Armour Class

Armour Class (AC) reduces the amount of damage that you suffer. Your basic armour class, referred to as AC, is a defence that primarily protects you from weapon blows and comes from two sources, physical armour and dexterity. The type or armour that you may use and how well you can use it depends on your Character Class - for example warriors can wear all sorts of armour but wizards cannot wear armour containing metal.

The efficiency with which you can use your armour is known as your Maximum Armour Class usually abbreviated to Max AC and there is an absolute system limit of AC 12, however powerful you get. Starting characters have a much lower value. Additionally no matter how good your armour is weapon blows will always do a minimum of 1pt of damage. This is referred to as Bruising damage.

AC reduces the damage you take per weapon blow by an amount equal to the AC value.

For Example:

''A Warrior in AC3 struck by a 6pt single would only take 3pts of damage per blow (6 minus 3). If he were struck by a 12pt double he would take 9pts of damage from the blow (12 minus 3) and so on.''

A Warrior in AC6 struck by a 6pt single would still take 1pt of bruising damage however, or even if he had AC12!

There are several types of AC: Physical (PAC), Dexterity (DAC), Magical (MAC) and Spiritual (SAC).