The AC on a Budget challenge

[Grogg of the North]

An attempt.

Budget: 100,000
Spent: 98,357
Remaining: 1,643*

Gloves of Dex +4 (Bump his dex to 20)
+5 Mithril Breastplate
Dusty Rose Ioun Stone
Ring of Deflection +3
Crimson Dragonhide Bracers enhanced to +3 (MIC)**
Animated Large Shield***
Animal Companion with Assist Trick (CAdv)

Total AC 37

Notes:
*If we make all his gear Ranger Only you have 29,843 gp remaining.
**This assumes that your DM will let you continue to enhance the natural armor part of the bracers, otherwise use an amulet of natural armor or make a shirt of natural armor per the MIC rules.
***If he's a twf ranger, he could use a bashing spiked shield in his off hand and gain back some money. If he has Oversized Two Weapon Fighting he can have a heavy shield in the off-hand.


Now that I've optimized for the day, I feel dirty and need to go take a shower.

 

[Greenfield]

Anyone know the actual price for Glassteel? It's from one of the Eberon books, if I recall correctly, and the notation says it's an alchemical process and that it's expensive.

What it doesn't say is what the DC is for the Craft - Alchemy check, or what the price of the stuff is as a special material. (You need the price, in some form, to calculate the time needed to craft it).

I'm just daydreaming ways to apply some of this stuff for the Druid/Ranger in the game. Darkwood or Glassteel are ways to bypass the Druid's "no metal armor" limitation.

 

[Keldin]

Anyone know the actual price for Glassteel? It's from one of the Eberon books, if I recall correctly, and the notation says it's an alchemical process and that it's expensive.

What it doesn't say is what the DC is for the Craft - Alchemy check, or what the price of the stuff is as a special material. (You need the price, in some form, to calculate the time needed to craft it).

I don't know if it shows up in Eberron or not, but it does show up in the Forgotten Realms. Races of Faerun, page 158, to be exact. Here are the prices from there:

Glassteel Item	Enhancement Bonus	Price
Light Armor	+1	+9,000gp
Medium Armor	+2	+16,000gp
Heavy Armor	+3	+25,000gp
Shield	+1	+4,000gp
1d4/1d6 Weapon	+1	+1,500gp/lb
1d8/1d10/1d12 Weapon	+2	+2,500gp/lb
Other Items	----	+1,000gp/lb

It doesn't specify DC to create, however. About all it says is "Weapons and armor fashioned from glassteel are treated as masterwork items with regard to creation times, but the masterwork quality does not affect the enhancement bonus of weapons nor the armor check penalty of armor."

 

[Jackinthegreen]

The neat advantage is, it's a Dodge bonus so it stacks with everything

Incorrect. The item copies the monk's Wis to AC ability ("This AC bonus functions just like the monk’s AC bonus."), which is explicitly called out as boosting flat-footed and touch AC and can be verified here. It's basically an untyped bonus.

However, I definitely wouldn't use a monk's belt here. It is mutually exclusive with other AC-boosting items and thus makes optimizing AC difficult when we're trying to get as many bonuses as possible within a certain budget.

It might work with a druid depending on how high his Wis was (and what natural armor his form had), but the beastskin enhancement (MiC 7) would allow the druid to wear armor while wild shaped.

 

[Grogg of the North]

Anyone know the actual price for Glassteel? It's from one of the Eberon books, if I recall correctly, and the notation says it's an alchemical process and that it's expensive.

What it doesn't say is what the DC is for the Craft - Alchemy check, or what the price of the stuff is as a special material. (You need the price, in some form, to calculate the time needed to craft it).

I'm just daydreaming ways to apply some of this stuff for the Druid/Ranger in the game. Darkwood or Glassteel are ways to bypass the Druid's "no metal armor" limitation.

Don't forget to look in the Arms and Equipment Guide. Elven Darkleaf can get you around the "no-metal" issues. Chitin can too, but it's ridiculously expensive.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

The reason my mind goes to miss chance on discussions about AC, is because there are too many ways to get hit that ignores AC.

Touch attacks get thru many AC options. Reflex, Fortitude and Will saves don't care about your AC at all, except some AC will lower your reflex saves if it's holding DEX back.

I generally assume that when someone is considering "high AC", they equate it with "not getting hit", and so I try to address the root instead of the question. I apologize if I assumed incorrectly.

 

[Asmo]

One problem with the Ring of Blinking is that it also gives our Ranger a 50% miss chance.

I thought the miss chance was 20%?

 

[Cyclone_Joker]

*If we make all his gear Ranger Only you have 29,843 gp remaining.

...Yes, but if you're doing that, why not just get a spellclock or two and be done with it?

I thought the miss chance was 20%?

Well, given that it's zero against anything that's actually threatening to the party at this level, I, at least, honestly don't see too much of a difference.

Also, why in the name of the Burning Hate would you multiclass Druid with Ranger of all things?

 

[Grogg of the North]

I thought the miss chance was 20%?

MIss chance against you is typically 50% because of Blink. If your opponent can see invisible it's 20%. Your miss chance is 20% because sometimes you go ethereal just as you attack or complete your spell.

...Yes, but if you're doing that, why not just get a spellclock or two and be done with it?

Also, why in the name of the Burning Hate would you multiclass Druid with Ranger of all things?

Well a typical spell clock doesn't have a lot of AC boosting spells in it. And if your spell isn't going to activate until noon, it doesn't do you any good to be fighting an opponent at 10. And because I had no idea what it was until I googled it.

Also Druid/Ranger makes good sense from "I'm Mr. Nature" point of view. And because of Roleplaying. And, most importantly, it's his character.

 

[Cyclone_Joker]

Well a typical spell clock doesn't have a lot of AC boosting spells in it.

...If you can't solve every single problem with a single spellclock, you're not trying.

And if your spell isn't going to activate until noon, it doesn't do you any good to be fighting an opponent at 10.

...And you do realize there's no restriction on frequency, right?

Also Druid/Ranger makes good sense from "I'm Mr. Nature" point of view.

No, it really doesn't.

And because of Roleplaying. And, most importantly, it's his character.

Metagame constructs. What is this, 2007?