Newbie question. Armor class and leveling up.

[Aegis]

Hi, I'm new to table top RPGs and haven't played one before so sorry if this is a basic question. The closest thing I can think of to this game that I've played is a Gameboy Advance Game called Golden Sun. That's where I'm at understanding-wise.

I'm going through the Labyrinth Lord Core Rules PDF trying to roll up a character, but I'm stuck at the armor class part.

I don't understand multiple things about armor class and leveling up:

ARMOR

1. At the bottom of the character sheet, (page 134 of the PDF) there are 10 boxes labeled 0 to 9, the string of boxes is labeled armor class and it says on the side, "Roll 1d20 to hit". I can't find an explanation of what this means at all. I have no clue what to do with those boxes.

2. Is armor class only determined by the armor you wear? Do you roll dice to determine additional armor level as well?

HIT POINTS

3. Do you gain only HP when you level up, or do you roll to gain the other attributes as well?

4. I'm looking at the Cleric level progression on page 9. It says "Hit Dice (1d6)" on one column and then lists 1 for level 1, 2 for level 2 and so on. Does this mean that when I reach, say level 5, I will roll a d6 5 times and add up the sum to determine how many additional hitpoints I gain that level? And on top of that constitution modifies the roll of each of those 5 die?

GENERAL ATTRIBUTES

5. It seems dexterity decreases your armor level? Does this mean that I become more fragile the more dexterity I have? If you DO roll to gain more attributes every level, wouldn't this make your character progressively more fragile?

6. Some of the classes say they don't have a level limit, but the level progression tables only go up to 20. Is level 20 the max level or does it go infinitely somehow?

I'd appreciate any insight into how this all works. I'm going through this with a friend who used to play DnD a while back but they never DM'ed so they don't really remember how all this kind of stuff works.

[gentleman john]

It can be a bit confusing the first time round, but we all started there. So, answering your questions:

1. Those boxes are to provide a crib for working out what your character needs to roll to hit another character with a given armour class. The exact number will depend on your character's class, strength or dexterity (depending on whether it is melee combat or missile combat) and level. Look in the Combat section of the book to see what numbers are needed. It's a big table.

2. In LL your armour class is determined by the armour you wear (mainly), modified for any shield (-1 AC) and your dexterity bonus. There may be modifiers for spells and magic, but they all come off this base.

3. Depending on your class, you will gain extra abilities at each level. You always get extra HP though. Fighters usually get a bonus to hit, clerics and mages get additional spell slots, thieves improve their skills, and so on.

4. The numbers are how many dice worth of HP you have per level. So, at L1 your cleric has 1d6 HP total, at L2 2d6 HP total and so on. Usually most people roll an additional dice at each level and add that to the total from the previous level to avoid the situation of having less HP at L5 than you did at L1 - if you rolled 5 1s at L5 and a 6 at L1. The constitution modifier affects each die.

5. Nope. LL uses decreasing AC, just like the original game. Thus, a lower AC is good. Some games use an ascending AC. However, while a -1 to your AC is good, it is bad to have -1 to your attack. No, it's not logical. But it works. The AC plus the roll you need to hit that AC (see no. 1) always add up to a constant total for your character in LL.

6. Hah. Try getting to L20 first! Then we'll worry about this. In the past, different versions of D&D had different maximum levels. Basic gave you L1 to L3 for characters, Expert went up to L10 (I think - it's been a while) and Master took you to L30. Some editions allowed you to go higher for a constant amount of XP. However, demihumans (elves, dwarves and halflings) all topped out at levels significantly below what humans were capable of.

If you have any more questions, ask and I or someone else will try to answer next time they're passing by.

[kipper]

Everything gentleman john said is correct, but I thought I'd throw in my own answers too in case an alternate wording/approach will help the OP clarify things in his mind .

1) These are the target numbers your character needs to roll to hit opponents with the listed Armour Class. The numbers for this section of the character sheet can be found on p60. Find your character's class & level on the columns on the left, and then read the row to the right. Additional modifiers (such as from Strength, Dexterity, magic items, magic spells, etc.) depend on the situation and are added to the character's "to hit" roll as appropriate and then compared to the target number, any result equal to or greater than the target number is a successful hit.

2) Armour Class is a fixed number. It's based on the armour your character wears, modified by Dexterity (page 6), but there can also be other situational modifiers such as magic spells, Halfling special ability (p11), etc. No additional AC bonuses are automatically gained as your character levels up.

3) Abilities (Strength, Dexterity, etc.) are fixed at character creation and do not automatically change as your character levels up. Only additional hitpoints are rolled randomly and added.

4) This is a cumulative total, listing the total number of hit dice the character has. As each level is gained, the player rolls one additional hit die for the character (at least until higher levels, where hit points only are added instead as indicated on the chart), adds the constitution modifier, and then adds this result to the character's existing hitpoints.

5) The lower the AC the better in this game. So for AC a modifier of "-1" is a good thing. This can be somewhat confusing until you get used to it. For AC, whenever a modifier is referred to as a bonus, then it lowers the AC (makes the AC better), and when it is referred to as a penalty then it increases the AC (makes it worse). For example, magic armour is listed as (for example) "Chain +1" but gives a -1 modifier to your AC (which makes the AC better). Sometimes people might also refer to a "-1 penalty to AC", which would actually mean +1 modifier to AC (makes AC worse).

6) For classes which do not have a stated limit, there is no maximum. You can extrapolate the higher levels using the same pattern observed on the tables to get levels higher than 20.