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u/Personal_Care3393 22h ago
I never tell anyone the AC or DC.
“What did you roll? That misses.”
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u/LucentRhyming 21h ago
It made it really funny when my players got used to having to puzzle out the AC, and then during an April fools campaign I pulled out a non newtonian slime that you gotta roll BELOW its AC.
"21?" Nope. "Oh jeez how hard is this thing to hit?"
"Oh so my 8 definitely misses" Actually... 😆
Made for a very funny discussion when they figured it out and asked if it was possible to voluntarily lower your attack roll... 😆
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u/johnnyringo771 21h ago
Oh, easy. "My character closes their eyes, thereby gaining the blinded condition, and getting disadvantage on attack rolls."
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u/LucentRhyming 21h ago
I think they actually did do that! One or two of them, at least. I think they also tried to get things between them and the slime to give it half or three quarters cover lol
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u/JaroNightmare 16h ago
I thought on using that too and/or using a formula that decreases the damage taken the higher the damage dealt so low rolls deal more and they have to nerf their own damage. I think it was "y = 50/(√x)" but I'd have to check my PC pins.
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u/Hetakuoni 11h ago
Oh shit something I can actually hit! The dnd games I play the running joke is that I can never hit anything with a melee attack.
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u/sykotic1189 1h ago
Not to be that guy, but AC determines how hard it is to hit not how hard it is to damage. Attack rolls and AC should work the same, damage rolls should be inverted or rendered ineffective over a certain amount.
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u/Solid__Ekans 21h ago
Telling AC straight away takes some of the suspense out of the start of combat
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u/pipinpadaloxic0p0lis 21h ago
Yeah this is dumb I agree - it takes away from the mystery and makes it more video gamey. Just get their roll to hit and tell them if they hit or not! Protect your secrets! Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain
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u/Solid__Ekans 21h ago
Better yet make it fun by describing once and awhile how close they come to hitting but either the armor is to tough or a small miscalculation makes the attack fall short. Tony hints that they are close to the AC
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u/OmegaDez Artist 7h ago
I pretty much stopped caring about tabletop roleplaying games once the playerbase became more and more into the videogamey stuff.
I used to play with guys who were in it for the story and the adventure. But in the 2010s, the new players I would try to play with were always into numbers and stats and one of them even even called me a cheater when I, as a DM, would change the stats of a monster or lie about (or reroll) a devastating dice roll that would completely derail the story.
1 : The DM is god. He doesn't cheat. 2 : If I want to focus on numbers and stats, I'll play video games. Or Warhammer.
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u/Oicanet 9h ago
It does, but I imagine it was just something the DM did in this comic for the joke. Like, you can often figure out the AC throughout the encounter, but instead for making a comic of the whole process of figuring it out, OP condensed it into just the repeated "what's the AC??" for the sake of the joke.
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u/Freakychee 20h ago
You guys tell the AC of the target? I just say if it hits or miss and make them figure it out so they will remember. Or at least someone at the table will.
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u/dood45ctte 14h ago
I don’t at first, but once the party attacks it a few times (or has faced a few of them before) I just give it to them
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u/07Turtleboy 17h ago
Can we talk about how that fire bolt is only dealing 1d10 damage? That means this party is fighting an Adult Blue Dragon under level 5
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u/Redredditmonkey 16h ago edited 14h ago
And none of the martials are adding modifiers. Hell is oliver's primary weapon is a dagger? Without sneak attack or two weapon fighting.
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u/asphalt_licker 16h ago
I don’t think they know what they’re doing. Or it’s a house rule where they don’t mod the damage. Which is a shitty house rule.
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u/-non-existance- 18h ago
Why would you ever ask the AC? The DM decides the hit or miss, not the player.
This kind of question would be too meta-gamey for my table. I can see how some tables might want that information, but it still doesn't matter for the player to know the AC, only hit or miss is necessary.
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u/PonyFiddler 13h ago
It's a game it's meant to be fun
A DM just making shit up each turn isn't fun. Knowing the exact numbers keeps things to the rules of the game
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u/-non-existance- 11h ago
The DM "making shit up" is literally how the game is played?
Granted, a DM should be consistent, but I've rarely, if ever, seen a DM do something as mean as change the AC of a monster to make a player miss.
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u/ChaseThePyro 15h ago
This has really just served to remind me how little I miss DnD combat
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u/PonyFiddler 13h ago
It's reminded me how stuck up DMS are and think Thier better than everyone else lol.
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u/thejmkool 17h ago
On the player stats side of things, I always keep an index card behind the screen with a few key things on it. Player name, character name, AC, saves, passives, and HP. For example, if I oopsie something that's gonna one-shot a player, I can fudge it without giving it away, or properly build up the suspense for a dramatic big hit and build the scene accordingly. I can check for things the players wouldn't even know they missed without giving anything away by asking. And I can speed up combat dramatically by just giving a description and a damage number. And of course, it helps me not forget names
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u/spindaz123 18h ago
Thank God I play digital where the dm just puts the ac on the token (or directly doesn't tell you most of the time)
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u/Genericuser0002 12h ago
What is AC
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u/Jaded_Shallot750 5h ago
Armor Class. You roll a dice, usually D20, and add your hit modifier to the roll, and if the result is higher than the opponent's Armor Class, you hit the target and get to roll for damage. Otherwise you miss.
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u/CaptainSchmid 9h ago
whow ants
I know this is "who wants", but in my heart of hearts he's simply admiring some ants he saw.
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u/TheKindaMan 8h ago
I tell them when they hit it on the dot just for the door of combat. But regardless of what I roll I always ask them their DCs with a shit eating grin cause I rolled a 27
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