Help with defense against touch attacks!

[Bouncer]

Hi!

Please help a poor (no money) fighter to defend himself against nasty touch attacks of undead. Does expertsie work? What if he takes a level of mage to read shield spell from scrolls? Does dodge help? What about fighting defensively? Maybe he could take one level of cleric and use shield of faith and protection from evil to defend himself against such attacks.

Does any of above tactis work? Maybe other tactis are available?

Please advise,
thanks.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Hi!

Please help a poor (no money) fighter to defend himself against nasty touch attacks of undead. Does expertsie work? What if he takes a level of mage to read shield spell from scrolls? Does dodge help? What about fighting defensively? Maybe he could take one level of cleric and use shield of faith and protection from evil to defend himself against such attacks.

Does any of above tactis work? Maybe other tactis are available?

Please advise,
thanks.

To defend against touch attacks, you need to look for the following things:

High Dex: Dex bonuses are effective against undead. Try to get the party wizzie to cast Cat's Grace on you. Or you might get a scroll or wand of it.

Force Armor: Armor from force effects is effective against touch attacks. This means that the 1st-level spell Mage Armor is a good defense from touch attacks. If you took a level of Psion or Psychic Warrior, you'd also have access to the psionic feat Inertial Armor, which is basically a continuous Mage Armor effect.

Cover: Cover is effective against touch attacks. Consider the Shield spell (you would need a level of wizzie for this), or get yourself a tower shield.

Deflection: Deflection bonuses are effective against touch attacks. Get yourself a Ring of Protection. The spell Protection from Evil also provides a +2 Deflection bonus. You could take a level of wizzie to get this, or try and get the party wizzie to cast it for you. If you purchased him a 1st-level Pearl of Power (cheap at 1000gp!) he'd probably be willing to dedicate that Pearl to having a Protection from Evil ready for you, as well as himself.

Dodge Bonuses: Dodge bonuses stack, and are effective against touch attacks. Consider the feat Dodge. Also, both Expertise and Fighting Defensively provide a dodge bonus that is effective against touch attacks, though I don't believe the two (expertise and fighting defensively) can be used at the same time.

 

[Bauglir]

5 ranks in tumble will allow you more of a benefit from taking a full defensive stance, with the downside that you can't attack when taking a full defence.

If you want to completely max out touch AC you might want to look at taking off all armour and relying on other things to boost your AC

- Take a level of Monk for the wisdom bonus
- Mage Armour/ Shield
- Cats grace
- Protection from Evil
- Dodge/Mobility/Expertise/Fighting defensively

Off the top of my head, using those abilities you could get an AC of (lets assume a starting dex & wis of 16)

10 + 3 dex + 3 wis + 2 cg + 4 MA + 7 Shield + 2 Prot Evil + 1 dodge + 6 tumble w/full defence

= AC 38 vs touch attacks

Just pray you don't meet someone with dispel magic

 

[Darklone]

Don't rely on cover and shield spells...

Especially incorporeal undeads will simply go around or through it.

 

[Bauglir]

Shield

Abjuration [Force]
Level: Sor/Wiz 1
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Personal
Target: The character
Duration: 1 minute/level (D)

Not through Shield they won't

As for moving around it well anyone can do that, but they'll be giving up full attack actions to do so, as well as most likely provoking multiple attacks of opportunity. What they're more likely to do is just ignore the one they can't hit and kill his friends instead.

Herein lies the problem with a defensive fighter in a group context

 

[Bouncer]

As long as my fighter survives the onslaugt (temple of elemental evil), I have no problem with defensive actions.

To sum up, my fighter should use expertise and level 1 spells mage armour and shield to defend himself the best way against unexpected undead attacks. This way he will have mage armour scrolls used previous to entering the battle area and uses shield scrolls as soon as undeads show their nasty faces. This together with expertise gives him AC equal to:

Mage Armour(+4) + shield(+7) + dex (+1) + expertise (+5) + dodge (+1) = 28

Thanks for your advices.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Note that Mage Armor only protects against Incorporeal Touch Attacks, not against Touch Attacks.

For example, it will protect against a wraith's incorporeal touch, but not against the Paralyzing Touch from a Mohrg's tongue.

As for the Shield spell - a 5' step will get them around it with no AoO and no sacrifice of a full attack action.

-Hyp.

 

[Bauglir]

Shield covers against half the battlefield. This is a whole can o'worms of course . My interpretation is that it covers 4 of the 8 squares from which you can be attacked. Now assuming the defending player rotates the Shield to face the opponent each time their initiative comes up then they would have to move at least 2 squares to get around it, or move diagonally through the player's own square. I'm not sure if this second case is covered under the rules, but personally I would rule that it is not possible for an incorporeal opponent to do this, as they would need to pass through the Shield effect to do so.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Shield covers against half the battlefield. This is a whole can o'worms of course . My interpretation is that it covers 4 of the 8 squares from which you can be attacked.

That's fine, but there's nothing to stop you making a diagonal 5' step :

A B C
D E F
G H I

... from B to F, say, if your opponent is in E.

Whether you're incorporeal or not, and whether your opponent has a shield spell or, indeed, a tower shield, you can make that step if B and F are both empty squares. Even if there's someone standing in C.

-Hyp.

 

[Bauglir]

That's allowed then?

That seriously reduces the effectiveness of Shield in melee.
Which is fair enough - Shield is very powerful.

I suppose the defending fighter could be taking 5ft steps away from the enemy each round. That would force it to either put up with the Shield or move & lose full attack...