AC vs elemental attacks?

[arandomperson12]

Does AC help against elemental attacks (for example, fireball, bolt of fire, bolt of cold, lightning bolt, elemental part of firestorm and glaciate)?

[Sandman25]

When elemental attack happens, first it is reduced by AC and then by corresponding resistance.
For example, Fireball was going to deal 50 damage, then your AC reduced it by 10, then your rF+ reduced remaining 40 damage to 20. The same happens with FireStorm/Glaciate. For example, Glaciate was going to deal 130 damage, then your AC reduced it to 100, then your rC+ reduced it to 80 (only 40% damage of Glaciate is resistable so you get irresistible 60 + resistible 40/2).

Lightning Bolt is special here, it halves AC before AC roll.

It explains why AC is less important than rF+++ vs Orbs of Fire.
Even with AC 80 you still can get 1-129 damage from Fireball (129 max) while rF+++ guarantees you cannot get more than 26 damage even with AC 0.

[arandomperson12]

With AC 80, wouldn't you have quite a bit of GDR?
Edit: Never mind. GDR does not work on elemental attacks.

[duvessa]

GDR only applies to melee attacks.

[Sprucery]

I suggest the term GDR is changed to GMDR where M stands for melee. This way people would more probably realize/remember that it only applies to melee attacks.

(Until GDR is removed of course.)

[arandomperson12]

Why should it be removed? Combat is already quite spiky.

[crate]

"gdr" isn't a term anywhere in the game that the player can see anyway, as far as I know

[Kate]

I'm pretty sure the only explicit reference is "On the other hand, body armour will also provide some guaranteed damage reduction against melee attacks, and heavier armours are better at this." (in the manual), yeah, so you could just start calling it GMDR and hope it catches on!

[Sar]

just remove it and buff AC in some other way

you know you want to

we both know it

[Sandman25]

No need to buff AC after removing GDR. It's not like EV guarantees a miss ever, you can be hit 20 times in a row despite EV 50.

[Shard1697]

Yes, but getting high EV via wearing lighter armor also opens up more spellcasting options.

[Laraso]

Just curious, why does everyone want GDR removed? It doesn't seem like a problematic mechanic to me.

[duvessa]

Just curious, why does everyone want GDR removed?

because of posts like this:

With AC 80, wouldn't you have quite a bit of GDR?

[Siegurt]

Really the problem with gdr is that people hear about gdr, misunderstand (or misinterpret ) then post things about it which are wrong, which causes further misunderstanding and misinterpretation.


If no one ever talked about gdr,like ever, it would be fine as a mechanic.

[Hurkyl]

Just curious, why does everyone want GDR removed? It doesn't seem like a problematic mechanic to me.

Because 30 AC offers less protection than 30 AC.

[duvessa]

Just curious, why does everyone want GDR removed? It doesn't seem like a problematic mechanic to me.

Because 30 AC offers a lot less protection than 30 AC.

no fair, I clicked the thank button before you edited it to say "a lot".
sure i could retract the thank but its the principle of the thing

[Sprucery]

If no one ever talked about gdr,like ever, it would be fine as a mechanic.

Or if everyone talked about gmdr instead. Come on people, you can do it!

[Siegurt]

If no one ever talked about gdr,like ever, it would be fine as a mechanic.

Or if everyone talked about gmdr instead. Come on people, you can do it!

No, even if people didn't misunderstand which attacks it applied to, they would misunderstand how it works.

[Hurkyl]

Just curious, why does everyone want GDR removed? It doesn't seem like a problematic mechanic to me.

Because 30 AC offers a lot less protection than 30 AC.

no fair, I clicked the thank button before you edited it to say "a lot".
sure i could retract the thank but its the principle of the thing

I couldn't remember what I changed, so I couldn't evaluate whether I should revert it. (also, you had like 10 seconds to have read and hit thank before I posted that and edited it!)

[Sprucery]

No, even if people didn't misunderstand which attacks it applied to, they would misunderstand how it works.

Yes, you're right, just calling it gmdr would not solve the problem. Just one part of it.

[Sandman25]

Let's call it TRDG ("Tiny reduction of damage from goblins"), that would clearly indicate how important it is for making decisions.