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Talbot
2010-09-08, 08:17 PM
I'm looking for ways to boost a melee character's touch AC as high as possible with minimum reliance on spells or magic items. Class features/feats/ACFs are ideal.

Flickerdart
2010-09-08, 08:24 PM
Scintillating scales is the standard spell to use - turns natural armour into deflection. Natural armour is easier gotten from templates than from classes. A dip into Monk gives you WIS, battledancer gives CHA. Wilder has a neat class feature that raises your touch AC (but not your regular AC).

ericgrau
2010-09-08, 08:24 PM
1 level dip into dwarven defender for +1 touch AC and some other very nice stats too. Drawback: 3 minor feats, though one of them is dodge. You can dip 2 levels to get uncanny dodge and retain your touch AC if you haven't already taken barbarian levels. As for your class feature at level 1, I don't know what you're talking about, I see no class feature there :smallbiggrin:.

Draz74
2010-09-08, 08:29 PM
If it's a high Charisma character, try a two-level dip in Wilder.

High Wisdom? Two-level dip in Swordsage instead.

Zaq
2010-09-08, 08:36 PM
Deflective Armor, from Races of Stone, lets you add your physical armor's bonus (armor bonus and enhancement bonus) to your touch AC whenever you're psionically focused. Requires heavy armor, one sub-optimal feat (Heavy Armor Optimization... generally too small of a bonus to be worthwhile, though it does synergize nicely with Deflective Armor), and the ability to gain psionic focus. A dip in Psychic Warrior will, if you have at least a WIS of 12, get you heavy armor proficiency, the ability to gain psionic focus, and a bonus feat, which nicely offsets a lot of these requirements. (A two-level dip will get you an additional bonus feat, and will give you the PP to become focused no matter what your WIS is.) You might also be a psionic race, like an Elan or a Maenad, if you already have heavy armor proficiency and would rather not dip something. If you go this route, Mechanus Gear (Planar Handbook) is generally better than full plate. Also, since this applies to your enhancement bonus as well as your armor bonus, make sure that you have someone who can cast Magic Vestment. If not, it's not as horrific a use of resources as it normally is to actually buy a few magic plusses instead of adjectives, since they actually apply to touch AC. Magic Vestment is best, though.

avr
2010-09-08, 08:37 PM
Baffling Defence in ToB is a maneuver which lets you substitute a Sense Motive check for your AC. IIRC there's another which lets you substitute an attack roll for your AC.

Gnomo
2010-09-08, 08:48 PM
Shield Ward, a feat from PHB2 grants you your shield bonus to your touch AC and as a bonus to resist grapple, trips and bullrush attempts, it requires Shield Specialization though, anyway is worth it.

JeminiZero
2010-09-08, 08:50 PM
1. Take a look at the Defending (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Defending) weapon enhancement. Lets you transfer its enhancement to dodge bonus, as long as you wield it. Remember, unlike most other AC types, dodge bonus (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Armor_Class) stacks with itself.
2. Take a look at the concealed weapons from Complete Scoundrel. Lets you wield something like 6 extra weapons (knee x2, boot x2, sleeve x2) at a hefty penalty, but you don't have to attack with them, in which case you ignore the penalty.
3. Buy and Enchant all 6 concealed weapons as +1 Defending weapons which cost approximately 8k gp each (if you don't have the cash, buy them one at a time or something). Alternatively, this can also be done on Armor Spikes or Shield Spikes, or the off-end of a two handed polearm weapon.
4. Get you friendly mage to cast GMW on your concealed weapons to push their enhancement bonus up from the lousy +1 (lets say they are now +5).
5. As a free action, every round, rechannel the enhancement bonus into +5 dodge bonus that stacks with everything else.
6. ???
7. Profit!

While you could crank out something like +40 dodge bonus on top of everything else with this trcik, I recommend you limit yourelf to +10 or so to prevent your DM from throwing the DMG at you.

