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Thu Apr 09, 2015 9:12 pm Touch attack for spells

Hi,

For some spells a caster has to touch unwilling target. And sometimes in spell's description it is said that armor can be ignored.

How I understand by the rules a touch attack is made against target AC. For creature in armor it is possible to remove armor's AC from total AC for touch attack (only DEX, special, and size modifiers are used).

But what to do for creature without armor with high AC (because of thick skin, for example)? It must be easy to touch.

How you usually handle touch attack?

Thanks

Thu Apr 09, 2015 9:46 pm

The same way. The game is not so complex as to take anything other than basic AC into account. Creatures with high armor class values have them precisely because their skin/hide is equivalent to armor, they are very quick and can dodge well, they have "supernatural defenses", or any/all of the above.
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Fri Apr 10, 2015 12:34 am

And what if this big creature with thick skin is very slow?

Fri Apr 10, 2015 8:20 am

Vasiliy,

I've run into the same conundrum as you've mentioned. I guess there's no easy, hard and fast rule on this one. You will have to determine what is appropriate, but in cases where stats aren't given (in 1e and 2e they don't give most creatures statistics), I'd rule a 4 pt drop in AC should suffice in this case.

-Lanthorn

Fri Apr 10, 2015 4:17 pm

If you're looking for a by-the-book answer, virtually all touch spells in 1E use the target's full AC. The only one I know that ignores (metal) armor is shocking grasp; in that case, I treat the target as AC 10 plus DEX and magical protections.

Fri Apr 10, 2015 8:25 pm

Thanks

Sat Jan 05, 2019 7:40 pm

And let's not forget that in first edition a lot was just left up to the DM. You don't have to explain exactly what you're doing nor why. In a situation like you are describing, I would probably not even pay attention to the role which I would do behind a screen anyways. I mean, how hard is it to touch an elephant?

Fri Sep 27, 2019 2:45 pm

Or as a DM you can just let it happen. You don't always have to roll dice!