Highest possible bonuses

[Doug McCrae]

AC = 10 (base) +8 (armor: bracers of armor) + 11 (dex) + 12 (wis) +5 (monk) +5 (natural armor) +10 (defense - two +5 kamas of defense or some other monk weapon) +1 (size) = 62

And a ring of protection +5.

 

[Zurai]

Mithral Tower Shield isn't a valid item. Mithral only works on items made primarily of metal, and core tower shields are wooden. There's a steel tower shield in a splat, but not in core.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I agree Monks can get much higher, but Richard had mentioned fighter type character, so I went by fighter.

I think the fighter would be better off wearing a monk's belt. Then he could get the benefit of a maxed dex and wisdom, bracers of armor and two defending weapons.

And Two-Weapon Defense for another +1.

 

[shilsen]

My primary concern at this moment is to make sure that my players can address the same CR encounters that characters in Core D&D can at the same level. As for balance between the classes I am not so worried...I am willing move quite a bit of stuff around to make it work.

In that case, I think a thread like this is going to be close to useless as far as helping you is concerned. Most considerations of the highest possible AC, attack bonuses, damage, saves, etc. tend to be niche cases which rarely, if ever, show up in play. I think you'd be much better off simply looking at the MM and a wide spread of creatures at each CR and estimating what your PCs' chances are of hitting, avoiding being hit, resisting its special abilities, etc. And if you're confident you can achieve balance between the classes, I recommend ignoring CR (don't award XP by CR either) and just using creatures that you figure will provide the degree of challenge you want, without worrying about the CR levels.

 

[mvincent]

Mithral Tower Shield isn't a valid item.

It's a reasonable adjudication. It would effectively be just a tower shield (i.e. same weight and AC bonus). For the purposes of this thread it shouldn't matter.

 

[Zurai]

It's a reasonable adjudication. It would effectively be just a tower shield (i.e. same weight and AC bonus). For the purposes of this thread it shouldn't matter.

It matters because Tower Shields have a maximum dexterity bonus just like armor does, and it's lower than the +3 from mithral full plate. So, using an (illegal in Core) mithral tower shield increases the maximum possible AC.

 

[Aestolia]

This is true, the Dex bonus difference of a wooden tower shield is 1...
so 44 instead of 45 with my initial break down,

 

[richardgobble]

Thanks for all the help guys.

I am now convinced that scaling my game acording to what is possible in D&D will be unrealistic.

Have a great holiday!