One of those rules has to do with blocking. In Magic, you declare your attackers, which then leads to the defender being able to select creatures to block the attack. This naturally leads to the question: can you block an attack with multiple creatures?

Yes. In Magic: The Gathering, you can choose to block an attacking creature with more than one creature. This is a part of the basic rules in Magic, and you don’t need any particular cards in order to do it. If you block with more than one creature, the attacking player chooses the order in which the defending creatures block.

As you can see, it’s fairly simple. However, there are other rules and strategies involved in this concept. Let’s be detailed. Read more to find out everything you need to know about blocking in Magic: The Gathering.

Can You Block With With Multiple Creatures?

As I touched on before, you can block with multiple creatures in Magic: The Gathering. There’s no limit to how many creatures you can select as blockers. If you have a creature with flash, you can cast it after your opponent has declared his attackers and use it to block.

You can choose to block with every creature you have on the board if you want to. Remember, however, that the attacking player is the one who selects the order in which your creatures block, or if we want to rationalize this rule a bit, which creature he attacks first.

Arranging Blocking Order

Here’s a rule that confuses beginners sometimes. The attacking player gets to arrange the order in which the blocking creatures take damage.

The attacking player also gets to assign his available damage freely among the blocking creatures, but he has to assign lethal damage to the first creature that blocks in order to deal damage to the second creature, lethal damage to the second to deal damage to the third, and so on.

Let’s go through Player A is attacking with a 5/5 creature, and Player B has three creatures to use as blockers: Creature X (2/2), Creature Y (3/3), and Creature Z (1/1).

Player A is attacking with a 5/5 creature, and Player B has three creatures to use as blockers: Creature X (2/2), Creature Y (3/3), and Creature Z (1/1).

Player A must decide how to assign the 5 points of damage from their attacking creature to Player B’s blockers, without assigning any damage to Player B unless the attacking creature has trample.

Let’s assume the attacking creature doesn’t have trample. In this case, Player A can only assign damage to the blockers. Here’s a possible distribution of damage:

• 2 damage to Creature X (lethal damage, destroying it).
• 3 damage to Creature Y (lethal damage, destroying it).

Player A cannot assign damage to Creature Z or Player B unless they have a card or ability that allows them to do so, such as an instant or sorcery spell that deals damage directly or a creature with trample.

The key to assigning damage effectively is to consider the current game state, the creatures involved, and your long-term strategy. Intelligent damage assignment can be crucial in gaining a strategic advantage in Magic: The Gathering.”

Attacking and blocking are very strategic concepts in Magic as you can tell, which is part of the reason why the game has stood the test of time so well.

How Many Creatures Can One Creature Block?

While multiple creatures can block one attacker, it doesn’t work the other way around. A defending creature can not block more than one creature, which means that attackers can strategically set up attacking options if they have a numerical advantage.

This is one of the core principles of Magic, and it makes for very interesting ‘option selects’ when it comes to attacking and blocking.

There are exceptions to this rule, however. For example, the Hundred-Handed One can block up to a hundred creatures when defending.

Can Creatures With Summoning Sickness Block?

You might be aware of the fact that creatures with summoning sickness can’t attack. So, can they block when summoning sickness is active?

The answer to that question is a simple yes. Summoning sickness affects creatures’ abilities to 1. attack, and 2. use abilities that would tap them. That means that some creatures can use abilities right out of the gate, as long as it wouldn’t tap them.

Can Tapped Creatures Block?

So, we’ve covered the basics of defending attacks in MTG, as well as blocking while affected by summoning sickness. However, can tapped creatures block?

No. Tapped creatures can not block attackers in MTG. Creatures get when they attack, and stay tapped during the next turn. At the beginning of your next turn, you may untap the creatures, making them ready to either attack again or hold so you can block with them your opponent’s turn.

Players’ turns are segmented into different sections, and untapping is no exception to this rule:

1. Beginning of Turn Step: Some effects and abilities trigger at the beginning of a player’s turn. These are resolved at this point.
2. Untap Step: During this step, the active player (the player whose turn it is) untaps all of their tapped permanents, including creatures. Untapping means turning the cards 90 degrees back to their upright position.

Depending on what your deck is designed to do, you should have more or fewer land cards. Aggressive decks usually have fewer lands since their mana curve is lower and they want to stuff a lot of cheap creatures in the deck, for example. So, generally, how many lands should be in a 60-card MtG deck?

As a basic rule, land cards should make up about 40% of your deck. In a 60-card Magic deck, this is around 24 cards. This number should vary depending on what type of deck you’re playing. If you can generate mana using other resources such as Llanowar Elves, you can decrease the number of land cards in your deck.

As you can tell, there isn’t a set number of land cards for every single deck. Let’s go over this in detail. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about land distribution in 60-card Magic decks.

How Many Lands in a 60-Card Deck?

Having around 24 land cards in a 60-card deck is a very good rule of thumb. However, this number can vary. Aggressive decks want to dominate the board very early, and this means having a large number of cheap creatures in your deck.

Cheap creatures are, well, cheap, so you won’t need as many lands in your deck. Having fewer lands in a deck like this will also make sure that you draw those creatures. Other decks play more expensive cards, and as a result, they need more mana.

Another factor to consider is if your deck has alternate ways of producing mana. Cards such as Llanowar Elves, Cultivate, and so forth will provide mana for you, which means that you won’t have to draw as many land cards to apply your game plan.

It’s not a 1:1 replacement for mana, however, since mana base cards that aren’t lands, such as Llanowar Elves, cost mana to play. Cards like these often count as 0.5 lands. Furthermore, if these mana base cards are creatures or enchantments, they can be removed from the battlefield much more easily than land, which means that they aren’t as reliable.

Calculating How Much Mana Your Deck Needs

There’s actually a pretty neat way that you can calculate how many land cards you need in your deck. 24 land cards will work fine in most cases, but if you want to optimize your mana use, then you should follow the steps below.

• Calculate the total converted mana cost of your non-land cards. In other words, just add the costs of your cards together until you get a number. This is your deck’s total converted mana cost.

• Divide this “score” by the number of non-land cards in your deck (the same cards that you added).

• You now have the average cost of the cards in your deck. If this average is under 1.5, your starting mana baseline is 20. This is subject to change, of course, depending on your non-land cards and how far under 1.5 your average cost is. If it’s under 1, anywhere from 18-19 lands is probably better.

• If your deck’s total converted mana cost is 2 or more, consider playing 23 or 24 lands.

