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Planescape Tormentsome easy questions for you(7 posts)solved(7 posts)solved
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Posted January 10, 2012
Hello everyone,

I have been playing the game for a little while now and there are some things that have been confusing to me and I wonder if you can help. I am not used to the D&D system in video games and I have a few questions on how certain numbers work and what they mean.

1. what exactly is THACO? and from my understanding, the lower the number the better?

2. is it the same for armor class, the lower the better? I ask this because when I equip something that adds +1 to AC I noticed it drop from 9 to 8. is it supposed to be like that?

3. all of these numbers dropping has made me question my weapons. I'll type an example.

axe 1: 10 speed, 10 weight, 2-7 swing damage, -1 THACO

axe 2: 3 speed, 3 weight, 1-8 swing damage

Now which of these is better and why? does a lower speed swing faster?

Thank you in advance for helping me.
This question / problem has been solved by RealWeaponXimage
Posted January 10, 2012
THAC0 stands for "to hit armour class of zero". The number is the roll required to hit an enemy with an AC of 0 on a 20 sided die (d20). A roll of 20 is always a hit, known as a critical hit, and a roll of 1 is always a critical miss.

The modifiers on the weapons (e.g. THAC0 +2) are applied after the roll, so if you require 17,and roll anyway 16, you will hit with an axe +2.

Armour Class determines how easily you can be hit, and is essentially added to a hit roll to determine the outcome. If you roll a 12 to hit a monster with an AC of 3,and your THAC0 is 14,you will hit, however if their AC was 2, you would miss.

Weapons speed doesn't affect number of attacks, so the axe with bonus THAC0 is best.

Hope this helps a bit...
Posted January 10, 2012
thank you, that does help, but are you saying that speed doesn't really matter?
Posted January 10, 2012
Planescape uses 2nd edition rules
Thac0 = hit chance. The lower, the better.
Hit modifiers are a bit counter-intuitive. A +1 modifier on a weapon lowers your Thac0 while a negative modifier increases your Thac0

For AC it's the same deal as for Thac0. Lower is better (capped at -10 in Planescape) and positive modifiers lower your AC (they make you harder to hit)

In 3rd edition they changed the to hit system. In 3rd edition, higher is better


Weapon speed isn't very important. A higher numbers makes you attack a little later in a combat round but has no effect on your number of attacks per round.
Posted January 10, 2012
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gnarbrag: Hit modifiers are a bit counter-intuitive. A +1 modifier on a weapon lowers your Thac0 while a negative modifier increases your Thac0

For AC it's the same deal as for Thac0. Lower is better (capped at -10 in Planescape) and positive modifiers lower your AC (they make you harder to hit)
That's because they're modifiers to the roll, not to the stat... It makes sense when you've played with pen & paper, but can be confusing in a CRPG to a D&D beginner... I wonder what 5th Edition will bring?
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gnarbrag: Weapon speed isn't very important. A higher numbers makes you attack a little later in a combat round but has no effect on your number of attacks per round.
This... It's like an initiative roll in other RPGs, but only matters if you can interrupt an enemy attack, which is rarely the case in D&D CRPGs, with the exception of spellcasting.
Posted January 10, 2012
I played p&p but was a long time ago.

I really couldn't care less about 5th edition. Wizards did a good job of ruining 3/3.5 with a huge overdose of poorly playtested splat books and they're probably doing the same with 4th edition.

Paizo does a much better job with their Pathfinder system (often called d&d 3.75). Everything gets playtested in public betas which results in much higher quality playing materials.
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gnarbrag: Hit modifiers are a bit counter-intuitive. A +1 modifier on a weapon lowers your Thac0 while a negative modifier increases your Thac0

For AC it's the same deal as for Thac0. Lower is better (capped at -10 in Planescape) and positive modifiers lower your AC (they make you harder to hit)
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RealWeaponX: That's because they're modifiers to the roll, not to the stat... It makes sense when you've played with pen & paper, but can be confusing in a CRPG to a D&D beginner... I wonder what 5th Edition will bring?
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gnarbrag: Weapon speed isn't very important. A higher numbers makes you attack a little later in a combat round but has no effect on your number of attacks per round.
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RealWeaponX: This... It's like an initiative roll in other RPGs, but only matters if you can interrupt an enemy attack, which is rarely the case in D&D CRPGs, with the exception of spellcasting.
Post edited January 10, 2012 by gnarbrag
Posted January 10, 2012
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gnarbrag: I really couldn't care less about 5th edition. Wizards did a good job of ruining 3/3.5 with a huge overdose of poorly playtested splat books and they're probably doing the same with 4th edition.
I don't disagree, but conversationally I wonder if you're aware of the economic pressures which contributed to the splat book storm.
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