Armor Class

Armor Class is the statistic that determines how often an attack from another object or creature will hit a target. In earlier Wizardry games a lower Armor Class stat increases the rate at which attacks are dodged successfully, while in Wizardry 8, a higher stat increases the doge rate.

Rating from -10 to 10, with the highest number being the lowest resistance to damage. AC of 10 is like being naked, while -10 is armored like a tank, or a high level ninja.

A ninja does not need any armor protection, he can go in naked and still reach -10 AC when leveled high enough.

Armors, shields, etc... with +1 +2 +3 add more protection by removing (lowering) points to the AC.

Some items have +? modifiers and are cursed, and actually can remove AC protection instead of adding.

Trivia

 * Dungeons & Dragons may have influenced the earlier Wizardry game's armor class stat having a lower stat mean a better armor class, as this was also done in the D&D tabletop role-playing game. It is claimed that the D&D rule may have been based off the armor class of navy ships, where an AC of 1 was the best armor a ship could have, and an AC of 2 was the second best armor, though this logic is stretched past breaking point as armor classes go into negative numbers in both D&D and Wizardry. Wizardry 8 in 2001 switched to an ascending point system for AC, a year after the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons released with the same rule.