• If it’s over 2.5, you need a lot of land. Play 26 or more land cards.

There are boatloads of different decks in Magic, and if your deck has cards that warrant playing more or fewer lands, you should do that. The calculation above is a good baseline, however. Below, you can find a table of good land counts depending on your deck’s total converted mana cost.

What Is a Good Mana Curve in MTG?

Mana curves are really important in MTG, and it’s certainly relevant in relation to how many lands you should have in your deck.

As I mentioned earlier, having 24 lands in your deck is a good rule of thumb. The number 24 is meant for a deck with an average mana curve. Beginner players may think they have an average mana curve, and stick 24 lands in there, even though they’re running a boatload of expensive cards.

The truth of the matter is that there is no real “average” mana curve. Decks have different mana curves depending on their archetype, and you should experiment with your deck to find out how many lands you need.

So, let’s explore what a mana curve is. In general, a deck’s mana curve relates to what turns in the game it will be able to play cards effectively. We can visualize this in a diagram.

Spending turn one casting a 1-cost spell, turn two casting a 2-cost spell, and turn three casting a 3-cost spell is an optimal mana curve, for example.

If the deck in the diagram above had more 5 and 6-cost cards, more lands would be required to play it effectively, since we want to play a land each turn until we reach turn 6 and are able to play our 6-cost cards.

Playing More Than One Color In Your Deck

A lot, if not the majority of decks, play more than one color. I’d venture to guess that playing two colors is the most common, but three-colored decks are very popular as well. Four-colored decks are usually super-cool but they’re quite complicated.

How you distribute mana when playing more than one color is an interesting question. For example, say you’re running a red/white Boros deck. The likelihood of you getting screwed over increases slightly since there’s a chance that you draw a lot of your red mana and none of your white.

Your white cards will just sit there in your hand, and all of a sudden, you’re very inefficient with your cards. Using multicolored lands is very much recommended when running a multicolored deck.

I also recommend running cards such as Evolving Wilds or Chromatic Lantern to diversify your mana base even more.

It’s usually a good idea to put emphasis on one color and “splashing” some of another color. This will make your deck less reliant on drawing the right mana.

How Many Creatures Should I Have in a 60-Card Deck?

The amount of creatures you should have depends on the style of your deck, just like the amount of land cards. Aggro decks usually run a lot of cheap creatures, control decks run fewer, and so forth: the strategy should dictate the amount of cards of any type in your deck.

If you want to read more on this particular subject, I recommend reading this resource.

One of the most important functions in the game is casting spells. Every playable class has access to either spells or abilities with the same mechanics as spells.

That’s why it’s important to know how they work. The UI in Baldur’s Gate 3 doesn’t do a great job of explaining this to the player in an easy manner, which is why I’m writing this resource. So, how do spells work in Baldur’s Gate 3?

In Baldur’s Gate 3, spells are resources capable of achieving a wide range of effects. Spells cost either an action or a bonus action to perform and have different levels that represent their power. Every spellcasting character possesses a number of spell slots, and the act of casting a spell consumes one of these slots. To regain the consumed slots, you will have to take a long rest.

Let’s get a bit more detailed. As you can tell, there’s a lot to spellcasting in Baldur’s Gate 3, and it’s easy to get lost in the beginning. Stick around and read the rest of this resource to find out everything you need to know about spellcasting in Baldur’s Gate.

How Do Spells Work in Baldur’s Gate 3?

As I stated earlier, spells can achieve a great number of different effects. They can deal damage, debuff enemies, buff allies, heal, and much more. It’s worth mentioning that not every character in BG3 gets to cast spells, however.

The classes that can cast spells in Baldur’s Gate 3 are the following: Clerics, Paladins, Rangers, Druids, Wizards, Sorcerers, Bards, and Warlocks. There exist many spells that are shared by these classes, but also unique ones for every class.

Spells either cost an action or a bonus action. In general, spells that cost actions are more powerful than spells costing only a bonus action, although game-balancing is a thing, and some bonus action spells are better than certain actions. As you’re probably aware, you (generally) have one action and one bonus action to spend per round.

While bonus actions are typically used for minor tasks like positioning oneself favorably or dealing modest damage, standard actions are reserved for significant damage, strong buffs, and debilitating debuffs, among other things.

Related Article: How Damage is Calculated in Baldur’s Gate 3

In the beginning, I touched on how spellcasting characters have spell slots, and that spells take up these slots. Depending on what class you’re playing, you will have a certain amount of spell slots available to you.

For example, Wizards have a significant amount of spell slots whereas other classes have fewer. For example, a level three Wizard has four level 1 spell slots and two level 2 spell slots.

This means that Wizards can cast two level 2 spells and four level 1 spells before needing to rest. You can also “upcast” spells, which simply means that you can use a level two spell slot to cast a level 1 spell. The level 1 spell will then “scale” with the spell slot used, gaining potency.

As I mentioned earlier, you will need to take a long rest after running out of spell slots. Unless you’re playing a Warlock, in which case you can simply short rest to regain all of your spell slots.

So, how do you gain spell slots? Well, in general, you’ll simply need to play the game and level up your character. Characters naturally gain more spells and spell slots this way. The maximum level in Baldur’s Gate 3 is 12, and the maximum spell slot level is 6.

Spellcasting Ability

Lastly, I’ll go ahead and mention spellcasting ability. Different classes have different spellcasting ability modifiers, and it’s simply a score used by the game to calculate how much potency your spells have.

Spellcasting classes’ spellcasting abilities are based on a certain stat, and that key stat depends on what class you’re playing. For example, Wizards use Intelligence to determine their spellcasting ability, Warlocks, Paladins and Bards use Charisma, and Clerics, Rangers, and Druids use Wisdom.

So for example, if you have a high Intelligence score as a Wizard, or if you have a high Wisdom score as a Cleric, your spells will be more potent. It’s fairly simple when you get down to it.

Spellcasting ability affects two things: spell attack and spell save DC (difficulty class). Spell attack is a fairly simple concept. If your spellcasting ability modifier is +4 due to having 18 Intelligence as a Wizard, then you have a +4 chance to hit your opponent with that spell.

Spell save DC is used to see if characters take damage after they get hit with a spell. They need to meet your character’s spell DC to save themselves from damage. Let’s not get too bogged down in the details of this, it’s needlessly complicated for the purpose of learning about spells.

Preparing Spells

A character can know many different spells, but they can only memorize a number of them. Baldur’s Gate’s and DnD’s way of illustrating this is the preparation of spells.

