Looking for some AC help

[rivers77]

Hey everyone,

I thought I'd throw a little dilemma out here that I've been having and see what you guys can come up with. I'm currently playing in a highly dangerous high powered campaign. My current AC is going to get my killed quick and I'm trying to find ways to increase it without deviating off the path I want the character to go.

Here is what I have so far:

Human Rogue 4 Swashbuckler 3 Fighter 2 Assassin 2 (I'd like to finish out levels in assassin based on the style of the character, but I'm willing to bend if there is a brilliant idea out there)

Stats:

Str 18 (w/ +4 belt)
Dex 19 (w/ +2 gloves)
Con 14
Int 20 (w/ +4 Ioun Stone)
Wis 12
Cha 16

AC items:

+1 Natural armor amulet
+3 Deflection cloak
+2 Mithiril Chain Mail that acts as light armor and adds up to +6 dex
+1 Dodge bonus from Swashbuckler (against 1 foe)

That puts me at a grand total of 25/26. I really get my butt handed to me every time we play, because I dish out some REALLY mean damage.

My first thought was to take Improved Buckler Defense as the next level feat (although I really want Darkstalker), but if I could manage a +4 or +5 Buckler shield, then I'd increase my AC by 5 or 6. I could try to get an animated shield, but that gets too high for the amount of coin I could spend.

Anyone got some ideas they can throw at me? I greatly appreciate the help.

 

[Dandu]

Cloak of Displacement, Minor. 20% miss chance against all attacks.

 

[rivers77]

Cloak of Displacement isn't a bad idea I suppose. It gives a 1 in 5 miss chance, but I just plain don't want to get hit. I want to raise my AC

 

[Dandu]

You might want to use more powerful base classes, such as the Swordsage from Tome of Battle, which makes a fantastic assassin. Here's a quick guide to ToB.

Off the cuff, I'd recommend Rogue1/Swashbuckler3/Swordsage5. Feats: Combat Expertise, Shadow Blade, and Adaptive Style are a must.

 

[rivers77]

My fault on this one, but I forgot to mention that the Tome of Battle has been ruled out. Swordsage is a great class and it would give me more will, which is what I need and Shadow Blade is just awesome. Add in Assassin stance and you got something.

 

[ValhallaGH]

The humble Fighting Defensively, stacked with your (unlisted) ranks in Tumble is a fast +AC at a measly -2 attack.

 

[AuraSeer]

Do you have any bonuses on your armor? Make sure you don't forget to enhance it. Splitting the money across multiple items gives you more bang for your buck.

That +5 buckler you mentioned would cost about 25k. For the same money you can get +4 armor (16k) and a +3 buckler (9k), which is two extra points of bonus. Counting the buckler's own nommagical bonus that would get you to a total AC of 33.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

A +5 Buckler (+6 AC), as noted, is 25k. A +1 Animated heavy shield (+3 AC) is 9k. A +3 animated heavy shield comes out the same, 25k, for +5 AC. One less point, but no feat expenditure. Why don't you think you can get the buckler, but not the animated shield?

I agree with aura, though, you should start enhancing your armor a few points (+2, I'd say). Then get a Dusty Rose Iuon Stone for a +1 Insight bonus to AC. It costs 5000 gp, cheaper than upgrading deflection or natural armor to +2 (2000-->8000, upgrade cost of 6000). Upgrading armor from +2 to +3 is also 5000, but insight applies to touch AC and armor doesn't, so give it priority.

@Valhalla: Fighting Defensively is a minus FOUR to attack, and with tumble ranks is +3 AC. Might be worth it, but most times he probably can't afford the attack penalty.

 

[Dandu]

You can TWF with a shield. Have shield spikes, or armor spikes as your offhand weapon.

 

[Empirate]

I'd still recommend getting a good combination of miss chance items instead of +AC items. I'll explain my reasoning:

Let's say you're facing a Young Adult Green Dragon (CR 11), which is a level-appropriate encounter for you. The Dragon has an attack bonus of +22, thus hits you on a roll of 4, meaning it has an 85% chance of hitting you. This obviously sucks.

Now say you have a little more cash those 25,000 gp that were mentioned, say 30,000. You could get your AC up to 34 (+3 armor enchantment: 9,000; +1 insight from ioun stone: 5,000; +3 from +1 animated heavy shield: ~9,000; +1 from increasing NA amulet to +2: 6,000; and 1,000 cash to spare).

The dragon now hits you on a roll of 12. Wow, that's 8 better! The dragon only has a 45% chance to hit you now! Well, we can do better than that.

If you buy a Ring of Blinking instead, which costs 27,000 gp, you'll have a flat 50% miss chance. The dragon in question still has to hit your AC and does so easily (on a 4), but now every hit can still be a miss. In fact, the dragon will have only a 42.5% to hit you! That's right, .85 times .50.

Note that the miss chance granted by Blink applies to touch attacks. It applies to area effects (like said dragon's breath weapon, or a Black Tentacles spell). It applies to targeted spells. It's, generally speaking, very very good.

Also, blinking lets you strike as an invisible creature, meaning auto-sneak attack. You can also walk through walls, or fall through the floor if you need to. And you can effectively engage ethereal opponents if you have to. You also save a little cash. The only drawback is that your attacks will miss 20% as well, but I think that drawback is easily mitigated by the advantages.



Note that miss chances cannot be stacked, but they do apply separately. For example, if you throw in a potion of Blur to the above, the whole gets multiplied by .80 again (dragon now has only 34% to hit you).