can't block?

If that blow does land, and you're going to take damage, there's still one more trick you can keep up your sleeve... damage reduction.

Damage reduction is usually something monsters get, but players can get their hands on it as well. The most common examples are when it's a class feature, which you see with barbarians, bloodragers, and some fighter and monk archetypes (such as the one I used for my Luke Cage character conversion). Anyone who've ever played a high level barbarian can tell you that ticking off a dozen points of damage that you just don't have to take adds up over the course of a fight. Adamantine armor also grants damage reduction, and spells like defending bone (one of my personal favorites) will also take some of the hits for you. If you have a divine caster who really likes you then you might be able to get them to use shield other on you. Or if you get a familiar, then one with the Protector archetype can do much the same thing around level 5 as long as the two of you are touching.

Layered Defense Works Best

There is no way to completely avoid taking damage in Pathfinder. Sooner or later a lucky shot, an area of effect spell, a trap, or an invisible assassin is going to make you bleed. However, you're going to have far more flexibility (and get screwed far less often) if you can create a layered defense against the threats you're facing.

The first layer of that defense is your armor class, and while it will stop some attacks, there's no way it will stop all of them. An active defense might cut some arrows out of the air, or parry some strikes, but it won't stop every shot coming your way. A miss chance might mean that even a few of the ones that do get through fly harmlessly past. And, lastly, even if the blow manages to land, damage reduction can chop that number down so that it's barely a flesh wound.

This isn't perfect either. Area of effect spells that require Reflex saves are still going to be something you need to contend with, Will saves are going to be a serious threat, and while a miss chance might stop you from getting grappled or tripped, none of the others will affect those attacks. Choking gas clouds, fear effects, an inability to reach flying enemies, illusions... there are still dozens of different challenges and threats you'll need to be ready for.

So keep that in mind before you start feeling too invincible.

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That's all for this week's Crunch topic! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio! Or if you'd like to read some of my books, like my alley cat noir novel Marked Territory, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, head over to My Amazon Author Page!

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DMs, If You Want To Provide A Tougher Challenge, Alter Your Arenas

Earlier today I was on a group talking about my recently re-homed character conversion guide for Hawkeye, when I had a strange exchange with someone. This person said, as a DM, they do everything in their power to take archers out of a fight completely. They hate them, they don't want to deal with them, and nullifying them is a primary goal they have when they're at the head of the table. While I see that as extremely bad form (after all, if you approved the character to play at your table, why are you taking away that player's ability to participate?), I decided to ask why they felt this way.

Apparently, to paraphrase, they felt that archers were too powerful because they can just wipe an encounter before the monsters ever have a chance to get close to the party.

My guess is this DM had never heard of tower shields.

Sarcasm aside, though, this is something that I see DMs run into time and time again. They always complain that this class, or that spell, totally destroys any challenge and lets players walk right through every fight... but when I ask about what kinds of fights they're presenting they miss the obvious solution.

In short, don't have every combat take place in a well-lit meadow with no cover and smooth terrain underfoot. Alter the environment, and you change the fight completely in many cases.

Change The Arena, Change The Game

A majority of combats in a lot of RPGs I've played/ran take place either in open rooms, or outside in open fields. Sometimes there are hallways, or an occasional nighttime ambush, but a lot of DMs just figure that if they throw enough monsters (or big enough monsters) into the arena then challenge will just happen.

Well, they wiped one of them... so I guess I'll throw THREE of them in this time!

While what you're fighting is important, there's no doubt about that, a lot of DMs forget that where you're fighting can make a huge difference in just how much of a challenge it is. I talked about this back in 3 Ways To Spice Up Combat in RPGs, but I feel like it might be helpful to expand the concept into areas that a lot of dungeon masters don't seem to consider.

To get started, let's use an example I just mentioned a little bit ago; the nighttime ambush. The party has bedded down for their rest, taken off their armor (in some cases, at least), and they're as vulnerable as heroes get. Sure, someone is on watch, but if they don't make the proper checks then they're going to be just as surprised as everyone else. In situations like this the darkness becomes a major asset to the ambushers. They can actually sneak up unseen, in many cases, and they can stand beyond the firelight to sling spells and shoot arrows at the party, making the attackers a much bigger threat because the party can't see them in the darkness (unless, of course, everyone in the party actually brought PCs with darkvision, which is not as common as some folks seem to think).

The difference that single environmental penalty makes can be stunning, and if you haven't tried it you should give it a whirl. The amount of actions it takes to create light, or to reveal enemies (the faerie fire spell was basically made for this) adds a whole new aspect to the challenge, and favors some strategies and characters (the half-orc with the crossbow can basically shoot back with impunity, while the human archer can barely pick out a target, for example) over others.

