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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Empirate" data-source="post: 5436143" data-attributes="member: 78958">It's a known fact that attack bonuses rise with levels more quickly than AC. You can optimize your character to have a high AC, so he's difficult to hit even at mid to high levels - but it comes at a much higher cost than optimizing to, say, do enough damage to one-shot many monsters. It's just one of the facets of D&D 3.X.Nevertheless, investing in keeping your AC up to par is not bad in and of itself. Like others stated, defending from a Hill Giant's first attack at level 7 is hard to do, with his +16 attack bonus.His second attack only has a +11, though, so an AC of say, 23 (Dex 12, +1 Full Plate, Amulet of Natural Armor +1, and a Protection from Evil spell for good measure), will protect you with a better than even chance. The Giant will see you're well protected and likely not Power Attack like crazy.If you simply skipped the armor, however, you'd be an easy target even for the second attack with your AC 14, and you'd be facing a high Power Attack to smack you around a bit.Likewise, many fights include lots of mooks who're not really a threat individually, but act as meatshields for some big bad mofo. If you skimp on your AC, all those mooks will be able to hit you, and suddenly they're a real threat, instead of just being in the way.That said, in many cases it's better to invest in a high miss chance than in some minor AC boost. A Cloak of Displacement (Minor) costs 24,000 gp and protects you from one in five attacks that would normally hit you. A Ring of Blinking is even better: at 27,000 gp, it protects you from 50% of all incoming attacks, including spells, area effects and stuff like that.If you're a caster, Mirror Image (and the Greater variant) is the king of melee  defense, with Blink, Displacement, Blur, even Entropic Shield providing more options. This kind of miss chance doesn't stack - but in some cases, they're rolled separately (like Mirror Image plus Displacement plus Blink), making you nigh unhittable. And if your AC is at least good enough to not allow auto-hits, you're set.</blockquote>

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