Give advice to improve my AC

[Sharkon]

I was making plans for a lvl 11 hero : Fighter 4 , Wizard 2, Abj Champion 5 and i want to play the roll of the tank in the party. By casting empowred geater mage armor and empowerd shield on my self and also by the help of some magic items along with the bonus from DEX i have a total of 38 AC. Can you help me improve this ? Should i take the combat expertise feat ? any other spell for AC bonus ?

 

[Shin Okada]

Empower Spell feat does not work for Greater Mage Armor nor Shield. Those spells give you fixed number of armor/shield bonus and thus, have no variable number to empower.

As you can gain Armor and Shield bonuses via those 2 spells, you should look for other types of bonuses to AC.

Dragonskin spell (Spell Compendium) gives you good amount of Enhancement Bonus to your Natural Armor bonus (+5 at caster level 10). It is a 10 min./level spell.

Deflection bonus is something hard to get for a mage. So, maybe you should rely on Ring of Protection.

And, AC is not the only defense for a mage (or fighter mage). Mirror Image/Greater Mirror Image (SC) are good spells against melee/ranged attacks. Also, you should better consider using spells which gives you some kind of miss-chance. Even 2nd-level Blur spell not only gives you 20% miss-chance but also makes you immune to sneak attack.

Spells like Death Armor (SC), Fire Shield and Acid Sheath (SC) will be good for a melee tank, too.

 

[Starbuck_II]

I was making plans for a lvl 11 hero : Fighter 4 , Wizard 2, Abj Champion 5 and i want to play the roll of the tank in the party. By casting empowred geater mage armor and empowerd shield on my self and also by the help of some magic items along with the bonus from DEX i have a total of 38 AC. Can you help me improve this ? Should i take the combat expertise feat ? any other spell for AC bonus ?

Do you have a Dusty Rose Ioun stone?

Are you good?
Abur Champ improves Luminance Armor bonus AC (abjur spell) (BoED source).
You should use that instead of G.M.A. since +12 is better than +6 (assuming Greater Luminance Armor).
You lose 1d3 Str but there is a magic item in MIC/lesser restoration both restore that.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I know this isn't answering your direct question; it's just an observation, as a DM ...

If you brought an AC 38 11th level PC into my game -- never mind trying to make it even higher -- I'd nuke you from orbit.

The average CR 11 creature has an attack bonus of around +17 to +20.

It takes an average CR 17 creature to hit AC 38 at about 50 percent. (Slightly less.)

And "nuke you from orbit" is the solution. The worst solution is that your DM is going to throw monsters so ridiculously powerful at you -- like, say, a CR 17 creature -- that the resr of your party is going to get squashed just because they're near you.

 

[Starbuck_II]

I know this isn't answering your direct question; it's just an observation, as a DM ...

If you brought an AC 38 11th level PC into my game -- never mind trying to make it even higher -- I'd nuke you from orbit.

The average CR 11 creature has an attack bonus of around +17 to +20.

It takes an average CR 17 creature to hit AC 38 at about 50 percent. (Slightly less.)

And "nuke you from orbit" is the solution. The worst solution is that your DM is going to throw monsters so ridiculously powerful at you -- like, say, a CR 17 creature -- that the resr of your party is going to get squashed just because they're near you.

Just give the monster Mage Slayer + Pierce Magic armor feat (whichever one goes through magic bonus to AC from spells).
Then the monster ignores every bonus but physical armor.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I know this isn't answering your direct question; it's just an observation, as a DM ...

If you brought an AC 38 11th level PC into my game -- never mind trying to make it even higher -- I'd nuke you from orbit.

I once played a PC who, at 3rd level, could hit AC 24 under certain circumstances...without items or HRs. Assuming boosting his AC an average of +1/Level over time, that's AC32 at 11th level. And this was a Monk.

AC38 for a front line fighter doesn't seem out of line to me.

 

[Freakohollik]

Remember, Mage Armor is not an abjuration spell and thus not improved by the abjurant armor class feature of an abjurant champion. The designer who wrote the class made a mistake there and the errata points out the error.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I once played a PC who, at 3rd level, could hit AC 24 under certain circumstances...without items or HRs. Assuming boosting his AC an average of +1/Level over time, that's AC32 at 11th level. And this was a Monk.

AC38 for a front line fighter doesn't seem out of line to me.

I also don't find it out of line. And the thing with an AC whore build (as my friends and I call it) is that you still need some way of getting enemies to attack you. I've had lots of PCs that went for massive AC, often sacraficing damage and hp in the pursuit of it, and I can say from experience...nothing feels worse than pimping out your defenses to the max, only to be utterly ignored as the enemies seemingly all attack your allies instead of you. All dressed up with nowhere to go, as it were.

 

[Pinotage]

The Deflect spell is quite useful for Deflection AC.

But others on this thread are right - try and cover all the various armor type bases (natural, deflection, armor, shield, sacred, insight, dexterity), and try and keep them longer lasting than an 11 minute Shield spell (even if Extended).

You might want to think of investing in a Mithral Buckler, that has no spellcasting penalty and can be pumped up to +5 eventually for not too expensive. Also, Alter Self if a great way to get +6 AC to natural from troglodyte. As also mentioned, avoidance is almost the best AC - spells like Mirror Image, Blink, Greater Invisibility, Displacement are very valuable.

Pinotage

 

[Shin Okada]

If you are going to be a party tank, and mainly using spells for defense, maybe Sorcerer is better than Wizard. What you need is plentiful of spell slots and not variety.