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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6618796" data-attributes="member: 6787650">As a general rule, when someone expresses an opinion which is obvious idiocy, you can put it down to one of two causes. Either:1.) They're an idiot, or2.) You're misunderstanding them.I am not an idiot. Ergo, when I say that (shadow) monks have excellent survivability, you can be pretty sure that I'm not talking about their AC because that would be an idiotic opinion: monk AC maxes out at AC 20 at the very highest levels, whereas a fighter or paladin can (in theory) start with an AC of 21 at first level, or in practice whenever he finds plate armor/maxes Dex, whichever comes first (probably by 6th level at the latest).Monks have excellent survivability because AC is a relatively poor defense. (Shadow) monks rely on mobility, stealth, and ranged combat to survive and hammer the enemy. (Is this the thread where we talked about hammre/anvil?) They have excellent saves and good AC, but in all cases a better defense than AC is not to be targetted in the first place. I would hesitate to send an AC 25 paladin into a nest of 400 giant ants alone, because even if he gets hit only 5% of the time, he's still going to be taking 4 to 8 points of damage every round and dead in a minute. (If he Dodges he'll get hit only 0.25% of the time and last quite a bit longer, but if he's spending all his time dodging he can't hit back, and once one of the ants grapples him he is toast: no dodge and no escape.) I would have no hesitation at all about sending an AC 18 Wood Elf Shadow Monk with Mobile into the exact same situation, and it's not because AC 18 is better than AC 25.I'm not an idiot.</blockquote>

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