Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Help Me Understand Draconic Resilience...

I've just noticed that putting armor on a Sorcerer removes the +3AC from this class trait, and it makes no sense to me. I don't expect it to stack as it's the "same" source of AC, but if the AC comes from dragon scales on my skin, why on earth does wearing armor remove this? Do the scales fall off when I put armor on? I've looked up the 5e notes and I guess this is RAW, but it is simply illogical? Am I nuts, or is this just a case of "that's how it works so that's how it works and common sense be damned"?

The short answer is that when you wear armour, you are using that armour, and it has a particular method for calculating your AC, and you are relying on that armour to protect you. When you aren't, you are relying on your scales, which let you get to an Ac number in a different way. Mechanically, it's a matter of balance and the strength of perks.

If you want to think of it in an in-universe way, you could think of it in a way that's not too dissimilar to an unarmoured defence perk - the scales don't cover your *entire body*, and when you're relying on them to protect you, that includes moving in particular ways during combat to bring your scaled parts to the blows, instead of letting those blows hit your squishier soft parts. When you're wearing armour, you're not doing that specifically any more, because you're relying on the armour instead, so you don't gain that benefit any more.

Basicaly ... yes.

But also nope, since there is a logic if you think about it.
Armor in DnD dont diminish damage, it either protects you perfectly ... or not at all.
Therefore, if you have scaled, or otherwise hardened, skin (several races have), shell, or whatever is wraping your body providing some defense ... its just numeric value of that defence.

Your scales are tough to AC 13 ...
USUALY ... best AC calculation is used, so if you wield any armor that provides less than 13AC, then you still have 13AC (not really sure if there is any in BG-3, but this is how it works in tabletop) ...
i mean pure hypoteticaly you can pick worse AC if you really demand so, but that would only work as purposefull effort to break this explanation but i digress ...

So, if you wear lets say 12 AC armor, but your scales provides you 13 AC armor ... you still have 13 AC armor, bcs whatever hits you have to get trough your scales to hurt you ... and whatever gets trough your scales, will automaticly get trough your 12AC armor.

Same it goes on other way ...
If you pick Lae'zel armor (for example) you get 15AC ... that alone is 2AC stronger than your scales ... so if something manage to pierce/slash/whatever trough that ... your scales are still there, but they do not represent an obstacle.

OR in simple form:

16+ Attack gets trough 15AC armor ... aswell as 13 AC armor > therefore scales are not relevant
15- Attack is stopped by 15AC armor ... so it never gets to 13 AC amor > therefore scales are not relevant

The only way they would be relevant would be if you would need to roll hit for each layer of defensive wraping people have ... and that would be OP as fuck. :-/

Normally that is the case, as we've chatted about in the other thread about AC... but many AC calculation methods have specific caveats that negate them - such as Monk's unarmoured defence, which is prohibited by shields as well as armour - or more pertinently, mage armour: Mage armour lets you calculate your AC as 13+Dex, But only as long as you aren't wearing armour - so if you put on weaker armour, mage armour cannot function.

Sorcerer's draconic resilience has a similar caveat - It lets you calculate your AC as 13+Dex, but similar to mage armour, it only functions, specifically, while you aren't wearing armour, so, if you do wear armour, it is not able to be used to calculate your AC, which is why I think this poster brought it up, and why I suggested the in-universe explanation I did.

That said, I think that we would lose nothing and it would not be overpowered in the slightest if Sorcerer's draconic resilience did not have that caveat, and could function as a 'baseline' option at any time. It wouldn't hurt balance overmuch in this particular case.

True that ...
I was focused on basics.

//Edit:
You mean ...
Make it possible to have basic Leather Armor (11AC), but still calculate with 13AC+Dex from inheritated Scales?

I gues that would really lose nothing ...

On the other hand, concidering that most "armors" providing good bonuses for Sorcerers would be (most likely) clothing anyway, im not really sure why bother.

I can clear that up for you: the reason I even tried is because Minthara's light armor gives Advantage on Constitution checks but is AC12.

If it wasn't for that I would have just blindly accepted that my armor was better with clothing than with light armor and moved on. Like I say, I am not very informed on the full DnD ruleset, but I do understand how they work when I have something specific in mind and look it up. This example just didn't seem to have a logic behind it that most other rules have at least some passing nod to common sense with. Not sure I really buy into Niara's validation either; but it's sufficiently plausible that I can put it to the back of my mind and just not think about too deeply. Thanks for the explanations all, in any case.

Ok, that is good bonus for caster indeed ...
But lets be honest, there isnt much competition between clothing so far.

I mean ...
Poison robe is fine ... as long as you have build for it.
Robe of Sumer ... really confuses me, since as far as i know there is not even single situation in game, when you would use such bonus. O_o
And then there is that cool lightning robe ... wich most people refuse to use, for principal that they dont like lightning charges.

But its true that there are still Druids ... they can wear armor, and are casters ... so maybe i was little off, armor for caster as it seems isnt so distant prospect.

A certain vampire spawn springs to mind as he can dash as a bonus action each round to build up lighting charges then backstab or just dash again (they stack)

A weapon dipped in fire with charges and a backstab is pretty much epic should it hit

P.s, I assume some thing in act 2 must do ice attacks