Generally, in order to use spells, you will have to prepare them first. To do this, simply head into your spell book by pressing K and select what spells you want prepared.

More Baldur’s Gate 3 Content: What Happens When You Die in Baldur’s Gate 3?

Bards, Sorcerers, and Warlocks can’t prepare spells, which is worthwhile remembering. Instead, these classes get to change spells as they level up. One at a time. Of course, they have other positive benefits to their classes instead.

What’s the Difference Between Spells and Cantrips?

It’s difficult to know the difference between spells and cantrips as a beginner to Baldur’s Gate 3, especially if you haven’t touched Dungeons and Dragons before playing the game.

For example, what’s the difference between spells and cantrips? The answer to that question is quite simple. Cantrips are relatively weak spells, that do not cost or take up a spell slot. They can be cast as many times as you want without having to long rest.

Spells, on the other hand, are limited. You can only cast a couple of them before needing to rest. Does this make cantrips weak? No, not really.

The fact that you can cast them as many times as you want is nice, especially if you find one that’s really strong (Eldritch Blast with the Agonizing Blast invocation, for example).

How Do You Learn New Spells in Baldur’s Gate 3?

Before we wrap up this article, let’s go through how you can learn new spells in Baldur’s Gate.

The most common way of learning new spells in Baldur’s Gate 3 is leveling up. However, Wizards get to cheat. They can learn new spells through spell scrolls.

To do this, they simply need to head into their spell books by pressing K and then selecting Learn New Spells. If they have a spell scroll in their inventory, they can learn the spell permanently.

To learn a spell this way, it needs to be available to them by leveling as well. Wizards can learn spells that wouldn’t otherwise be available to them by leveling.

So, let’s go over the different situations that can arise when death is looming in Baldur’s Gate 3. What happens when you die in Baldur’s Gate 3?

When a playable character dies in Baldur’s Gate 3, you can use a Scroll of Revivify to resurrect them. However, they’re somewhat expensive to buy and you only have one for each character when you first start the game. If you have completed the Dank Crypt at the beginning of the game, you can recruit Withers who can help you resurrect fallen party members for 200 gold.

Let’s go over this in detail. There are circumstances regarding character deaths that can confuse players, so let’s be thorough. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about player death in Baldur’s Gate 3.

What Happens If You Die in Baldur’s Gate 3?

There are multiple ways to resurrect characters in Baldur’s Gate 3, but Scroll of Revivify and Withers services are the 2 most common ways of doing this. You can also use spells to do it, such as using the spell Revivify (Cleric or Paladin) or Resurrection (Bard or Cleric).

For the majority of cases, playable character death isn’t permanent. Now, resurrection works the same way in both multiplayer and single-player. The only criteria you need for resurrection are the required resources and a willing party member.

Most players find Withers themselves when exploring the wilderness at the beginning of the game. He can be found at the end of the Dank Crypt which can be found shortly after the Nautiloid crash.

You will need to complete the dungeon before being able to free Withers. After doing this, don’t attack him. Leave the crypt. After you’ve done this, he will make a new home in your camp, which can be accessed by long resting or simply clicking Go to Camp at the bottom-right side of your screen.

Sometimes when characters die, their bodies can’t be reached, for example, if they’ve been pushed off a cliff or something similar. This can cause some confusion since you can’t target their body with a Scroll of Revivify.

Instead of going to Withers and wasting 200 gold, you can solve this by using the Scroll of Revivify on the blue orb that spawns near where the character died.

The blue orb spawns there to prevent players from getting completely wrecked if the body of a character disappears from the map, but you don’t get a tooltip or something like that to explain that they left the orb behind.

Withers Isn’t Showing Up in the Dank Crypt

Some players have reported a bug where Withers does not show up at the end of the Dank Crypt. If this happens to you, try reloading from the last save.

You can also just continue playing since Withers will eventually show up at your camp anyway, but this can take some time and since you’ve most likely just begun your journey, your best bet is starting over completely.

What Happens If Your Party Dies in Baldur’s Gate 3?

If your entire party gets killed in Baldur’s Gate 3 (not an entirely unlikely outcome, depending on the set game difficulty), you need to reload the game from your latest save. This is called a TPK (“total party kill”).

That’s why you should make sure to save your games often. Baldur’s Gate uses an autosave feature, but personally, I like to save the game manually now and again, especially if I have my suspicions about an upcoming area.

Saving in Baldur’s Gate is quite flexible, and can be used at almost any time. For example, you can save the game during dialogue or combat.

If only one party member is alive in a fight, however, and you don’t want to reload the game, you can try fleeing the battle. You will need to retreat 27 meters from the enemy first, however, for this to work.

After fleeing, you will spawn in your camp. Talk to Withers and resurrect your companions. This can be useful if your last save is from some time ago and you don’t want to waste time.

Cases Where You Can’t Bring Back Characters in BG3

I mentioned earlier that playable characters’ deaths aren’t permanent, in most cases. In some cases, however, they are.

Depending on your choices, playable characters can die permanently. I won’t go into detail here since I don’t want to spoil the game for you, but depending on who you side with in certain situations and the attitude you hold towards characters, they can permanently be gone from the game. Scroll of Revivify won’t work on them.

So, what are these cases? Well, generally, you can tell quite easily. Deaths like these play out during cutscenes. Again, to avoid spoiling the game, I won’t list the specific moments where this can happen.

When this happens, you lose potential storylines and dialogue options in the future. In my opinion, this is a good thing. It gives Baldur’s Gate 3 an insane amount of replayability factor since you can effectively change the story of the game for every new run.

How Does Death Work in Baldur’s Gate 3?

Let’s go over the mechanics that are involved in playable characters’ deaths. When a character first gets “downed” in combat, a somewhat confusing symbol will appear over their head, signaling their condition. The game doesn’t do a very good job explaining what this is, in my opinion.

Characters with this condition make a death-saving throw at the start of every round (this happens automatically in Baldur’s Gate). Death-saving throws are done by rolling a d20 (a 20-sided die).

If you get a number over 10 on your death-saving roll, the roll is a success. If you get a number under 10 on the roll, you fail the roll. Fail three rolls, and you’re a goner. Succeed three rolls, and you’re “stabilized”, meaning you won’t die unless damaged, and your character doesn’t have to perform the death-saving throws.

Downed characters don’t have to succeed/fail three times in a row for a final result. The game counts overall roll count.

So, let’s go through what armor class is in Baldur’s Gate, how it affects the game, and why it is important. What is AC in Baldur’s Gate 3?

