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Disclosing Monster AC to the players question

   
On the other hand, you probably should let them know for common monsters.

I find it hard to believe in a world where there's no "This is what has been eating the farmer's crops" or whatever taught a little to kids. They should at least know what an orc is or something like that if the place has been raided multiple times.

In PbP format, I think it's a lot easier and quicker to go ahead and give the players the mobster defenses, so they can resolve their attacks by themselves in a single post without waiting for me to confirm a hit.

Combat at a table top sometimes takes way too long, especially in highly tactical games like 4e and Pathfinder. In PbP it sometimes slows to a game murdering standstill.

Or you know, let them figure things out on their own unless someone rolls a knowledge check on them? I mean that's what they're there for. Besides, how many pbp players don't put all their rolls in the post right away, just in case?

It makes more sense to me to just have players roll the attack and damage at the same time. If they hit, then apply the damage. If they don't, then don't apply the damage and give a description of how they missed (bounced off armor or just past the face of the monster for a close miss, get nothing but air or nearly fall off balance on a bad miss).

i would not give my players that knowledge thats what knowledge skills are for if they can pass a knowledge check i will give them that info otherwise they will have to do without

indeed cyber goddess one would expect everybody to know what an orc is (although if your game is set in the early days of the wesnoth universe on the green isle it can be good to give them false info because in that case orcs are considered a myth)

I disclose AC and other defenses, current and total HP and whatever else. For play-by-post, I just copy the monsters in the encounter to a thread for anyone who want to see them. Those who don't can just not open that thread. At the table, I don't give all that information out, but only because I don't want to inundate the players. I usually tell them "Every defense in this encounter is higher that X and less than Y" and most of the time they can get a good sense of whether they hit just from the die.

Primarily this is to speed things up, as mentioned above, so that people can determine their entire turn and not have to wait for my response or post complicated if-then statements.

Secondarily, I do this so it's clear to the players that figuring out those numbers is not intended to be part of the game. I'm not trying to test their math and memory skills, and frankly I don't enjoy people showing off their math and memory skills.

The way I figure it, most numbers on a monster equate to visible in-game things about it. Not that a high Strength monster will always have muscles, or that a high AC monster will always have heavy armor, but the characters can tell the equivalent of the numbers. If anyone is interested, I can explain how I rationalize that.

Yeah, Beta laid out my reasons pretty solidly for disclosing defenses. And, yes, also HP. It's a whole lot easier and a lot less back and forth between me and the players to resolve a turn of combat. Sure, it might take some of the mystery out of the monster, but a well designed encounter should be fun regardless, even without tge GM slogging through more book-keeping.

Quote:
Originally Posted by JLaughter001 View Post
Yeah, Beta laid out my reasons pretty solidly for disclosing defenses. And, yes, also HP. It's a whole lot easier and a lot less back and forth between me and the players to resolve a turn of combat. Sure, it might take some of the mystery out of the monster, but a well designed encounter should be fun regardless, even without tge GM slogging through more book-keeping.
I used to make discovering the monster's abilities part of the combat, but that was never fun for me as either a GM or a player. Players, never knowing if they were up against a pushover or some surprisingly powerful monsters would just open up with both barrels. This meant the easy fights were trivialized, and the "secrets" of the surprise monster didn't really matter. Or, the secret was too tough and they felt powerless and bored.

Yes, there are ways around all that, but it just stopped being the game I wanted to try to play.

If you really want people to not know AC but still want fast PbP combat, you can always use a combat spreadsheet. I've seen them used a fair bit, especially for 4e games, but they can easily be adapted to any d20 game (and probably a few other types as well). Players input their attack roll and the sheet tells them hit or miss without having to wait on the GM or actually tell the players what the monsters defenses are.

I have my players include all attack, damage, possible aoo's and a couple random rolls for my game. This way whatever happens that round their post includes it all.




 

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