Zaq
2010-09-08, 08:52 PM
Shield Ward, a feat from PHB2 grants you your shield bonus to your touch AC and as a bonus to resist grapple, trips and bullrush attempts, it requires Shield Specialization though, anyway is worth it.

Parrying Shield, from Lords of Madness, doesn't give the bonus against grapples/trips/etc., but still adds your shield to your touch AC and (more importantly) doesn't have a stupid prereq feat.

Esser-Z
2010-09-08, 08:53 PM
Shield spec boosts your shield bonus, though, so there's a bit MORE touch AC!

Admiral Squish
2010-09-08, 08:53 PM
Two feats: Parrying Shield (LoM) and Deflective Armor (RoS). Deflective armor needs the feat heavy armor specialization, and you have to have a psionic focus. This allows you to apply both your armor and shield bonuses to touch AC.

Draz74
2010-09-08, 08:55 PM
Parrying Shield, from Lords of Madness, doesn't give the bonus against grapples/trips/etc., but still adds your shield to your touch AC and (more importantly) doesn't have a stupid prereq feat.

Whoa ... how did I not know about that one? :smalleek:

Thurbane
2010-09-08, 09:27 PM
I know it's obvious, but miss chance is also very valuable for avoiding touch attacks.

The Cloak Dance feat allows you to use a move action to give yourself 20% concealement, or a full round action for 50% concealment.

Urpriest
2010-09-08, 09:40 PM
Be somebody's mount! Get as many riders of as small size as you can, each with as high a ride bonus as you can. When you would be hit by a ray, they can make a ride check to let you substitute the check for your touch AC. They'll be taking a -5 penalty if you're humanoid, unfortunately.

HamHam
2010-09-08, 10:00 PM
1. Take a look at the Defending (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Defending) weapon enhancement. Lets you transfer its enhancement to dodge bonus, as long as you wield it. Remember, unlike most other AC types, dodge bonus (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Armor_Class) stacks with itself.
2. Take a look at the concealed weapons from Complete Scoundrel. Lets you wield something like 6 extra weapons (knee x2, boot x2, sleeve x2) at a hefty penalty, but you don't have to attack with them, in which case you ignore the penalty.
3. Buy and Enchant all 6 concealed weapons as +1 Defending weapons which cost approximately 8k gp each (if you don't have the cash, buy them one at a time or something). Alternatively, this can also be done on Armor Spikes or Shield Spikes, or the off-end of a two handed polearm weapon.
4. Get you friendly mage to cast GMW on your concealed weapons to push their enhancement bonus up from the lousy +1 (lets say they are now +5).
5. As a free action, every round, rechannel the enhancement bonus into +5 dodge bonus that stacks with everything else.
6. ???
7. Profit!

While you could crank out something like +40 dodge bonus on top of everything else with this trcik, I recommend you limit yourelf to +10 or so to prevent your DM from throwing the DMG at you.

This is an amazing plan.

VirOath
2010-09-09, 01:24 AM
Be somebody's mount! Get as many riders of as small size as you can, each with as high a ride bonus as you can. When you would be hit by a ray, they can make a ride check to let you substitute the check for your touch AC. They'll be taking a -5 penalty if you're humanoid, unfortunately.

So, Leadership feat, Petal Cohort and minions?

PlzBreakMyCmpAn
2010-09-09, 01:50 AM
the concealed weapons from Complete Scoundrel. Lets you wield something like 6 extra weapons (knee x2, boot x2, sleeve x2) at a hefty penaltyPage number please. I found no such rules in CD or CAdv

WinWin
2010-09-09, 01:58 AM
Page number please. I found no such rules in CD or CAdv

Surprise Weapons p109 CS

The defending weapon trick could also apply to armour spikes/shield spikes.

Additionally, Fist of the Forest may boost touch AC as it refers to the Monk Ability, I am not 100% on that.

JeminiZero
2010-09-09, 01:59 AM
Page number please. I found no such rules in CD or CAdv

Complete Scoundrel pg 109, under "Hidden Blades".

