(FAQ) Defences have NOT been broken

[Davairus]

Why do my defences never work?

I recoded the way hits are generated, to be able to do new things like this:

* bows
* combat skills that use hit damage
* javelins/counter change

As a consequence the MISS now takes precedence over your defences. You cannot defend against a "missed" attack. This gives the illusion that defences never work. Its not that - its because you didnt NEED them.

Well why are the mobs missing me?

Because level 1 players obviously have no defences, their AC helps them in that regard, and it helps mobs too, as you'll know if you ever spent 30 rounds fighting a snail and missing it in the arena. Mobs are missing you because of your AC. If you want them to hit you, you need to either:

a) raise your AC (i.e. make yourself hopelessly vulnerable)
b) fight something with a better hitroll (usually means higher level)

The good news is that this has been designed to break down after level 30 to let your natural defences take over, as levels add extra HP to your character.

How am I supposed to train defences then? I can't sodomize hobgoblins?

You need to fight things with a lot of hitroll, so they don't "miss". Players are a good example, especially monkey stancing monks. Or, you can fight high level mobs, who are not affected by the THAC0 protection for lowbies. I've also sped up the learning rate so its naturally faster to learn defences then it was, if you just straight level to 30 or so (which can be as low as 12 hours of play) then you should begin getting respectable defences from fighting things around your own level..