But that's just one example of a potential environmental penalty that players have to deal with. So ask what else you can do to change up the arena, and alter the challenge instead of just putting more, or bigger, monsters into play.

Who Has The High Ground?

The battlefield is about more than just whether or not there's darkness, mist, or smoke concealing enemies, and the fog of war is something that can go both ways. Everything, from whether the crumbling walls throughout this stretch of woods can be used for cover, to whether there are snipers up in the trees where the bruisers can't reach them, alters the challenge of a battle. Difficult or damaging terrain (in case you want to have fires blazing to control people's movements), slick ice, or even temperature that's hot or cold enough to exhaust those who aren't tough enough to take it are options you have at your disposal.

All right... I don't think they've seen us yet. Twenty more yards, and they're ours!

The key thing to remember, as the DM, is that terrain should be neutral a majority of the time, and favoring the monsters only if they're preparing for something. Obviously the orcs defending a stronghold from invasion are going to have walls to duck behind for cover, snipers behind arrow slits, etc., but those kinds of encounters should be stand-outs, not the norm. A fight in the forest should allow the party to duck behind the trees for cover just as easily as the bandits they're fighting, for example, turning it into a game of tactics and movement instead of a head-to-head fight where they line up and quote numbers until someone dies.

You also shouldn't be afraid to toss the party an advantage with the environment every now and again. Because yeah, they're fighting a dragon, but the rubble strewn around the cavern is big enough to give them a cover bonus against its breath weapon, and if they properly utilize the area they can surround it rather than all getting crushed in a narrow hallway. And perhaps the biggest gimme in this scenario, the cavern is too small for the dragon to take to the air and strafe the party with fire, ensuring that the fight is contained to a ground-level battle... assuming that would be more of an even match (as well as more fun) for the style of party your group is running.

Use All The Rules, and Stuff Tends To Get Tougher

I mentioned this back in No That Class Isn't "Broken" (You're Just Throwing The Wrong Challenges At It), but it bears repeating. If you play right into the strengths of your party every, single time, then of course they're going to crush whatever threat is standing in front of them. You put a Pathfinder paladin up against a mummy? He's immune to its disease, you can't make him afraid, and it takes all the damage from his smite and holy weapon... that lawful neutral mercenary, on the other hand, is going to give him a run for his money, because none of his holy powers come into play. You clustered your enemies together in a hallway, and then put them in front of the sorcerer who specialized in lightning bolt? Of course they got fried... but in a place with some cover and mobility, it would have been a lot harder to get that straight line of kills.

And so on, and so forth.

It takes extra damage from piercing weapons, you say? Hoo buddy, this will be over fast.

While you shouldn't be actively nullifying your players' abilities, you should be throwing in occasional challenges for them to deal with. Have them brawl in a theater where there are archers up in the box seats that have to be taken out, for example. Put an enemy at the top of the hill, and force your party to make tactical decisions about movement, cover, and range. When a fight breaks out in the bar, flip some of the tables over to block spells and crossbow bolts while the enemies return fire... at least until the barbarian sunders the table with her battle ax.

Lastly, remember that this is a two-way street. With all of the spells and alchemical items out there, it's possible for players to change up the environment as well as your monsters. Whether it's a tiefling lowering the lighting in the room with his darkness spell-like ability so he can get a miss chance on attacks coming his way, or the fighter hucking a smoke stick into the doorway so he can enter the room without presenting a clear target to the waiting enemies, don't get mad at them for using the rules and tactics available to them. Instead, take notes, because they might do something you didn't think of.

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That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. Hopefully you enjoyed, and if you've used run these kinds of games before, leave us a comment to let us know what worked for you!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Still More Rules Pathfinder Players Keep Forgetting

I've said it before and I'll say it again; Pathfinder is a really dense game as far as rules go, so it's only natural for players to miss a few here and there. This is the fourth installment of a series covering often-overlooked, obscure, or mis-remembered rules, and the previous installments are:

- Playing By The Book: Some Pathfinder Rules That Players Keep Forgetting
- MORE Rules Pathfinder Players Keep Forgetting
- Even MORE Rules Pathfinder Players Keep Forgetting
- Still More Rules Pathfinder Players Keep Forgetting
- 5 More Rules Pathfinder Players Keep Forgetting

Some of these rules might not be new to you, particularly if you're the sort of player who reads the entire rule book cover-to-cover. If you're just a casual player, though, hopefully these rules will help you bring your A game to the table.

Let's get started with this latest installment, shall we?

#1: Powerful Magic Weapons Ignore Damage Reduction

Damage reduction is the bane of low-to-mid-level combat characters. If you don't deal the right kind of damage, or your weapon is made from the wrong kind of material then you're going to find even your mightiest blows reduced to little more than cuts and bruises. DR doesn't represent as big a threat at higher levels though; mostly because particularly powerful magic weapons ignore it.

