I have a fresh campaign with new characters in my campaign, but one thing that becomes increasingly clear is how poorly they do in combat, even against simple encounters.
In 3.5, an attack roll is determined by rolling d20 and adding any attack bonuses - this usually works out to as little as +2 for the cleric (strength mod) to as much as +6 for the barbarian (4 from strength mod after rage and base of 2 after levelling).
However, even after all the bonuses, monsters usually have AC15 (goblins and kobolds), which means roughly a pathetic 30% chance to hit (1d20, success on 15 or better) or up to luck (1d20 + 6, roughly 60% chance to hit).
Is this normal? Did I get the combat rules right? Currently it is slowing down the campaign because of the immense amount of misses (combat takes up to an hour or so).