The "I'm going to get hit no matter what my AC is" philosphy

[Ao the Overkitty]

The person in our group with the best AC is the Monk (especially if he can get a Mage Armor from the Sorcerer).

His AC has gotten upwards of 40 with careful planning.

 

[silentspace]

Adamantine plate might be a good option too.

 

[mmadsen]

My Full-plate is +1 Glamoured because in the area our game is set in, it is considered quite wussy to be a Noble (which all of our characters are) and wear full-plate.

Huh? Who else would wear full-plate armor but aristocratic heavy cavalry (i.e. knights)?

 

[Pants]

Huh? Who else would wear full-plate armor but aristocratic heavy cavalry (i.e. knights)?

These could be foppish dueling nobles.

 

[Numion]

I'm wondering if others have found this to be true.

Not really. Dragons, elementals and few other types have very high AB's regularly, but usually my players have managed to set their ACs up very nicely. But I play with damn munchkins

 

[Unseelie]

The extra AC is always worth it... the smaller things can miss, and those big giants and dragons that are 'guaranteed' hits? Well, that's really only the first strike and if they power attack, they may just miss.

Never give a dragon a chance to Power Attack for +20... or have a good AC if they do.

 

[Sir Whiskers]

AC is very important because of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th swipes at you (-5,-10,-15 to hit).

Also, for those really tough fights, get a displacement or blink potion (50% miss chance).

A couple good points here:

1) AC is never worthless, due to iterative attacks.

2) At higher levels, items and spells which create miss chances will tend to be more effective than simple AC. Blur, displacement, and concealment can make a huge difference, especially against high-BAB opponents such as giants.

 

[orchid blossom]

Huh? Who else would wear full-plate armor but aristocratic heavy cavalry (i.e. knights)?

I play in the same campaign as AO, I'm the sorcerer.

The campaign is in a pseudo-Scottish setting. The rationale behind full-plate being wussy is basically the "Hey, I'm a big, tough, hairy guy, and if you can dish it, I can take it!" philosophy. Full plate is seen in times of war. But just wearing it when traveling into the city or wandering around your estates is considered cowardly. (And believe me, we need protection even on our own estates. Damn assassins.)

Think of the battles in Braveheart. The English had all their armor, the nobles their full plate. The Scots had kilts and shields, and mooned the English. Can't moon the enemy in full plate.

My suggestion is to get a dex item. His character has no dex modifier. It may only add +1, but sometimes it's that +1 that saves you.

 

[Felon]

1) AC is never worthless, due to iterative attacks.

Well, if you're fighting other warriors with class levels, then that's true. However, a big part of the problem is that in the case of monsters, secondary attacks all only take a -5 penalty, and even that's easily reduced to -2 with the Multiattack feat (which monsters with multiple attacks tend to have). Then there's the fact that many monsters don't even have secondary attacks, but rather a large number of primary attacks all at their best attack bonus (e.g. 4 claws or 6 bites).

The thing is, this isn't some flaw that the designers dropped the ball on. This is part of their basic design. As player-characters gain levels, they are supposed to depend more on hit points (and healing) than AC to survive. Combat would bog down and last forever at higher levels if hits didn't exceed misses by a large margin. That's the theory anyway.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I call it the "My Hit Points Are My Armor" philosophy.

It depends a lot on what the DM like to throw at you. Some DMs prefer a single powerful creature at a time because it is easier to handle -- that bad boy is going to hit you almost every time unless you really optimize your AC. Some DMs like a number of weaker creatures -- these do miss but it hardly matters because a high offense PC can vaporize one of these singlehandedly in 1 1/2 rounds; with good tactical play your AC will not be all that important.

While the primary may 'always' hit, it doesn't take much to have a good chance of avoiding the followup iterative attacks. Of course you could adopt a fightstyle where you simply deny your enemy iterative attacks in the first place.