They also deal bonus damage to non-magical rocks!

According to the chart on page 562 of the Core Rulebook a weapon that has an enhancement of at least +3 overcomes cold iron/silver damage reduction. A +4 overcomes DR that would require an adamantine weapon, and a +5 or higher overcomes alignment-based DR. It should be noted that if a creature has a flat damage reduction (as you get from wearing adamantine armor or being a high-level barbarian) there is no weapon powerful enough to overcome it. You're just going to have to hit them really, really hard.

#2: Cover And Concealment Are Different Things

Cover and concealment are the bread and butter of tactical combat. Whether you're tossing down a smokestick so the wizard can't pinpoint you with a blast, or you're crouching behind a low wall to avoid being shot at by archers you are taking away at least some of the enemy's ability to do you harm. While a lot of tables don't bother with them, cover and concealment can be the life or death of characters.

Also, they're very different mechanics.

Pictured: Concealment

Let's start with concealment. If you're making a ranged attack and there's anything blocking your line of sight between a corner of your square and a corner of the target's square then the target has concealment. If a target is in a square completely enveloped by a condition that grants concealment (like a smokestick) then you have a 20% miss chance. If you have line of effect to an opponent but not line of sight then the opponent has total concealment (a 50% miss chance). You can't take attacks of opportunity, or even attack the opponent; you can only attack the square and hope for the best. These conditions don't stack; so if you're attacking in a cloud of smoke in pitch blackness then the defender only gets the one 50% miss chance.

Now on to cover!

Cover is an actual, physical barrier between you and an enemy. This includes door frames, walls, and even other people! If there is any sort of barrier you can hide behind it grants you a +4 to your armor class and a +2 on reflex saves. If more than half of you is sticking out of the cover then you reduce the bonus by half to a +2 to your armor class and a +1 to reflex saves. Improved cover, such as crouching behind an arrow slit, typically grants double the bonus (+8 and +4 respectively). If a target has total cover, meaning it's completely hidden behind a wall or other obstacle then you can't attack it.

You can have cover and concealment, and in fact it's a great idea to get both if you can! The details on these states of being are listed in the Core Rulebook 195-197.

#3: Armor Check Penalty Is Hell On The Non-Proficient

Most adventurers are familiar with the armor check penalty rules; your armor makes it harder for you to perform strength and dexterity-based actions based on how cumbersome it is. It's frustrating, but combat characters have been dealing with it for years.

If you're not proficient with an armor though that check can get heinous in a big hurry.

"Guys... guys?" Wizard's Last Words

If you are using armor you're not proficient with then you take a penalty because you just aren't trained to deal with the armor, but according to page 150 of the Core Rulebook the armor check penalty for armor you're not proficient with also applies to your attacks. This penalty stacks with any non-proficiency you take for wielding a shield you're not trained with as well.

This is the reason you never see wizards putting on plate armor without at least a level or two of fighter.

#4: You Can Direct Attacks of Opportunity Against Potions

Everyone knows that drinking a potion provokes an attack of opportunity (which is one reason the Drunken Brute barbarian variant is great, as it allows you to ignore this rule). If an enemy is drinking down a game-changing spell though a single attack might not make the difference... unless you direct the attack at the potion.

And hope it doesn't blow up in your face.

According to page 478 in the Core Rulebook you may choose to take your attack of opportunity against a potion when an enemy provokes you by trying to quaff it while threatened. If you manage to destroy the container then the target can't drink the potion, since your attack of opportunity happened before the target could pour even a little of the magical elixir into his mouth.

#5: Clerics Can Seriously Ruin A Vampire's Day

We've all seen classic Dracula movies where the count is shown a crucifix and he recoils in atavistic dread. We've also been in games where the villain is a vampire, and the party is overmatched, outgunned, and needs to pull out every trick they know in order to carry the day. If you're in a party like this then be really glad you've got a cleric or a paladin on hand (though a religious fighter will do, in a pinch).

Assuming you're all out of gummy Type-O treats, that is.

If you are fighting a vampire (which is any creature with the vampire template according to the Bestiary) then you can keep it at bay by using a standard action to present a holy symbol. The vampire has to stay 5 feet away from the person presenting the symbol, and cannot touch or make melee attacks against the target. After 1 round has gone by the vampire can attempt to overcome this repulsion by making a DC 25 Will save. At that point you'll get more use out of a good gorget than you will a holy symbol, but it's still a good idea to keep something sacred on hand if you're worried you'll be set upon by undead bloodsuckers.

What's Next...

That's all for this installment of overlooked and mis-remembered rules, but I'm sure there will be another installment. If you'd like to help support Improved Initiative then stop by my Patreon page and consider becoming a patron today! If you want to be sure that you don't miss any of my updates then either plug your email into the box on your right, or follow me on Facebook and Tumblr!