I feel ignorant asking this question, but I'm really confused. When I drop armor onto my Fighter, his armor points lower. Better armor drops even lower. I always thought that going higher was better? What is going on here?

Are these the points that count against me in the dice roll since they are preferably lower?

It's explained in the manual, for AC lower is better. Lowering AC by 1 reduces the chance to get hit by an enemy attack by 5 percent.

I did a search for the word "armor" in the entire manual and never found my answer. Thanks. Makes sense now. Not what I'm used to, must be the D&D aspect of the game.

you know if there are + 5 armour in bg1 or 2?

in BG1 no but in 2 there are 5 or 6 +5 armors (and a lot more if you want to install bonus content).

Chances of getting hit are affected by two things: the character's AC, and the attacker's THAC0. Depending on these two numbers relative to one another, chances of getting hit may not change at all.

i.e., if character's AC is -10, and the attacker's THAC0 is 10, there will be no change if the character's AC goes to -11. At either AC, the attacker must roll a "natural" 20, or he misses.

Alternatively, if the character has an AC of 10, and the attacker a THAC0 of 1, then the attacker will always hit unless he rolls a 1. If AC is decreased to 9, he will still always hit unless he rolls a 1.

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OP, it's easiest to say "just get your armor class lower", but the meat of the thing is:
THAC0 minus AC = roll needed to hit. Rolls are random numbers out of 20. Any number at or exceeding the THAC0 minus AC value is a hit, except 20s are always critical hits, 1s are always critical misses. The lower the AC, the higher the "to hit" value becomes.

That's some strange rules. I played this ten years ago but forgot these things I guess. I remember I had the stats down better, I sure don't now. I also had the strategy guide and also the ToB guide too, but I gave them away. Man I wish I had them now.

It made more sense on paper, and using dice...

Thanks m8 for the reply my main char has shadow armour wich he got ac of -2 the average ac of my party is 1 is that enough to get going or do i need better?

AC1 is ok (not great) for mage or thief type characters, or early on in BG1. It's not ok for a front-line fighter in endgame BG1, or midway through BG2 onwards. Towards the end of BG2, you'll want -6 for your fighters at LEAST. For a fighter in ToB, wearing the best combination of armors and magic items, with a good dex, will max you out at around -12, or around -16 if you're using a shield. However, 0-2 is probably fine if you're just mucking about in the Nashkel mines, or in the slums of Athkatla.

Note that lower THAC0 is also better. If you want to be able to consistently hit late-game enemies with deeply negative ACs, your THAC0 needs to be into the negatives as well.

my thirf has the best ac -2 my 1 cleric has -1 and minsc has 2 since hes using a greatsword the only one with good thaco at this point is coran and kivan thaco 7 im worries about my main character tough thaco 15/18 problem is that he only got 1 training in short sword and i dont think i am able to since hes lvl 7 that hes gonna be useless at the endgame.And im btw at chapter 5 at the beginning.

Rogues and clerics aren't meant to be really good at straight up fighting in 2nd Ed, warrior classes are the only ones who'll have decent ThacO at low levels, and they're also the only ones who gain bonus attacks per round.

Are you using two weapons? That'd make your ThacO worse too, by -4 I think, so it might be better to only use 1 weapon against tough enemies.

But don't worry pure rogues get better at end game, although there's not much point in making a pure rogue imo. Fighter/rogue or wizard/rogue multi or dual classes are just better.
You just need to use sneak attacks, traps (you get those in BG 2 only) and later the great rogue SLAs in ToB.

Get dexterity to 18 for +4 bonus to armor class and just wear the armor that is best... and by best you don't necessarily want to go for the lowest defense full plate mail you can find, but you should consider

1) does the armor have anything else useful on it like saving throws
2) can you stealth wearing it (for rogues)
3) does it make sense to spend gold in purchasing it, if it's only marginally better and you're bound to find a better one soon

problem is it is a kit, it is disigned to use 2 weapon fighting it has even got 2 weapon fighting mastery 3 slots. It is the swarchbuckler as a rogue it isnt very good.

Even with 3 slot mastery, your off hand will never be as effective as your main hand.
Aside from the THAC0, it doesn't get the extra attacks per round.
So make sure you have your best weapon in your main hand.
And if your main hand weapon is a lot better than your 2nd one, just use the one weapon until you get two very good weapons you are proficient with. (you will do more damage.)