Arkhandus
First Post
Well, let's see. At 6th-level a human fighter can easily have +12 to hit and do 2d6+9 damage (+6 BAB +4 Str +1 Focus +1 enhancement, 2d6 greatsword +6 Str +2 specialization +1 enhancement), while an opposing fighter could have AC 23 or 24 (+1 Dex +9 magic full plate +3 magic heavy shield +1 Dodge), +2 more if using a tower shield instead. A troll would hit them less often, a gorillon or chuul just as often as the fighter, and a hill giant or bulette more often.... So fairly even there...At what level (currently) do you feel that AC stops being of any use against primary attacks?
How many creatures in the SRD do you suppose have 3 or more iterative attacks at -10 or -15?
(Note that multiple attacks-- eg claw/claw/bite-- are not the same thing as iterative attacks.)
Interesting: 21 of 564, counting templates and Good creatures.
At 11th-level that fighter could have +22 to hit (+11 BAB, +5 Str, +2 Belt of Giant Strength, +2 focus and greater focus, +2 enhancement) and deal 2d6+14 damage (+10 Str, +2 specialization, +2 enhancement), versus another fighter with AC of 30 (+3 Dex, +10 magic mithral full plate, +4 magic heavy shield, +1 ring, +1 amulet, +1 Dodge) or 32 with a tower shield instead, also roughly even. A glabrezu or fire giant or frost worm or dire tiger would hit about as often, a hamatula or stone golem less often, an adult or mature adult dragon just as often, a purple worm more often.
I'd say it starts to break down more around 14th or 15th-level. And trying for high AC severely cuts down on damage output by then (moderately so at the lower to middle levels). The greatsword fighter's high-AC counterpart would be attacking at maybe +12 for 1d8+7 damage at 6th-level or +19 for 1d8+8 at 11th (maybe a bit better if they could afford a strength-booster despite their expensive AC-boosters). And it just gets worse from there for the AC-guy.
Final edit (man I wish I could type more than a paragraph at once without getting auto-logged-out): My point is mostly just, though, that your AC isn't going to stop the primary attacks much; if you really try to pump it up, you may get hit half the time by primaries, but your damage output will be lower than your enemy's and you won't have as much attack bonus to use for accuracy or Power Attacking.
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