Edit: DANG IT!

korifugi
2010-09-09, 05:19 AM
I've had a certain amount of success combining high Dex, Int and Wis.

I used a combination of:

Rogue (don't lose dex when flat footed and meshes nicely with stats & other class abilities),

Ninja (rather than monk - also gives access to Wis to AC but meshes nicely with Rogue) and

Invisible Blade (gives Int to AC up to IB lvl, and meshes nicely with the other two classes)

That being said - You won't be able to wear armour with this, I was going for a sneak attack stabbily stabbily type that focussed on daggers and have since kitted him out with a few nice stat boosting items and AC boosting kit and this ensures he has the highest AC in the party, all with no conventional armour.

Telonius
2010-09-09, 10:17 AM
1. Take a look at the Defending (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Defending) weapon enhancement. Lets you transfer its enhancement to dodge bonus, as long as you wield it. Remember, unlike most other AC types, dodge bonus (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Armor_Class) stacks with itself.
2. Take a look at the concealed weapons from Complete Scoundrel. Lets you wield something like 6 extra weapons (knee x2, boot x2, sleeve x2) at a hefty penalty, but you don't have to attack with them, in which case you ignore the penalty.
3. Buy and Enchant all 6 concealed weapons as +1 Defending weapons which cost approximately 8k gp each (if you don't have the cash, buy them one at a time or something). Alternatively, this can also be done on Armor Spikes or Shield Spikes, or the off-end of a two handed polearm weapon.
4. Get you friendly mage to cast GMW on your concealed weapons to push their enhancement bonus up from the lousy +1 (lets say they are now +5).
5. As a free action, every round, rechannel the enhancement bonus into +5 dodge bonus that stacks with everything else.
6. ???
7. Profit!

While you could crank out something like +40 dodge bonus on top of everything else with this trcik, I recommend you limit yourelf to +10 or so to prevent your DM from throwing the DMG at you.

I believe step 6 translates out to "Win argument with DM over whether the 'stacks with all others' clause supersedes the 'same source' clause."

Otherwise, for added hilarity, be a Monk1/Fighter5/Kensai2. You have a potentially unlimited number of natural weapons, since any part of your body counts as an unarmed strike (per Monk). All you have to do is pay 160 + (16*number of natural weapons)=672 XP, and you can have a set of 32 +1 defending teeth (assuming he still has his wisdom teeth). You can get really crazy if you want to start using things like hair, but that might put the XP cost out of range.

(Note: this WILL get the DMG thrown at you, and relies on some extremely questionable interpretation of the Unarmed Strike section of the Kensai rules).

Person_Man
2010-09-09, 10:41 AM
Anything that grants a Miss Chance defends against anything that has an attack roll, including anything with a touch attack.

X stat to Y bonus (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125732). Most of the things that add to AC from this list add to your Touch AC as well. Fist of the Forrest, Deepwarden, anything that grants you the Incorporeal subtype (Apparition Ribon soulmeld, Tenebrous vestige).

Guide to Shields (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123630).

Inertial Armor (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/inertialArmor.htm) for any psionic build.

Mage Slayer feat prevents casters from casting defesively, allowing you to disrupt their spells with AoO, and basically preventing many touch attacks.

Daelen
2010-09-09, 11:16 AM
I'm surprised how little it gets mentioned, but I am a huge fan of Gnome Twist Cloth. Its exotic armor that allows you to add its enhancement bonus to touch AC as well as regular AC. Races Of Stone, I don't know the page number

Zaydos
2010-09-09, 11:22 AM
I'm surprised how little it gets mentioned, but I am a huge fan of Gnome Twist Cloth. Its exotic armor that allows you to add its enhancement bonus to touch AC as well as regular AC. Races Of Stone, I don't know the page number

There's also an enchantment for armor and shields (Ghost Ward) in the Magic Item Compendium that is a +1 enhancement bonus for pricing and gives them their enhancement bonus to touch AC as well as regular AC. The warlock loved it.

