That never ending quest for more AC

[Mystery Man]

Once again my players have vanquished their enemies and carried off a rather large haul. Granted some of that was spent on bringing a couple of them back from the dead. But with what is left undoubtedly they'll end up spending on something really boring like upping their AC. Thus my dilemma, I'm taxed beyond my abilities right now to challenge them in a non-AC involving way. Basically my intent is to show them that all the armor in the world can't help you against other dangers that are out there and they should be prepared for a wide variety of things. I have to accept some of the resposibilty for this having lately become somewhat lazy in my encounters involving bigger creatures just smacking them with large blunt and/or sharpened objects. So, encounters that don't involve big brutes with weapons running into my impervious PC's covered head to toe in magical and non-magical armor would be good here.

In other words..help me hurt them badly.

Thanks

 

[fredramsey]

Spellcasters.

Mind Flayers.

Spellcasters.

Beholders.

Spellcasters.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Half-Illithid Ghost beholder wizard.

AR

 

[diaglo]

incorporeal.

touch attacks

ray attacks

traps

gas attacks

breath weapons

sonic boom

acid that melts AC

rust monster with half-dragon template

 

[fredramsey]

Oh, yeah. And force them to swim...

 

[drdevoid]

Entangling attacks (web, entangle, net, tanglefoot bag)

Tripping with whips or guisarmes (by Giants!)

Hampered movement due to terrain or caltrops (extra rounds of ranged attacks)

Ray and Area spells (Dispel!)

 

[francisca]

rust monster with half-dragon template

.....sick little mind you got there!!!!!

Mystery Man-

I'd caution you against going too far with this. Teaching players a lesson can sometimes lead to a vicious cycle of one-upsmanship, and could have some negative effects on your game.

On the other, there is nothing wrong with trotting out challenges which take advantage of the weaknesses the party exhibits, as long as it doesn't turn into a "hose the players" scenario, either real or percieved.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Mind affecting attacks all around. Turn their cerebellums to jell-o and they're just snacks on the half-shell for the bad guys.

 

[DanMcS]

What level are they? At high levels, AC is basically good for keeping the enemy mooks and secondary iterative attacks from hitting you; you can never keep up with the main bad guys' main attacks. To put it another way, a fighters of a given level can always hit with his first attack. In our last game, I had a monk that (through the vagaries of a Deck of Many Things) ended up being 5 levels higher than the party, and higher even than the main bad guy. Had an obscene AC, and it just didn't matter.

And for many types of bad guys, AC is irrelevant. Wizards hit your saving throws, not your AC. Harm is a touch attack. Large monsters that grapple use your touch AC. CR-appropriate monsters have high BAB and strength and can hit you anyway.

I always found con-buffing items to be more relatively useful than AC buffing items. When the enemy is hitting AC 30 on his touch attack, my AC didn't matter, but my hit points kept me in the game.

 

[Talmun]

Check out the hazards in the DMG

Also

Forstburn is accomplishing what you're looking for in my group as we speak, (as an unintended side-effect); extremely cold weather has the effect of chill metal on armor, for instance...