In Baldur’s Gate 3, armor class (“AC”) is a numerical value that determines the difficulty of hitting characters with spells or attacks. The majority of characters in BG3 have a base AC of 10 + their Dexterity modifier. For example, a character with a +2 Dex modifier has 12 in base AC. When equipping a piece of gear, you add that gear’s fixed AC to your dexterity modifier.

It’s also important to mention that this does not apply to Heavy armor, such as plate or chain mail. When donning heavy armor, your character’s AC is simply equal to that gear’s AC.

So, in practice, what does this all mean? We can conclude that a character’s AC is a numerical value, and the higher that value, the harder that character is to hit. To understand this fully, we’ll need to dive a bit further into the game mechanics of Baldur’s Gate 3.

Below, I’ll be going through what AC is, how it works in practice, and surrounding concepts that you’ll need to be aware of. It’s not all that complicated once you understand the basics. Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about armor class in Baldur’s Gate 3.

What Is Armor Class in Baldur’s Gate 3?

As I mentioned earlier, armor class is, simply put, a number attached to a character. That number represents how hard it is to hit that character. In order to entirely grasp this, you’ll need to know how hits and misses are calculated.

When trying to cast a spell or attack another character, you roll a “d20” (a 20-sided die). This die is cast to see if you hit or miss your opponent. To hit with your attack or spell, you will need to match or exceed the opponent’s AC.

For example, if a character has an AC of 15, your “attack roll” will need to be 15 or higher to succeed. If you roll a 20 on your attack roll (a “natural 20”), you crit, and your attack hits, no matter the mitigating circumstances or the defending player’s defensive options.

That’s pretty much it for the fundamental basics of armor class in BG3. There are other things that you should know as well, however. For example, can any character wear any armor?

Related Article: How Does Armor Class Work in D&D 5e?

Armor Proficiency in Baldur’s Gate 3

Well, the answer to that question is no. To wear armor, you need to have so-called “proficiency” in that armor type. For example, Scale Mail Armor is a medium armor that has 14 in armor class, plus your dexterity modifier.

To wear this armor, you need to be proficient in Medium armor. Wearing armor that you aren’t proficient in will come with a lot of negative effects. For example, you get disadvantage on saving throws, attack rolls, and ability checks. Furthermore, bonuses from other gear pieces do not apply if you are wearing armor that you aren’t proficient in.

So, to sum it up: Don’t wear armor that your character isn’t proficient in. This goes for all types of armor — different classes are proficient in different types of armor.

Armor proficiencies are basically a way of telling the player what armor they can and can’t wear, but since Baldur’s Gate places a great deal of emphasis on player freedom, you can wear armor that you aren’t proficient in. It’s just not a very good idea.

For your convenience, here’s a list of all the classes starting armor proficiencies in Baldur’s Gate 3:

• Barbarian – Light Armor, Medium Armor, Shields, and access to the passive trait Unarmored Defense: Constitution modifier + Dexterity modifier + 10 = Barbarian armor class (without armor, does not stack with armor)

• Druid – Light Armor, Medium Armor, Shields

• Fighter – Light Armor, Medium Armor, Heavy Armor, Shields

• Monk – No starting armor proficiencies, but access to the passive trait Unarmored Defense: Wisdom modifier + Dexterity modifier + 10 = Monk armor class

• Sorcerer – No starting armor proficiencies

• Wizard – No starting armor proficiencies

• Bard – Light Armor

• Rogue – Light Armor

• Warlock – Light Armor

• Cleric – Light Armor, Medium Armor

• Ranger – Light Armor, Medium Armor, Shields

• Paladin – Light Armor, Medium Armor, Heavy Armor, Shields

Remember, starting armor proficiencies aren’t the be-all and end-all for what your character can efficiently equip. I said earlier that Baldur’s Gate 3 places a great deal of emphasis on player freedom, and that certainly holds true in this case. So, how can you improve a character’s armor class?

Improving a Character’s AC in Baldur’s Gate 3

When leveling up in Baldur’s Gate 3, you unlock new abilities, stats, and much more. When reaching certain levels, you can choose to acquire new feats.

Feats include a wide variety of things, but they can be summed up as unique talents and areas of specialization that can grant characters permanent positive benefits.

Some of these feats can grant you access to proficiency in armor types. This is one of the ways that you can improve a character’s AC: select a feat that grants you proficiency in an armor class that you aren’t proficient in.

If you have a high Dexterity modifier, for example, but aren’t proficient in medium armor, getting the Moderately Armored trait can be a good idea. If you have a low Dexterity modifier you can get the Heavily Armored trait instead, since Heavy Armor doesn’t care about Dexterity modifiers.

For your convenience, here’s a list of all the traits that can help improve your AC in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Feats that unlock armor-type proficiency:

• Heavily Armored – You gain Armor Proficiency with Heavy Armor and your Strength increases by 1, to a maximum of 20.

• Moderately Armored – You gain Armor Proficiency with Medium Armor and shields, and your Strength or Dexterity increases by 1, to a maximum of 20.

• Lightly Armored – You gain Armor Proficiency with Light Armor and your Strength or Dexterity increases by 1, to a maximum of 20.

Feats that benefit your armor class:

• Defensive Duellist – When attacked while wielding a Finesse Weapon you’re Proficient with, you can use a reaction to add your Proficiency Bonus to your Armor Class, possibly causing the attack to miss.
• Heavy Armor Master – Your Strength increases by 1, to a maximum of 20. Incoming damage from non-magical attacks also decreases by 3 while you’re wearing heavy armor.

• Medium Armor Master – When you wear Medium Armor, it doesn’t impose Disadvantage on Stealth Checks. The bonus to Armor Class you gain from your Dexterity Modifier also becomes +3 instead of +2.
• Dual Wielder – You can use Two-Weapon fighting even if your weapons aren’t Light, and you gain a +1 bonus to Armor Class while wielding a melee weapon in each hand. You cannot dual-wield Heavy weapons.

As you can see, there are plenty of options when it comes to traits if you want to increase your armor class in BG3. However, you can improve your AC in other ways as well, primarily by increasing your Dexterity modifier.

To understand this, you’ll need to know how stat modifiers work. It’s quite simple. The higher the stat score, the higher the modifier. For example, a Dexterity score of 18 will grant a Dexterity modifier of +4. Donning a medium-type armor that grants 14 AC + Dex modifier will then give you a total of 18 AC (14 + 4 = 18).

