Noob question of the day: Parry

[Machado]

Hey, folks.

I am trying to figure out if the parry skill is somewhat useful. It gives AC or just AB?

The bonuses are passive or I need to turn parry mode on to get them?

I got it that any weapon that can be used with -twohand command will not get anything from parry. Is that it? Like bastards and katanas don't, but longswords do.

Thanks in advance, guys.

[Svrtr]

Hey, folks.

I am trying to figure out if the parry skill is somewhat useful. It gives AC or just AB?

The bonuses are passive or I need to turn parry mode on to get them?

I got it that any weapon that can be used with -twohand command will not get anything from parry. Is that it? Like bastards and katanas don't, but longswords do.

Thanks in advance, guys.

Parry AC and AB are separate

Parry AC is passive and always active if you have it, and the following are true

1) Your offhand is empty and you are only holding one weapon in one hand (fists do not count)
2) You are using a weapon you CANNOT use with -twohand
3) You do not have monk levels (vigilante levels don't do this, since ki barrier AC and parry AC are both shield AC and thus don't stack)

The AC you get from parry is based on your hard invested ranks in parry and limited by your BAB. If your BAB at 30 is 15, you can only get 3 parry AC. If its 20, you can get 4. If its 21 or above you can get 5 or 6 based on ranks

The bonus AB is only applicable in parry mode, and whilst in parry mode you cannot attack and therefore the AB only matters for riposte. The arelith wiki page on parry and riposting is pretty thorough and so I advise a read.

Notably though you can use parry mode with ANY weapon (I am 99% sure). I recall a friend doing some funny stuff with a nodachi using parry for example. However the AC still has the same restrictions.