armor check penalty

[vitosqueo]

i tried to look in the book but i didn't find anything on it. i was wondering how your amor check penalty affects your chances of getting hit and is it worth it to get a lower ac but a worse armor check penalty ex. i can get a better ac by 1 point but my armor check penalty will go from a -0 to a -9. is it worh it?

[Siberys]

Actually, armor check penalty does nothing to the AC, as that would simply be a contradiction to any armor higher than leather.

Armor check penalty applies a penalty to most strength and dexterity based skills, such as hiding/moving silently, jumping, climbing, balancing, etc. As hide and move silently are the only skills in this game that would be modified, then the penalty will only apply to those two skills.

[Claudius]

There are certain skills in the game that have an armor check penalty. I believe these are all rogue skills such as Hide etc. It tells in the skill description if there is an armor check penalty. If there IS an armor check penalty then the skill is penalized.

If you are not using these skills then go for the armor with the best ac. But factor in the dexterity too. Some armor allows a high dex character to get the full benefit of their ac (even if they are cats graced). Think about your party and if you should sell the high dex armor or give it to someone with high dex and cats grace them. But also think that the armor spell gives unlimited dexterity (potential) bonus!

The other part of armor is arcane spell failure. Generally casters should pick spell feats and not armored arcana (they should have armor spell cast on them). So don't worry too much about arcane spell failure ie don't use armor (item) on bard, mage, and sorceror.

Edit: Ack! Siberys beat me to it!

[kmonster]

If you wear an armor type you haven't got the feat for penalties are also applied to combat, but only in this case.