Hello!


Is there a point in either game (original versions) where bonuses to AC and thac0 are immaterial?

From what I understand, in Throne of Bhaal:

If your THAC0 gets good enough, you can eventually hit enemies on a natural roll of 2. When you factor in level, Strength Bonuses, and magic weapon bonuses, a single class character could reliably hit even AC -10 on a roll of 2.

AC becomes pointless, as enemies also get insanely good THAC0. This means that wearing armor just for its AC bonus is rather pointless; if you want to increase your survivability, you need to improve your resistance and saving throws, or use arcane magic. Even then, saving on a natural 1 is quite feasible, though note that some effects impose save penalties. Getting enough AC to matter requires stacking a lot of effects and pretty much requires the Blade's Defensive Spin (-10 AC if your level is high enough).

Essentially, the game turns into "attacks hit 95% of the time" after a certain point. Note that this is very much unlike the start of Baldur's Gate 1.

Also, note that arcane casters have better survivability than single-class fighters after a certain point; what use is HP and (useless) AC when you can just simply ignore damage entirely with Mirror Image/Stoneskin/Protection from Magic Weapons? The only way a fighter can really compete with this would be to stack Hardiness three times to get 120% physical resistance for a short time, and that requires spending a lot of HLA picks on the one ability, and it doesn't work in the Enhanced Edition.

Thac0 and armour are always material but the use of it as a tanking mechanism is highly situation.

In bg1 is pretty simple to get one character’s armour down to -14 and that does make a viable tanking option against all but your half-brother Sarevok

In bg2 you need to go deeper and Haer'Dalis clocks in at -25 armour + the option to put up some spell buffs… at that level he can tank effectively against most (non-dragon) bosses.

Tob is heavy seeded with spell casting bosses that can’t be armour tanked however they do employ guards so there is some mileage to be had from a armour class specialist at the end game.

Thac0 does level out for a pure fighter at level 20 so you could peak before the end however you can buff a fighter against most spell attacks and weapons such as The Answerer and Angurvadal or Axe of the Unyielding can open tactical combinations a fighter can exploit to gain more hit points and bypass a boss defence.

Thanks for the info!