Check the list below for specifics regarding stat modifiers in Baldur’s Gate 3:

So, to increase your AC you’ll simply need to improve your Dexterity score. Do this by either equipping gear that boosts your Dex, pumping points into Dex when leveling or choosing a Feat that buffs your Dex when leveling up. There are plenty of ways to go about this, as you tell. Whether or not it’s worth doing is up to you, of course. You will need to sacrifice other potential benefits to pump your Dexterity.

There are multiple ways of dealing with player death in DnD, however, and some of them are better than others. Players sometimes feel unmotivated to simply start a new character when their old one dies, for example. So, how do you handle player death in DnD?

First of all, DMs need to make it very clear to players both at the beginning of their game and before combat that there is a very real chance that they can die. This way, players are caught less off guard when they die. Secondly, consider giving players a second chance but penalizing them in some way. Permanent scars, debuffs, and nerfed abilities are some ways to do this.

This is just one of the many ways you can deal with characters dying. The appropriate approach is oftentimes situational. In this article, I’ll be going over the 9 best ways of handling player death in DnD, so stay tuned.

1. Players Need to Understand That They Can Die

As I mentioned before, it’s crucial that players know what is at stake when you first start a campaign. This way, they will be prepared for scenarios where their death is possible, sometimes even probable, and they’ll handle it better.

This goes for fights as well: make sure that players are aware of the threat in front of them. If they aren’t as cautious as they should be, and some of them die, chances are that they’ll blame you for not explaining the situation properly.

If a foe will be really difficult to overcome, don’t sugarcoat it. Explain the terrifying nature of their enemy so it’s crystal clear what’s at stake. After this, they can approach the situation as they see fit.

2. Give Characters a Second Chance

If you find a good reason to do so, you can spare players from death as a DM. I wouldn’t recommend doing this often and without the proper motivation, however, because this will give players the impression that they can’t be killed.

There are multiple ways of giving players a second chance at life. For example, they might make a deal with some unnatural entity so that they may live on.

This can even add some interesting plot lines. Say for example that the player who died makes a deal with some sort of entity. Maybe this entity will grant them a period of time to live, not fully reversing their death.

The tension that this can bring is really nice, as players might not know exactly when the time is up for the PC. The “dead” player will have time to prepare his goodbyes instead of just dying.

You can even produce interesting quests from player deaths: for example, players who are very fond of their dead comrades might venture to the underworld to retrieve them.

If you want to spare players from death, be creative as a DM. Don’t just let them live, make use of the event!

3. Nerf Abilities

Another way of avoiding player death (if you want to do so) is to “nerf”, or cripple, one or more abilities of the saved player. In other words, the damage that the player received was so severe that they no longer can cast certain spells.

You can be creative here, as well. Depending on where and how the damage was caused, it might affect different abilities. For example, a bard’s ability to perform might be affected if their leg injury prevents them from dancing, jumping, or moving around a stage setting.

In my opinion, just outright saving players from death isn’t good enough. If a player has been at death’s door, the proper consequences need to be applied.

4. Have Their New Character Start at a Similar Level

There are a couple of different ways of approaching new characters after a player’s death, so let’s go through the options.

The first option is to let them create a character that is on the same level as the deceased character. This will most likely be the most “fun” for the player, as they won’t be doubly punished (having their character die, then getting a lower-level character).

The con about this way of doing things is that players might stop fearing the threat of death. In fact, some players that have grown tired of their characters might intentionally kill their characters. If you don’t want that — avoid this option.

Another slightly different option is to let them create a character of a slightly lower level. Doing this might prevent players from killing their characters left and right, while still maintaining a good game pace.

Avoid having the player create a character that’s level one. This will slow your party down greatly and might even destroy the story. More than anything, this will probably make the player pretty upset.

5. Envelop the Death Into the Story

You should involve player character deaths in the story. Don’t let the event just peter out! For example, some parties have in-game funerals for their fallen comrades, where they pay respects.

After they’ve died, you can have them come back, either in remembrance or as an NPC in the shape of a spirit (or something along those lines), where they may provide wisdom or help you with a quest.

Number 5 on this list is largely just meant to point out that you can use a player’s death in many different ways, and it’s a waste to not weave the death into the story in some way.

6. Make Sure Players Remember Near Death Experiences

I mentioned previously how you can cripple some abilities of the “saved” player instead of killing them. If you don’t want to touch their abilities but still leave a reminder that their encounter was a near-death experience, you can choose to leave the PC means of some sort.

In other words, you can give players scars. This can be in the form of physical scars, but also psychological ones. Introducing a new fear to a player character can both be fun and realistic, but make sure that you have a discussion with players before you do this.

For example, you can make a player go mad. If you want to learn more about long-term/short-term madness in DnD, check out pages 529 and 260 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide.

7. Give Players Time to Create Their New Character

If you decide to let the character go, make sure that you give the player in question sufficient time to prepare their new character.

If they don’t get this time, they might become pretty demotivated to continue playing. Not only did their character die, but they also don’t get enough time to create a new, good, character.

Delay the progress of the game until they’re done with their character. Hold a funeral, travel to a city, do some shopping, or visit a tavern in the meantime.

This way, the player will have enough time to create their new character in peace, and they’ll be more likely to be motivated when they continue playing.

8. Provide the Player With a Worthy Death

Things might feel a bit scuffed if a player’s character gets ended by a rat bite. That’s why you should try avoiding this to the best of your ability. Of course, don’t reveal this to players.

If players are in early levels, it’s perfectly reasonable to be ended by a giant rat, for example. If this happens, find a reason why this particular enemy is more special than other enemies. Make it a mini-boss or something along those lines.

By doing this, you can weave new narratives into the story. Maybe the character that ended the life of a PC becomes a new enemy of the party, for example. It’ll be seamless and immersive for party members, and you will have successfully turned a negative situation into a positive one.

Also, make sure to describe the death of the player in grand terms. When a player character dies, it’s effectively the same as a main character dying in a movie, and scenes like that are always more memorable if they’re epic.

Finally, let them either write a last journal entry or have some last words before they pass. This will make their death more memorable for your entire party.

9. Give the Opportunity of Resurrection (For a Price)

I previously talked about how you can let players go on quests to retrieve their dead comrade, but there are additional ways of returning a dead character to the living.

Resurrection in DnD can be accessed in a multitude of ways. Village priests, divine intervention, or the previously mentioned journey to the underworld are all viable options.

Since resurrection is such a powerful mechanic, make sure that you aren’t too generous as a DM. It can’t be free. If you get a priest to do it, have that priest either do it in return for gold or a quest.

