how to AC

[Gokken]

I am an okay understanding of how the armor system works in general in D&D 3,5 but their is one case where I could not find answers thats regarding sneak attack.


Bandit has 14 AC
Base =10
Armor=2
Dex=2
=14

Sneak attack
Flanking +2 to attack
-2 from his dex no longer working?

So now I have to get a 10 or above to hit. This far I have gotten


now I do a ranged touch with a spell =-2 from his armor because I just need to touch him so I will hit on a 12 or above now

Now what happens if I do a sneak attack with a touch spell?
I should still only have to touch him and for it to be a sneak attack he cannot get the bonus of his dex?!

14-2 from armor-2 from dex-2 from flanking

I should be able to hit him on 8 or higher?

Considered I made a rogue/wizard with 18 dex and 1 base attack I hit on a roll 3 or above? 10% miss chance nice xD

is this correctly calculated?

Thanks in advance :D

[eggynack]

-2 from his dex no longer working?

Where'd this come from? I think you got the causality backwards here. If you get your opponent to lack their dexterity bonus to AC, then you get a sneak attack. However, getting a sneak attack does not mean that your opponent necessarily lost their dexterity bonus to AC. Also, you can't flank with a ranged touch attack, because flanking is only on melee attacks.

[Gokken]

Okay flanking aside

you have to subtract your dex armor from your armor on sneak attacks right?

[eggynack]

you have to subtract your dex armor from your armor on sneak attacks right?
No. There are things that remove dexterity to AC, and doing that allows sneak attacks. There are other things, mostly flanking, that allow for sneak attacks, so it is completely possible to sneak attack without the opponent losing their dex to AC. Sneak attacks certainly don't cause a loss of dex to AC.

[Gokken]

But then again you would still be flanking and get the +2 bonus but that is only on melee attacks?

so in order to sneak you must deny dex or be flanking right?

[eggynack]

But then again you would still be flanking and get the +2 bonus but that is only on melee attacks?

so in order to sneak you must deny dex or be flanking right?
Yes on both counts. You should probably pick up some way to deny dexterity if you're sticking with the ranged touch attack plan, and probably also if you're doing some other thing, because it's more consistently accessible than flanking. Miss chance and forcing balance checks with marbles or grease are two classic ways.

[Gokken]

So if you get to deny the dex and use a ranged touch attack to sneak with then their ac will be very low ?

[eggynack]

So if you get to deny the dex and use a ranged touch attack to sneak with then their ac will be very low ?
Well, yeah. You are putting in some work to get that to happen.

[Flickerdart]

So if you get to deny the dex and use a ranged touch attack to sneak with then their ac will be very low ?
Someone who is flat-footed (most often, by being attacked before they've acted in the current combat) loses Dexterity and dodge bonuses to AC, because they can't react to you. When you're attacking touch AC, the target gains no benefit from armor, shield, and natural armor bonuses, because you don't need to strike at a weak spot, just touch them.

So when you're attacking flat-footed touch AC, you are trying to touch a creature that doesn't know you're there, which is really easy. Only some exotic bonus types (such as deflection, insight, or sacred/profane) apply on these attacks - types of defenses where the creature doesn't need to know you're there to avoid your touch, either because it's surrounded by a deflection field, has supernatural insight into the very near future, or is protected by a divine power.

So when you're attacking flat-footed touch AC of a random monster from the book, it will very frequently be 10 or lower (due to Dex penalties or size penalties) because the majority of monsters relies on natural armor to be hard to hit.

[Gokken]

Thank you for the very thorough explaination

I am geussing examples of being flatfooted would be the first attack out of stealth and the subsequent attack of that if your first in iniative


and all attacks made against prone, stunned,para, confused enemies?

all enemies that are bound by some kind?

[eggynack]

and all attacks made against prone, stunned,para, confused enemies?

all enemies that are bound by some kind?
It's just if they lose their dexterity to AC, so if something says that it causes that, then it does. Prone does not, stunned does, paralyzed does, confused does not, and bound does.

Edit: Note that paralyzed and bound do because they cause the helpless condition, and helpless explicitly allows sneak attack.

[Khedrac]

and all attacks made against prone, stunned,para, confused enemies?

all enemies that are bound by some kind?
You are learning - which is good - but this list is wrong, sorry. For these conditions the best thing is to check the glossary a the back of the PHB - it has very useful rules (or see here (http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/conditions.htm)).

Prone - no, still has Dex bonus to AC, melee enemies are at +4 to hit, ranged at -4
Stunned - yes, has lost Dex bonus to AC AND takes a -2 penalty.
Paralysed - yes, and they count as Dex 0 which gives a -5 penalty to AC (only lose Dex bonus not dex penalty).
Confused - no, confused characters defend themselves normally.
Bound - depends, helpless, grappled = yes (though not to the grappler), entangled = no.