High AC without magic/magic items?

[sukael]

What sorts of builds have you guys come up with for achieving (ridiculously?) high ACs without magic or magic items?

Here's one of mine:

Mountain plate (10) + two broadblade short swords (2+2) + Exotic Weapon Proficiency (broadblade short sword) + Two-Weapon Fighting + Two-Weapon Defense (1) + Heavy Armor Optimization (1) + Greater Heavy Armor Optimization (1) + Combat Expertise (5) + Cobalt Expertise (1) + Shield Specialization (1) + fighting defensively (2) = AC 25, without magic (and a nicely low ACP, if the mountain plate is made from mithral).

That-all can be done with a level 8 fighter, if I've got it set up right.

A bit higher level and add Wild Talent, Focused Shield, and Deflective Armor, and that's touch AC 26.

 

[Sound of Azure]

That's pretty cool.

Broadblade shortswords were errata'd to only give a +1 bonus though , FYI.

 

[Orm]

If you have 5 or more ranks in Tumble, you gain a +3 dodge bonus to AC when fighting defensively instead of the usual +2 dodge bonus to AC.
If you have 5 or more ranks in Tumble, you gain a +6 dodge bonus to AC when executing the total defense standard action instead of the usual +4 dodge bonus to AC.

Orm

 

[hong]

What sorts of builds have you guys come up with for achieving (ridiculously?) high ACs without magic or magic items?

Here's one of mine:

Mountain plate (10) + two broadblade short swords (2+2) + Exotic Weapon Proficiency (broadblade short sword) + Two-Weapon Fighting + Two-Weapon Defense (1) + Heavy Armor Optimization (1) + Greater Heavy Armor Optimization (1) + Combat Expertise (5) + Cobalt Expertise (1) + Shield Specialization (1) + fighting defensively (2) = AC 25, without magic (and a nicely low ACP, if the mountain plate is made from mithral).

That-all can be done with a level 8 fighter, if I've got it set up right.

A bit higher level and add Wild Talent, Focused Shield, and Deflective Armor, and that's touch AC 26.

Full plate + large shield + Combat Expertise = AC 25. ITYM AC 35.

Also, what's Cobalt Expertise?

 

[Rystil Arden]

Full plate + large shield + Combat Expertise = AC 25. ITYM AC 35.

Also, what's Cobalt Expertise?

Anything that starts with a variant of something blue must be Incarnum--it was WotC's "Blue Period"

 

[Legildur]

I'm sure that there are more options out there and better selections to be made for AC optimization, but I created a gnome Ftr1/Pal4 for a one shot.

(ignoring enhancement bonuses):

+8 Fullplate
+4 Tower Shield
+1 Dex
+1 Dodge
+1 size (small)
+4 versus medium or larger (Titan Fighting (Races of Stone))

AC 29

His attack bonus wasn't fantastic, but he had the Goad feat to suck in the bruisers and try and absorb the damage with the high AC and hit points (19 Con).

I guess if you substituted Ftr levels for Pal, then you could take some exotic armor and heavy armor specialisation or shield specialisation to bump it up a little further, and then Combat Expertise.

So, even without an exotic armor your could punch it up to AC 36 against medium-sized or larger opponents.

 

[sukael]

That's pretty cool.

Broadblade shortswords were errata'd to only give a +1 bonus though , FYI.

Whups!

If you have 5 or more ranks in Tumble, you gain a +3 dodge bonus to AC when fighting defensively instead of the usual +2 dodge bonus to AC.
If you have 5 or more ranks in Tumble, you gain a +6 dodge bonus to AC when executing the total defense standard action instead of the usual +4 dodge bonus to AC.

Oho.

Anything that starts with a variant of something blue must be Incarnum--it was WotC's "Blue Period"

Yep!

So poking at my setup...

Base (10) + mountain plate (10) + tower shield (4) + Heavy Armor Optimization (1) + Greater Heavy Armor Optimization (1) + Combat Expertise (5) + Cobalt Expertise (1) + Shield Specialization (1) + Titan Fighting (4 vs medium or large) + fighting defensively (3) + size (1)= AC 41, without magic. (apparently I forgot the base AC the first time.)

Needs 4 ftr bonus feats, 2 non (I think), so that'd be doable by level 6 for a gnome fighter, I think (with an extra feat left at the end, no less).

(Take Wild Talent with this, then Deflective Armor at 9th, and that turns into touch AC 36.)

 

[Elethiomel]

For it to be workable at level 6 you need a level in a class with Tumble as a class skill - you can't get 5 ranks in Tumble if it's cross-class only before level 7.

 

[moritheil]

I'd quote my own infamous AC threads to help, but I fear that I would actually be forced to read them.

Elethiomel brings up a good point, and one that actually came up a while back when I was tweaking a 6th-level build. (One can always burn a feat to get it as a class skill, as you know, but that tends to be inefficient.)

 

[brehobit]

If you toss in VoP you can do cool things.

Come to think of it, you can do nice things by playing a race with high natural armor.

I'm currently working on a 32 point-build ECL 7 worg.
Worg swordsage 2

VoP +6 armor, +1 deflection
Dex +4 AC
Wisdom +4 AC
Natural armor +2 AC

AC=27.
And he'll have a rider with mounted combat and a ride of 15, so some attacks that hit AC 27 might still miss.

(Yes, I know RAW swordsages only get Wisdom to AC in light (but not no) armor. I'm assuming that's a typo.)

The worg is for the RHoD game I'm running, he'll be evil, but have the same stats. Icky crazy powerful, but my PCs are so maxed out it seems fair.

Mark