Later in the game, from levels 11-20, be even more stringent with resurrection. Players between those levels are already very powerful, and if they think that they can just resurrect if they die, then the game won’t be as interesting.

However, DnD is not an online MMO, and you don’t need a certain combination of roles to make your game viable. Some new players wonder whether or not you need a dedicated healer. Do DnD parties really need healers?

No, you don’t need someone to play a healer in your DnD 5e party. Healers provide good benefits but aren’t strictly necessary. If you don’t have a healer in your party, you can always make do with medical kits, although the efficacy of that healing won’t be as good as with a dedicated healer. DnD is designed with a philosophy of freedom in mind, and all combinations of classes can work.

There are a lot of nuances to this topic, and I’ll go through it in detail below. Read more to find out all you need to know about healers in DnD!

Do DnD Parties Need Healers?

Whether or not you need a healer in your DnD party depends on a couple of things. First of all, it’s not obligatory. If you want safety, and the ability to take on a lot of encounters a day, then having a dedicated healer is a good idea.

However, you can certainly play the game without having it. There are a lot of skills and features that you can use to compensate for healers, for example, medical kits and abilities such as Cure Wounds (this ability is available to Rangers, Druids, and Bards!)

Furthermore, you can always heal with potions, or short rests using your hit dice. When doing this, you use as many hit dice that are available to you.

Now, short rests, med kits, and abilities such as Cure Wounds are great, but they aren’t as consistent or good as having a dedicated healer. If you consistently are at a higher HP, you can naturally take on more fights and encounters.

Related Article: The Best Healers In Baldur’s Gate 3

This will in turn boost your XP over time, since you’ll take on 6-8 encounters a day instead of 3-5, for example. For some players, this just makes the game more fun.

If you have effective setups and strategies, you won’t need healing as much as you otherwise would have. Focus-firing down targets and just playing the game better will obviously make you take less damage, and this is something that you’ll have to evaluate yourself.

It’s important to note that fights themselves can be more perilous if you don’t have any healing, especially if you’re unlucky. Without healing, you need to be very careful when approaching combat, and this includes the DM.

DMs need to set up more forgiving fights for players so as to not wipe out an entire party in one fight. The reality is that this is more likely if you don’t have a dedicated healer.

DMing a Party Without Healers

As I mentioned above, DMs need to approach the game a little bit more carefully when DMing parties that are low on healing magic. There are a lot of things that DMs can do to adapt, and I’ll be going through some of them below.

First of all, one thing DMs can do is provide a lot more healing potions than if the party would have a healer. This can include making healing pots drop more often, giving players healing potions at the start of a game, and more.

Moreover, DMs can create NPCs that can act as healers when the party is traveling with them. The reality is that not a lot of players want to be dedicated healers, that’s just not what they play DnD for, and having NPCs do the job for them is a fine solution.

There’s an item called the Wand of Healing which can come in very handy for parties without a healer, as well. DMs have the power to select what loot is dropped, and if you as a DM notice that your party has trouble with healing, you can simply let them loot a Wand of Healing.

The Wand of Healing has charges that players can expend to heal themselves or other party members. When the charges from the wand are gone, you can take a long rest to refill them.

Villages and cities are other great opportunities for DMs to provide healing for players since they oftentimes have temples, hospitals, or churches that can provide these services.

Encourage at least one player to pick a Druid, Fighter, Ranger, or Bard. Chances are that someone is already going to pick one of those, especially since the Fighter is the most popular class in DnD, but you never know.

As I mentioned earlier, Druids, Rangers, and Bards get Cure Wounds, while Fighters have very good self-sustain which kind of works as healing. Of course, multiclassing is a thing in DnD, which means that at least one player can take a level in Cleric to get access to some good healing.

How Important Is Healing in 5e?

Healing can certainly be important in DnD, in fact, healing effects are to some extent completely necessary (if you count rests and so forth).

However, dedicated healers are another question. Are they necessary? Moreover, are they important? Well, first of all, it depends on your party composition and strategy.

A lot of parties get away with no healer because of careful strategy and focus fire. Some players dislike strategy, and for them, healing is more important.

It can be argued that you win more fights with an additional dedicated DPS than a dedicated healer since the DPS will dish out more damage than the healer can heal, but is this really the case? Not always.

If healing an ally can facilitate additional actions or let them play more aggressively, then it can be worth it for sure. If you’re not healing enough to provide them with more effective turns, then heals can be a waste of time.

For example, if you heal an ally from 13 health to their maximum health, say 20, and the incoming damage is 12, the heal could potentially be wasted. Of course, incoming damage can vary wildly even from the same enemy, so it’s hard to calculate beforehand.

So, how important is healing? It depends on 1. your party composition (how much healing are you going to get anyway, do the rest of the party have sufficient self-sustains, etc), 2. your strategy, and 3. the usage of your heals, i.e., how effectively you are using them.

That’s why it’s important that you understand how time works when first starting to play DnD. So, how does time work in DnD?

Time is sorted by narrative time and combat time. Time when fighting is divided into rounds in which every character involved has one turn each round. Turns consist of 6 seconds in-game time, which means that one minute of time in combat is 10 turns. How you calculate time outside combat depends on the environment and characters’ activities.

Now that you’re aware of the basic principles of time, let’s be thorough. Read more to find out all you need to know about time in DnD!

How Does Time Work In DnD?

As I mentioned earlier, time in combat is divided into rounds and turns. Rounds invariably take a maximum of 6 seconds each. It doesn’t matter the situation or how many creatures are fighting.

It’s important to note that every character’s actions happen at approximately the same time, which means that a turn is approximately 6 seconds long as well (since rounds resolve after 6 seconds).

Now, the time between combat is “calculated” differently depending on what characters are up to. For example, short and long rests take time, and attuning items takes time.

Also, the environments in which players are also affect how DMs calculate time. For example, when exploring dungeons, time is calculated in a matter of minutes.

Walking down hallways might take about a minute while exploring an entire room and looting treasure might take ten minutes. Of course, DMs use their judgment while deciding these things.

Exploration in cities and villages is oftentimes measured on the hour scale as opposed to the minute scale. This is because activities are slow-paced and just naturally take longer compared to dungeon exploring.

It’s common to track time in 10-minute increments when exploring. When traveling, it’s more common to measure time in day increments instead. You see, travel is usually measured in days instead of hours/minutes. As you can tell, it’s not particularly complicated once you get down to it.

