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#THAC0 is just what you need to roll on a d20 to hit an AC of 0 (20 in ascending AC). It goes 20 for a normal man, 19 for 1-3 lvl PC's, 17 for 4+ lvl PC's.
Your die roll subtracts from that value, and that's what AC you hit. So if your THAC0=20 & you roll 14
20-14=AC6. https://twitter.com/DyingStylishly/status/1238208979760799744
Your die roll subtracts from that value, and that's what AC you hit. So if your THAC0=20 & you roll 14
20-14=AC6. https://twitter.com/DyingStylishly/status/1238208979760799744
It's a really simple subtraction problem.
The magic armor lowers your AC which means your enemies need to roll higher to hit you.
It's precisely, exactly, 100% the same as Base Attack Bonus (ascending AC), only it's less intuitive because it uses subtraction.
The magic armor lowers your AC which means your enemies need to roll higher to hit you.
It's precisely, exactly, 100% the same as Base Attack Bonus (ascending AC), only it's less intuitive because it uses subtraction.
It also allowed a standardization across races and classes so that everybody knew what the THAC0 was for your level, then you just adjust for Ability Scores and magic weapons. It's smoother than what 5e tries to do with the proficiency bonus, and the math is simpler.
It's also less ridiculous at higher levels because it stops going down at lvl 4. Without Ability modifiers or magic weapons, the lowest you can roll to hit AC0 (AC20) is a 17.
Meanwhile in newer games it can get as low as 13, maybe lower.
It also did something neat with monsters
Meanwhile in newer games it can get as low as 13, maybe lower.
It also did something neat with monsters
It standardized the monsters by their amount of Hit Die, and gave them a pure To Hit value based on that alone. So you have a HD4 creature, it needs to roll this, don't worry about adding modifiers, just check the chart.
So you don't have to check the monster's stat block, look at its attacks, see that this one has +4 to hit and factor that in, or whatever.
It has HD6, it needs to roll this to hit AC4, all the math is literally done for you.
It has HD6, it needs to roll this to hit AC4, all the math is literally done for you.
Although this can cause some problems because the monster THAC0 chart goes up to like HD17+, and monsters that high don't even need to roll to hit you
But if you ran into something like that, y'already done goofed, homie, and ya kinda deserve the pounding you're about to take
But if you ran into something like that, y'already done goofed, homie, and ya kinda deserve the pounding you're about to take
THAC0 really isn't as complicated as most people make it out to be. All they did with BAB was reverse the calculation and make it addition instead of subtraction to make it more intuitive.
Which was a mistake.
But if you take five or eight minutes you can work it out easily.
Which was a mistake.
But if you take five or eight minutes you can work it out easily.
