AC of your 10th lvl character?

[Thanee]

A sorcerer or wizard, polymorphed into an Annis Hag at this level could look at an impressive AC of 29 without Shield and other various bonuses:

10 base
-1 size
+1 Dex
+4 armor from Mage Armor
+10 natural armor
+5 enhancement to natural armor from Dragonskin

Bye
Thanee

 

[JRRNeiklot]

My 15th level Barbarian/Nentyar hunter/Vigilant had an ac of 20:

+2 chain shirt, ring of protection +2, dex 14.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Fighter/Rogue in my game has AC 21.

 

[Sammael]

It should be anywhere between 22 and 29, from my experience. More than that is munchkinism (as equal CR opponents have no chance whatsoever of hitting the character), less than that is suicidal (as he is getting hit all the time by creatures of CR four less than his level).

 

[Legildur]

I currently have an elven Ftr7/Pal6 character. Equipment has changed a little since 9th level.

But at 9th level it was:

+6 armor (+2 mithral chain shirt)
+3 shield (+2 buckler)
+5 Dex (Gauntlets of Dex +2)
+1 natural armor (amulet of natural armor +1)
+1 deflection (ring of protection +1)
+1 dodge (Dodge feat - house rule to apply against all opponents when not flat-footed)

= AC 27

But he also has Combat Expertise (and Whirlwind Attack <slobber>) and often uses that to the maximum for AC 32 and then Fighting Defensively (5 ranks in Tumble) to get 35, as he has attack bonus to spare.

Now 13th level and will collect Improved Combat Expertise (and now has a +4 buckler and +2 mithral breastplate), so that provides the option of getting to AC 46 with no external buffs. Divine Shield is also tempting to get ridiculous..... (18 Ch would make that AC 50)

 

[Aust Diamondew]

20-24 low end being non tanks high end being more melee oriented characters (though it's easy to make a character with much higher AC or a viable character with lower AC).

 

[LostSoul]

My 10th level Wizard had an AC of 19. And then 18, as I had to give up my ring of protection +1.

My 8th level Ranger had an AC of 21. I probably should have focused in Dex more than Str, so I could have had AC 23. He was killed by a Huge Air Elemental, so those extra 2 points wouldn't have helped at all. (An extra 2 points of Tumble would have saved me - why didn't I take 5 ranks of Jump! - or retreating on the first round instead of the second. )

 

[Rystil Arden]

It should be anywhere between 22 and 29, from my experience. More than that is munchkinism (as equal CR opponents have no chance whatsoever of hitting the character), less than that is suicidal (as he is getting hit all the time by creatures of CR four less than his level).

Considering that a full plate and tower shield fighter with no magic items at all and 12 Dex has 23 AC, I would say that your 'munchkin' limit is probably too low, though not by too much. Low 30s is doable, but anything much higher requires unusual combos or form changes.

 

[Errant]

Considering that a full plate and tower shield fighter with no magic items at all and 12 Dex has 23 AC, I would say that your 'munchkin' limit is probably too low, though not by too much. Low 30s is doable, but anything much higher requires unusual combos or form changes.

10th level fighter with default PC gold can afford +2 Full Plate, +2 Shield, +2 Ring of Protection, +2 Amulet of Natural Armor which grant AC 29 with Dex of 12. If you factor in Combat Expertise, maybe a Defender weapon you can bump it up to the 30's, but thats spending just over half your gold on defense, sacrificing a great deal of mobility and a lot of your damage output (the more you use combat expertise the less you'll hit things). Hard to match if you can't wear full armor too.

I agree with Sammael and Thannee, mid-twenties (if that) is the best most classes can hope to achieve at L10.

I think by L10 AC is starting falling behind common attack bonuses, which I find depressing. Basically, unless you choose your character classes for the AC bonuses (bad luck if you wanted to be "well rounded") they give you, you are going to get hit regularly. Often for big chunks of your max hps.

 

[Rystil Arden]

10th level fighter with default PC gold can afford +2 Full Plate, +2 Shield, +2 Ring of Protection, +2 Amulet of Natural Armor which grant AC 29 with Dex of 12.

You forgot a tower shield, which is why I said low 30s. Also Mithral Full Plate and Dex 16 can help too, but I didn't include that.

I think by L10 AC is starting falling behind common attack bonuses, which I find depressing. Basically, unless you choose your character classes for the AC bonuses (bad luck if you wanted to be "well rounded") they give you, you are going to get hit regularly. Often for big chunks of your max hps.

At high levels, AC is to avoid Power Attack and iteratives.