Now, some DMs keep sheets or calendars to keep track of the time. In these calendars, DMs note down players’ actions. This helps them keep track of when actions were performed and furthermore take notes on possible future events.

Using Time As a DC Measurement

One of the practical things that you can use time management for is to decide the DC (difficulty class) of different tasks. For example, if players want to search a room for secrets or disarm a trap, they can tell the DM how much time they want to spend on it.

After doing this, the DM can more accurately set the appropriate difficulty class for the task. If players are in a stressful situation where they need to solve a situation quickly, then the DC can be adjusted accordingly.

Rounds vs. Turns in DnD

If you are confused about how time works when it comes to rounds and turns in DnD, I’ll try to explain it further below.

Turns of characters happen almost simultaneously, and every character has one turn in a round. That means that turns and rounds are approximately the same length.

I mentioned earlier that rounds are, at the most, 6 seconds long. This means that they can be shorter than that, depending on what characters do during their turns.

Ultimately, it’s important to remember that the rules of combat in DnD are abstractions, very much unlike a video game. The order of actions that characters do during combat in DnD isn’t set in stone. The closest thing to measuring this is initiative.

The 1.10 Rule for Combat in DnD

Rounds are, as mentioned previously, 6 seconds long. Some people find it a bit immersion-breaking that they themselves can spend several minutes coming up with the appropriate action to take for their character.

This is where the 1.10 rule comes in. The 1.10 rule is a fancy way of saying that players get 60 seconds to make a decision about what to do during their turn.

In other words, they get 10 times the time their in-game character gets to decide what to do. This is provided that they have all the necessary information that they need about making a decision.

If something is unclear, the DM should clear that up and not take that out of a player’s round time, since it’s the DM’s responsibility to describe the world.

The 1.10 rule can break the door down for more fast-paced, less optimized play, which can be a lot of fun. The moves that your character does during combat will more often than not be decisions based on seconds, and the 1.10 rule is there to reflect that for players themselves.

Backgrounds are fantastic RPG elements in DnD that let you flesh out your character. Is your character a criminal, a war hero, or something entirely different?

Even though it is a great concept, it can be a confusing one for new players. That’s why I’ve written this resource. After reading this, you hopefully understand what backgrounds in DnD are and what they do for you. So, what are backgrounds in DnD?

Backgrounds in DnD explain how your character has lived up to the point where you start playing it. This provides guidance and depth when it comes to roleplaying, and also bonuses in the forms of proficiencies, features, and some starting gear. Backgrounds are usually found in sourcebooks or adventure books, such as the Player’s Handbook.

There’s more to this, of course. Keep reading to find out all of the published backgrounds in DnD and what they do for you both in a roleplaying and gameplay balancing aspect.

What Are Backgrounds in DnD 5e?

As I mentioned before, characters’ backgrounds are supposed to give us an idea of what they did before, and the backgrounds are (naturally) selected when you first create your character.

Backgrounds are mainly in DnD to provide additional depth to characters, for example, there will be others in the world with your particular background, so why aren’t you one of them? What made you become an adventurer? These are all questions that you’ll want to answer when first creating a character.

In other words, backgrounds help a lot in fleshing out characters. Every background in DnD has suggested flaws, strengths, personality traits, and more. Of course, these are only suggestions, you can do as you please.

I also mentioned that backgrounds in DnD provide proficiencies, gear, and more. Here’s what you typically get from a background:

• A couple of skill proficiencies (usually 1 or 2)

• Languages (usually one or 2)

• Some gear that reflects your background

• A feature that can have multiple different purposes

The features differ quite a lot. For example, Acolytes have a feature called Shelter of the Faithful where they have an increased chance of receiving free shelter and healing from temples they visit.

As you can tell, backgrounds in DnD aren’t particularly complicated, but they are important nonetheless. Let’s go through some more details about the different backgrounds in DnD.

What Are the Different Backgrounds?

There are almost an infinite number of backgrounds in the Dungeons and Dragons universe if you combine homebrew backgrounds with all of the backgrounds found in the different sourcebooks.

I’ll present you with the list of backgrounds that are officially published in DnD. Hold on to your hats, cause there are a lot of them!

As you can see, if you have the books, there is a boatload of background options in DnD 5e. Most of these books are worth buying, I’d say. On average they’re available for about $20 which is good value considering what you get.

Can I Do a Custom Background?

Whether or not you’re allowed to create a custom background for your character depends if your DM wants you to or not, but it can certainly be a good idea if you can’t find a background that suits you.

The Player’s Handbook actually states that you should feel free to come up with an original background. Usually, it’s very straightforward. First, select two proficiencies, then borrow a trait from another background. Feel free to use that giant table above for this purpose!

However, there are some rules that you should follow:

• Replace a trait or make a new one (cooperate with your DM)

• Choose only up to 2 skill proficiencies

• Choose only up to 2 languages/tools

• Either “spend” 175 gold for gear or use another background’s gear

• Either come up with your own flaws, personality traits, and strengths or borrow from another background!

After you’ve done this, you’re going to need some gear. A good rule of thumb for this is using 175 gold since that’s usually what the gear from backgrounds is worth.

Just remember to anchor your character’s identity to its background. Provide flaws, strengths, and personality traits that have come about from the history of your character.

Do Backgrounds Affect Stats?

An important note is that backgrounds do not affect your stats. This is a common question that new players have because backgrounds go hand in hand with other things such as race in character creation, which do affect the stats of a character.

Of course, if you want to use homebrew rules which make backgrounds affect stats, that’s up to you, however, in the official rules of DnD, they don’t.

What Are the Best Backgrounds in 5e?

Backgrounds are, as we’ve talked about in this article, mostly used for flavor, and their impact on the balance of the game isn’t that big compared with other things such as class and race.

There really aren’t any backgrounds that are better than others, that would simply be unsustainable for a game like DnD. People would choose backgrounds based on power level instead of flavor, and that’s not what backgrounds are for in the first place.

There are backgrounds that are more commonly used with some character builds, however, for example, a Fighter with a Soldier background, or a Rogue with a Criminal background.

These backgrounds go very well with the mentioned classes, of course, but they aren’t stronger than any other combinations, really.

Luckily, all of these three things aren’t particularly difficult to wrap one’s head around, but, nonetheless, the explanation of them is the goal of this article. So, how does Armor Class (AC) work in DnD 5e?

