Hi everyone!
following the rules, when a character is surprised, he loses his bonuses to his armor class. If you take two characters with only their DEX bonus to their armor class, one with high DEX (positive bonus), and the other with very low DEX (negative bonus), if they're both surprise, the one with high DEX will lose a lot of armor class points, while the low DEX player won't lose anything! But for me, a character with low dexterity should be -more- surprised than someone with high dexterity, but here the rules lead to the opposite situation (no “surprise” notion at all for the low DEX character) :( Am I mistaken somewhere?
I see. But I would have prefered a more "generic" rule: for exemple a player with an AC -2 would end up with an AC -4 when surprised, which sounds to me as fair as a player with AC +3 ending up with AC +0 when surprised...
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Essentially, when both are surprised they end up just standing there. So they guy who is light on his feet doesn't dodge out of the way. The clumsy oaf just stands there--he doesn't suddenly get clumsier and throw himself on the enemy's weapons.
By the rules you either notice in time or you don't. The guy wearing the heavier armor just has more protection so you may not be able to land a solid blow aka hit his AC.
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Essentially, when both are surprised they end up just standing there. So they guy who is light on his feet doesn't dodge out of the way. The clumsy oaf just stands there--he doesn't suddenly get clumsier and throw himself on the enemy's weapons.
This is it exactly. The guy who doesn't dodge at all (+0 to AC) has the same AC whether he knows about the threat or not because he responds the same way -- by just standing there.
I usually think of the Dex penalty to AC being that the character actually reacts wrong to attacks, he moves into blows, steps the wrong way, etc... so if he isn't actively trying to dodge, he is slightly harder to hit because he isn't aiding his enemy.
Unaware Combatants: Combatants who are unaware at the start of battle don't get to act in the surprise round. Unaware combatants are flat-footed because they have not acted yet, so they lose any Dexterity bonus to AC.
And Pathfinders defination of a bonus:
Bonus: Bonuses are numerical values that are added to checks and statistical scores. Most bonuses have a type, and as a general rule, bonuses of the same type are not cumulative (do not “stack”)—only the greater bonus granted applies.
And penalty:
Penalty: Penalties are numerical values that are subtracted from a check or statistical score. Penalties do not have a type and most penalties stack with one another.
A bonus is always a positive number. When flatfooted or suprised, you lose your dexterity bonus. not dexterity modifier A character with a 12 dex (+1 modifier) has an AC of 10 when flatfooted or surprised. A character with a Dex of 8 (-1 modifier)has an AC of 9 while flatfooted or surprised.
Modifier and Bonus do not mean the same thing. All bonuses are modifiers, but not all modifiers are bonuses.
Bonus = positive modifier
Penalty = negative modifier
Modifier = either positive or negative
I usually think of the Dex penalty to AC being that the character actually reacts wrong to attacks, he moves into blows, steps the wrong way, etc... so if he isn't actively trying to dodge, he is slightly harder to hit because he isn't aiding his enemy.
Dex is just how quickly you move. A lower dex does not mean you are moving in the correct direction. You can still zig when you should have zagged.