Problem about DnD/Pathfinder System

There is a huge problem in the DnD and Pathfinder system which makes them very less credible. The characters' Armor Class does not change whether they are armed or not. So if there are two people swordfighting and one of them drops the sword, the only disadvantage the unarmed fellow has is that he cannot attack, but to hit him it's just as hard as before. That makes no sense, in reality the mothafucka would be doomed!

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A valid point, actually. Savage Worlds for example, gives you bonuses against an unarmed opponent.

I have been homebrewing for 5e (yeah, yeah...) and one of the things I change is that all weapons, not only shields, have an AC value. Smaller weapons have less, but you can dual wield them. Monk-style unarmed fighters obviously get the "weapon-AC" boost even when unarmed.

without a weapon you can use your hands for defense

Unarmed attacks without training provoke Attacks of Opportunity, meaning for every time the unarmed person attacks, the sword-wielder gets a chance to kill him.
Assuming they each attack each other once per turn, the sword-wielder has double the chance of hitting, and double the chance of killing his opponent.

because it takes into the ability to pierce armor and your ability to dodge, not your ability to parry.

if touch is made your shield/armor deflected the hit

AC is also an abstraction. if you are looking for realism in dnd you're autistic desu

Of all the problems with DnD and it's derivatives, THIS is the kind of nitpick you decided to make a topic about?

Wouldn't that slow down the game a lot? Or is there some sort of attack increase you're also adding in

The base AC would be cut to 5+prof bonus, so it works out around the same.

>in reality the mothafucka would be doomed!
Not really? Deflection and dodging are still part of your AC, that's why Dexterity and Dodge are both calculated into AC

that sounds nice. Wizards and other non weapon-based classes would be in disadvantage, though

I'll just plug my homebrew rules:

Melee combat is a contested roll of 2d6. Higher of the two rolls is the Attack Die, lower is the Damage Die.

Combat Advantage (momentum, higher ground, support, etc.): Roll 3d6 instead of 2d6, and discard lowest roll.
Edge (better equipment, skill, physical conditions, etc.): +1, +2, or +3 attack modifier at GM's discretion.

For multiple combatants versus one, add 1d6 for each extra combatant, and discard all but two highest rolls.

Winner of contested attack roll calculates damage as Damage = Weapon Damage x Damage Die versus Armor Class.

If the Attack Die roll is a natural 6, the attack is a critical hit (use the Critical Damage value instead).

Weapon Type: Weapon Damage/Critical Damage

Light: 1/3 (knife, dagger, improvised)
standard: 2/3 (sword, axe, mace, etc.)
Heavy: 3/4 (longsword, pole axe, etc.)

Armor Class:

shield only: 4 (5 with helmet)
helmet only: 4 (5 with shield)
light armor: 5 (6 with helmet or shield, 7 with both)
heavy armor: 7 (8 with helmet or shield, 9 with both)
plate armor: 10 (11 with helmet, no benefit from shields)

Additionally, a helmet grants +1 AC vs critical hits, a shield wins draws (unless both combatants have one).

If calculated damage is greater than Armor, target is Wounded. Else, the target is Dazed (grants advantage).
If already Dazed, target is Stunned (grants advantage, and edge). If already Stunned, the target is Wounded.
After 1 round of not being attacked, Stunned combatants become Dazed, and Dazed combatants return to Normal.

Overpower:
After winning a round of combat (or getting a tie), a fighter may declare an attempt to overpower the other.
Resolve the combat as usual, except instead of checking damage against armor, compare the Damage Die scores.
If the winner's Damage Die score is greater, the target becomes prone. Otherwise, they continue to struggle.
Prone combatants grant advantage, and edge, and any attacks against them automatically become critical hits.

Staffs count as weapons, so not by that much. May adjust some class features or mage armor to deal with it, though.

also it's important to remember that this decreased AC value is for meelee fighting only. For magic and arrows, holding or not a weapon would be irrelevant

AC is a simplified abstraction representing the defenders ability to block blows, deflect blows with their armour and dodge out of the way of blows that allows you to reduce hitting someone into a single roll . This vastly improves ease of play.

The only way to really include it within this framework would be to give some kind of parry bonus to AC when wielding a weapon or create some kind of parry reaction when wielding a weapon that increases your AC but this is likely needless bloat.

You can create a far crunchier combat system that models things like parrying but then your game may well devolve into a tactical combat simulator rather than a roleplaying game.

my current character moves at mach 1, and is as easy to hit as a dude standing still. There're lots of problems in PF

Quite nice, mate. Have you(permanently) published this anywhere?

i dont think its much of a dealbreaker

its just somewhere in the middle of the spectrum of realistic to not realistic combat

nope, I just have it written down for reference when I run something (rarely nowadays).

the basic Idea was that armor matters, and if you can't get anything else, get a helmet and/or shield, and the way the system is written, the more skilled combatant (the one with +1, +2, or +3 edge) is more likely to win, since with two rolls, you are more likely to get the higher roll that puts you above 6. Because of the same, armor works, since the damage roll is lower, but crits happen roughly 30% of the time, and fights end quickly, without mucking about rolling misses to no effect for several turns.

Also - this way the different weapons have meaning beyond just damage/to-hit values, without having to draw up huge tables with all the possible modifiers in a case-by-case.

Nothing wrong with the picture. Having a weapon does not make one doomed. Having the ability to use that weapon makes one doomed. But then, what about all the people that train to defend against weapons when they have none? Simple combat training, martial arts all make the melee weapon less effective. You're only doomed if the weapon hits you, and even then, some martial arts will kill you quicker if the artist knows their kill strokes. So, as others have said, AC is not a problem as it includes DEX bonuses and the like to make your dodge better. Leave AC alone. Deal with hit points instead.

> it's a games with wizards and dragons and magic aren't very realistic thread

its actually straight wrong. you can take things that make your ac go up if using a sword without a shield. you gain ac as a monk if youre unarmed or using a monk weapon

This, basically.
/thread

this only if the guy's dumb enough to attack you unarmed...

If a person is just trying to avoid you and keep their distance, it's hard to hit them regardless of whether they are armed or not. And, since you get attacks of opportunity if they move carelessly, it all ends up balancing out with the armed person having a large advantage in the fight and landing significantly more attacks.

Not having a weapon should increase your AC, in example image, hand forward, body forward, hand at wrist/hilt of opposing fighters sword every time he moves it to swing, or hand to opponents elbow, or get in close and lever at shoulder, being unarmed and a skilled fighter should make the armed person unable to hit you at all!

>Having a weapon does not make one doomed. Having the ability to use that weapon makes one doomed

this is some zen shit

In ADnD (2e) you could use a weapon as active defense (Blocking)
It's especially useful if you have more attacks than your opponent as you could pretty much never let him get a hit in depending on your THAC0.

3.0 and 3.5 had active defence as a feature And feats that let you trade attack bonus for AC, letting your sword stack AC into the sky!

don't know if 5th has it too,

hmmm, I will parry my attackers chainsaw with my open palm....

youtube.com/watch?v=fdwC4vhc594

problem?

As somebody who's tried to fight a dude with a spear, weapon matters for defense.

>make a topic
You have to go back