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Alvrick
2010-05-25, 02:06 AM
so, I was sitting here looking at the character sheet of my level 10 fighter (don't worry, he has more classes than just that) and I got to thinking, what's the most you could get out of an armor class by level 20?

I'm no optimizer, so I wouldn't know where to start, but I was wondering what all the crazy things you could do to improve the armor class of a melee centric character are. What is the highest you can get your AC by level 20?

Temotei
2010-05-25, 02:07 AM
so, I was sitting here looking at the character sheet of my level 10 fighter (don't worry, he has more classes than just that) and I got to thinking, what's the most you could get out of an armor class by level 20?

I'm no optimizer, so I wouldn't know where to start, but I was wondering what all the crazy things you could do to improve the armor class of a melee centric character are. What is the highest you can get your AC by level 20?

I think it was between one hundred and 186. I'm not clear on that. :smallamused:

arguskos
2010-05-25, 02:08 AM
Think it's higher than that Temotei, but that's just a guess. After around 80 it doesn't really matter (the Tarrasque attacks on a +57, for reference).

Temotei
2010-05-25, 02:18 AM
Think it's higher than that Temotei, but that's just a guess.

Probably. I'd guess it ends around...infinity. Pun-Pun. Oh, wait. Infinity isn't a number. Err...it never ends!

Seriously, though. With anything that doesn't use infinite loops, I think the highest would be in the mid-hundreds, but don't quote me on that. I searched for the build for a short while, but I'm sleepy. I found nothing.

PId6
2010-05-25, 02:34 AM
You can easily get an AC of NI, but I'm not sure if it's possible to get truly infinite on a continual basis. Omnificer loop and, say, Baffling Defenses lets you get infinite AC vs a single attack, but only on one attack. If there's a spell that lets you convert a skill check into AC, that would be truly infinite, but I don't know of any offhand.

So answer: NI or truly infinite, depending on whether you want it for longer than one instant.

PId6
2010-05-25, 02:47 AM
Does riding count?
Mounted Combat only works 1/round, if that's what you mean. Still not continuous.

IonDragon
2010-05-25, 02:51 AM
Well, let's see what we've got.

Polymorph into a Horned Devil (19 nat armor -1 size)
Dragon Skin (+5 Enhance nat armor)
Robe of Armor (+8)
Magic Vestment (+5 Enhance)
Shield (+4-9) (Abjurant Champion 5 gives +5 to abjuration AC boost spells)
Dex (+6? Shouldn't be too hard by level 20)
Foresight (+2 Insight)
Haste (+1 Dodge)
Holy Aura (+4 Diflection)

That's 63-68 and almost all core.

Alleine
2010-05-25, 02:59 AM
Depends how long it takes me to get there.

Cancer Mage + Vile Rigidity gives you a stacking +1 Nat armor every day you have it. Also depending on what you can get away with, you may not even need Cancer Mage. I saw a thread awhile back discussing how +stat items were affected by stat penalties and damage.

Bharg
2010-05-25, 04:23 AM
Well, let's see what we've got.

Polymorph into a Horned Devil (19 nat armor -1 size)
Dragon Skin (+5 Enhance nat armor)
Robe of Armor (+8)
Magic Vestment (+5 Enhance)
Shield (+4-9) (Abjurant Champion 5 gives +5 to abjuration AC boost spells)
Dex (+6? Shouldn't be too hard by level 20)
Foresight (+2 Insight)
Haste (+1 Dodge)
Holy Aura (+4 Diflection)

That's 63-68 and almost all core.

Is there a way that doesn't include polymorphing or using prestige classes?

Darkfire
2010-05-25, 05:49 AM
+5 Tower Shield can substitute for the enhanced shield provided by Abjurant Champion
+5 Ring of Protection can up the deflection bonus by 1
+5 Defending Weapon adds a stacking enhancement bonus of up to 5
5 Ranks in Tumble combined with Fighting Defensively will give you a further +3 (+6 if you take a total defense action)

Unfortunately, unless your starting race has natural armour (or you get reincarnated as a troglodyte) and you're willing to spend feats on improving it (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsterFeats.htm#improvedNaturalArmor) there's no real way of replacing the massive natural armour bonus that polymorph can offer.

IdleMuse
2010-05-25, 07:39 AM
The highest I've ever seen is here (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19865126/Got_bored..._which_resulted_in_a_new_AC_record.), which manages to hit 406 after 16 rounds of prep, a whole bunch of templates, and a mostly-divine progression.

For pure martial characters, it shouldn't be too hard to hit 60-70 by lvl20.