Armor Class is a value that determines how hard it is for characters to be hit. In general, a character that doesn’t wear armor has an AC of 10 plus their Dexterity modifier. If that character would be wearing armor, a fixed value would be added to that Dexterity modifier. If a character has an AC of 15, an attacker must roll 15 or higher on a d20 die to hit the character with its attack.

It’s completely fine if you don’t understand the concept right off the bat. Let’s go through the details of AC. After reading this article, you will hopefully have all the answers to your questions.

How Do Armor Class Work in 5e?

The concept of AC isn’t terribly deep. However, there is a lot of added complexity because of the different armor types and armor proficiencies.

Armor types are categorized into three different types: light, medium, and heavy armor. Generally, nimbler classes wear lighter armor while bulkier classes wear heavy armor.

Earlier, I mentioned that you use your Dexterity modifier to calculate your Armor Class. That is generally true, but not for Heavy armor.

Related Article: A Beginner’s Guide to Armor Class (AC) In Baldur’s Gate 3

For Light Armor, you simply add your Dexterity modifier to the sum of your base AC (10) and the armor piece. When reading information about armor in published DnD books, the base AC and armor are always calculated together. For example, Studded Leather is listed as having 12 AC. You don’t add your basic 10 AC to that.

Rather, the Studded Leather gives you +2 AC to your base AC, giving you a total of 12 (+Dex modifier). I’m just offering this information in case you’ve read what seems to be conflicting information.

There are a few exceptions to the rule of 10 unarmored AC, however. Monks and Barbarians both have the class trait Unarmored Defense, which gives them a bonus when not wearing any armor:

Monks use their Wisdom modifier for their unarmored defense, while Barbarians use their Constitution modifier.

So, here are the different armors for each type. As I mentioned earlier, you don’t add your Dexterity modifier to Heavy Armor. Heavy Armor has a Strength requirement that a character must meet in order to wear it.

In fact, Heavy Armor just adds a flat AC value. No modifiers are added to the calculation. Of course, the value that Heavy Armor adds is usually a lot higher than Medium and Light Armor.

With Medium Armor, you add your Dexterity modifier, but there’s a +2 limit. In other words, if you have a +3 Dexterity modifier and wearing Medium Armor, you get +2 AC from that, not 3.

Without further ado, here’s the table:

So, characters have AC, and armor has AC. However, there are more things that have AC in DnD. For example, shields. Shields adds a flat AC score to your character, making it more difficult to hit you.

Furthermore, objects/materials have AC. The harder the object is to break/deal damage to, the higher the AC. The easier it is to break/deal damage to, the lower the AC.

What Armor Should My Character Wear?

DnD places a big emphasis on internal logic, and that’s good because it’s a roleplaying game. All classes aren’t effective with every piece of armor, for example. A Wizard can’t just equip a massive plate armor and go to work.

What armor your character should wear depends entirely on its class. I’ll provide a list of the armor types that various classes are proficient with.

If all armors are available to you by virtue of a feat, racial trait, or multiclassing, then you can choose to wear whatever you want. The best option is oftentimes the one that grants you the most AC.

If you’re a character that sneaks around a lot, then avoid armor that gives you disadvantage on Stealth checks. Furthermore, if you have a +1 or 2 Dexterity modifier and Medium Armor is available to you, it’s probably a good idea to wear it since you aren’t punished by the Armor types modifier restriction, and you can’t make use of a good Dex modifier for Light Armor.

Whether or not any given armor type is available to you depends on your Armor Proficiency. Table 1 illustrates the classes’ different Armor Proficiencies. Let’s discuss it further.

Armor Proficiency in DnD

If you want to wear a certain Armor Type, make sure that you’re proficient in wearing it. If you aren’t proficient with the armor that you’re wearing, the following restrictions are put on you:

• You have disadvantage on any ability check, saving throw, or attack roll that involves Strength or Dexterity

• You can’t cast spells

As you can imagine, these debuffs are devastating, practically rendering your character useless. If you want to wear armor that you aren’t proficient in, there are solutions.

First, you must become proficient with them. This is possible in multiple ways. The most common way is arguably to specialize in another class (“multiclassing”) to gain other armor proficiencies.

This is possible for both Medium and Light armor, but not Heavy armor. If you want to be proficient in Heavy armor, you can take the Heavily Armored feat on level-up instead of increasing your stats.

There are more ways, although they are unorthodox and sometimes unavailable. Tenser’s Transformations lets a character gain martial skill and heavy armor proficiency for a time, for example, and Wish may let you be proficient in Heavy armor (depending on your DM).

How to Calculate Armor Class

How you calculate your Armor Class depends on what factors you have to consider. For example, if you’re a Barbarian, you can add your Constitution modifier to your AC without armor because of your class trait Unarmored Defense. I’ll go over the factors you have to consider below.

No Armor

Characters have 10 in base Armor Class then add their Dexterity modifier. If you’re a Barbarian, add your Constitution as well (10 + Dexterity modifier + Constitution modifier), and if you’re a Monk, add your Wisdom modifier (10 + Dexterity modifier + Constitution modifier).

The results with be your armor class without armor. It’s generally not very relevant since there’s no reason to not wear armor if you aren’t a Barbarian or Monk. Something to note is that characters can have a negative Dexterity modifier, and if they do, that’s calculated into their AC.

If you have a shield equipped, just add the shield’s AC to your base AC. Unarmored Defense is still retained if you’re using a shield.

Light Armor

Light armor uses a character’s Dexterity modifiers, so first of all, take note of that. Then, you add 11 to your Dexterity modifier if you have Padded Armor or Leather Armor, and 12 if you have Studded Leather Armor.

For example, if I have a +3 in Dexterity modifier and wear studded leather, I will end up with the base AC 15 (3 + 12).

Medium Armor

First of all, take note of your Dexterity modifier. If it is higher or equal to 2, you add +2 to the calculation. If your modifier is 1 or lower, add your Dexterity modifier to the calculation.

After this, just add together your noted Dexterity modifier with the Armor you’re wearing. 12 for hide armor, 13 for chain shirt armor, 14 for scale mail/breastplate, and 15 for half-plate armor.

So, if I have +4 in Dexterity modifier, I don’t get to use that to its full potential. Instead, I use +2, which is the Dexterity modifier cap for medium armor, and add it together with equipped armor.

Heavy Armor

Heavy armor is the easiest to calculate because it just adds flat AC without considering any modifiers:

• Base AC is 14 with the ring mail armor equipped

• Base AC is 16 with the chain mail armor equipped

• Base AC is 17 with the splint armor equipped

• Base AC is 18 with the plate armor equipped