AD&D 2e Armor Class – Does Lower AC Mean the Target is Harder to Hit in Eye of the Beholder?

adnd-2earmor-classcharacter-creation

I am not sure whether character adjustment in the first Eye of the Beholder game works accurately. I see that AC depends only on DEX:

DEX AC (Human Male)
3 14
4 13
5 12
6 11
7–14 10
15 9
16 8
17 7
18 6

Screenshot (playing with values): [Eye of the Beholder 1 – Character modification]

The Eye of the Beholder game manual says:

Armor Class (AC) measures how difficult a larget is to hit and damage — the lower the AC value, the harder the target is to hit. Good AC can indicate different things. […]

My characters currently have AC about -6, and they are doing just fine, resistant to most hits.

But random resources (e.g. Roll20) I've found appear to indicate the higher AC, the better.

What am I missing?

Best Answer

Lower AC is better for that game's D&D version

That video game (in your screenshot) and table derived from it are based on Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd edition – which uses the THAC0 ("To Hit Armor Class 0") system, in which lower armor class values are better (and negative AC values are both possible and even better than low positive values).

In the current (5th) edition of D&D, and in each of the WotC-published editions, a higher value is better since they are based on the d20 System. Your link to Roll20.net is to the 5th-edition D&D rules, and that uses a "higher is better" system. That change, from TSR to WoTC, happened starting with the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons, published in 2000. (WoTC bought out TSR in 1997.)

Not all D&D versions are the same. You have to read the label. 😊

Having a high Dexterity, in 2nd-edition AD&D, makes increasingly useful Armor Class adjustments (-2, -3, -4) as the Dexterity score gets higher.