How do you beef up AC to Eladrin Wizard?

[Labon]

Thanks guys! Great information and I appreciate every bit of it. I don't yet have the PH 2 and 3, but they're on the list. Can't wait to get my wizard started! I'm sure I'll have more questions!

We have a small party and lack a strong defender so that is why I'm interested in gaining some AC.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Staff as your primary implement, and Unarmoured Agility or Leather Armour Proficiency should be more than enough. AC17 at first level and rising from there.

 

[Lord Phoenix]

i personally dont worry too much on boosting my ac with wizards because luckily the group i adventure with is mostly meatwalls, which leaves me with focusing on damage output... sometimes the best defense is a good offense!

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

If you do have no relable defender, you still don't want to boost you AC too far, otherwise you'll just be encouraging the monsters to attack the other squishy players, rather than sharing out the harm to the whole party.

Remember, its a team game, and what matters is how the team does, not your individual character.

 

[DracoSuave]

In my book that just shows what a mess they made with PHB3, the whole point with masterwork armour was to put the heavy armour wearers ahead on AC, then they go and add unarmored agility and hafted defense to PHB3 to make it more advantagous to not wear armour.

Sorry but PHB3 is just a mess.

Is this observation based on mathematics, or on speculation?

Heavy Armor's purpose is not to be better than light armor, it's to give characters who don't advance their dexterity or intellegence the opportunity to scale their armor as they go up in levels.

Assuming 18 in Dex/Int for light armor....

Cloth is the worst, at 14 AC
Leather and chain are tied, at 16 AC
Hide and scale are tied, at 17 AC
Plate is the best, at 18 AC.

At +4 (which you should start getting by level 14), light armor gives +1 from Masterwork, but you should have increased your primary attribute 4 times, giving another +2. This is a total of +3. Coincidentally, that's the bonus you get from masterwork heavy armor.

At +6 (end game), light armor gives +2 from masterwork, and you have increased your att by 4 for a total of +6. Heavy masterwork armor? +6.

Unarmored Defense only brings you to parity against leather.

Also Hafted Defense? Useful for wizards... yes. But then again, it's also useful for Polearm Gamble builds. And... it does the same ac difference as Shield prof... same bonus type.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

In my book that just shows what a mess they made with PHB3, the whole point with masterwork armour was to put the heavy armour wearers ahead on AC, then they go and add unarmored agility and hafted defense to PHB3 to make it more advantagous to not wear armour.

Sorry but PHB3 is just a mess.

Interestingly, a Wizard could just as well pick Leather Armor and Light Shield Proficiency for the same benefit. He could even keep using his Staff since it's one-handed if you merely use it as implement. Might be better to use a Wand, Orb or Tome though. Same number of feats.

Going that route, if he later feels dissatisfied with his Armor Class, he could also takeHeavy Shield Proficiency and Shield Specialiation. Is there an Armor Specialisation feat for Leather Armor? If not, he could take Hide Armor and then the specialsation feat for that. If you pick Unarmed Agility and Hafted Defense, you're locked out of these choices.

Mustrum "Adds some more singing to the choir" Ridcully

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Interestingly, a Wizard could just as well pick Leather Armor and Light Shield Proficiency for the same benefit. He could even keep using his Staff since it's one-handed if you merely use it as implement. Might be better to use a Wand, Orb or Tome though. Same number of feats.

Going that route, if he later feels dissatisfied with his Armor Class, he could also takeHeavy Shield Proficiency and Shield Specialiation. Is there an Armor Specialisation feat for Leather Armor? If not, he could take Hide Armor and then the specialsation feat for that. If you pick Unarmed Agility and Hafted Defense, you're locked out of these choices.

Mustrum "Adds some more singing to the choir" Ridcully

Might as well add in Eladrin Sword Wizardy and he can replace wand with sword and we have a wizard that looks like a lightly armed fighter.
Could be useful in Dark Sun.

 

[igniz13]

Thanks guys! Great information and I appreciate every bit of it. I don't yet have the PH 2 and 3, but they're on the list. Can't wait to get my wizard started! I'm sure I'll have more questions!

We have a small party and lack a strong defender so that is why I'm interested in gaining some AC.

Well don't forget your other defences, what implement mastery are you going for?

There are some other options and considerations that would apply to your situation.

1) Heavy Control Powers will help save lives and screw up the enemy. Aim for those rather than pure damage ones.

2) Stealth, and Initiative.

You're an Eladrin, you've got a bonus skill to pick, it could be stealth. Stealth will help you survive, gain surprise rounds and even CA and is strangely useful for a Wizard, especialy one working only from the PHB. If you're going for Eladrin, your dex score might be high giving you the potential to strike first in combat as well. This could be an important tactic as it'll give you a shot at re-shaping the battle field before the enemy have a chance to act.

3) Failing Stealth being suitable for your character, Diplomacy and Intimidate might work.

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Going that route, if he later feels dissatisfied with his Armor Class, he could also takeHeavy Shield Proficiency and Shield Specialiation. Is there an Armor Specialisation feat for Leather Armor? If not, he could take Hide Armor and then the specialsation feat for that. If you pick Unarmed Agility and Hafted Defense, you're locked out of these choices.

Yes, he could certainly go that route - but it would be quite challenging to find the points to do that without other, more useful, attributes suffering.

As he needs the following stats to go up that feat "tree":
- armour proficiency (leather): --
- shield proficiency (light): Str 13
- armour proficiency (hide): Str 13, Con 13
- shield proficiency (heavy): Str 15
- armour specialisation (hide): Con 15
- shield specialisation: Dex 15 [doesn't stack with armour specialisation though]

So, to go that route, the wizard needs Str 15, Dex 15, Con 13 if they go shield specialisation, Str 15, Con 15 if they go armour specialisation. Neither is a given wizard likely to have prior to epci without their Int suffering for it. Needing a decent Str AND Con, both which pump the same NAD and are otherwise generally useless for a wizard hurts.

That said, the same "build" with a Dragon Sorceror could get a pretty darn decent AC without the nerfing their primary stat... still a huge feat commitment, though... eating up most of your feats if you want to have your high AC by the time you hit paragon.