PlzBreakMyCmpAn
2010-09-09, 01:09 PM
Complete Scoundrel pg 109, under "Hidden Blades".

Edit: DANG IT!I had already looked there. I suppose what I was after was a rules quote saying that those concealed weapons count as 'wielded' as well as the exact number of how many may be wielded.

tyckspoon
2010-09-09, 01:27 PM
I'm surprised how little it gets mentioned, but I am a huge fan of Gnome Twist Cloth. Its exotic armor that allows you to add its enhancement bonus to touch AC as well as regular AC. Races Of Stone, I don't know the page number

Requires taking a special proficiency feat just for that benefit and only has a base +1 AC bonus, along with needing you to invest in base enhancement values instead of special bonuses to get the benefit of the feat you spent on it. It's a pretty expensive way to get what it does, which is why you don't hear about it much (it mostly turns up in discussons of high-Dex armors, since it has no Dex cap and no armor check penalty. Still 5% ACF, tho, which is weird, since traditional wizardly robes are probably more difficult to move in than this stuff.)

subject42
2010-09-09, 02:14 PM
You can also buy Riverine armor, from Stormwrack. It grants half (I think) of your armor's bonus as a deflection bonus.

Gnomo
2010-09-09, 06:45 PM
Parrying Shield, from Lords of Madness, doesn't give the bonus against grapples/trips/etc., but still adds your shield to your touch AC and (more importantly) doesn't have a stupid prereq feat.
Nothing prevents you from taking them all, anyway Shield Specialization (PHB2) synergyses quite well with both feats (Parrying Shield and Shield Ward).

With the three feats and a +5 Heavy Shield you get +16 to your touch AC, and a +8 to resist bullrush, grapple, disarm, overrun and trip attempts. You can also go with a +5 tower shield for a +18 bonus to touch AC, but then you don't get the +1 bonus from Specialization.

If you get your hands on a better shield or a class that improves your shield bonus (like the Knight), this number can easily go over 20.

Jornophelanthas
2010-09-10, 06:31 AM
Fight defensively. No, really.

This gives you a +2 dodge bonus to AC, which can be further increased:

+1 if you have 5+ ranks in Tumble;
+2 if you have the Einhander tactical feat from PHB2 and do not wield or hold anything in your off-hand;
+2 if you have 4 levels in Thief-Acrobat from CAdv (+1 if you have only 2 levels in Thief-Acrobat);
+1 if you wield a Broadblade Short Sword from CAdv (if you disregard errata, it's +2), requires exotic weapon proficiency;
+1-5 if you also use Combat Expertise (or more if you use Improved Combat Expertise from CWar and sacrifice a lot of attack bonus);
+7-10 if you have 7-10 levels in the Duelist prestige class from DMG. It's the Elaborate Parry class feature.


Remarks:

Using the Einhander feat in this list is most likely inferior to the Shield Ward feat described above. If you carry a shield, that is.
Taking levels of Thief-Acrobat also prevents you from being flat-footed in certain situations, such as while balancing.
The Broadblade Short Sword can also be used as an off-hand weapon to attain the bonus. By the way, the ability is non-magical.
Taking Duelist levels also brings an additional bonus: you can add your INT modifier as a dodge bonus to AC, in the same way as for the Invisible Blade, mentioned in a previous post, with the same restriction of not using any armor or shield.


Now all you need is a way to improve your attack bonus to compensate for the -4 (or more) attack penalty.

Saintheart
2010-09-10, 09:06 PM
Baffling Defence in ToB is a maneuver which lets you substitute a Sense Motive check for your AC. IIRC there's another which lets you substitute an attack roll for your AC.

That would be the Wall of Blades counter from the Iron Heart school. Almost essential for lower level Warblades in particular.

Shenanigans
2010-09-13, 04:05 PM
Nothing prevents you from taking them all, anyway Shield Specialization (PHB2) synergyses quite well with both feats (Parrying Shield and Shield Ward).

With the three feats and a +5 Heavy Shield you get +16 to your touch AC, and a +8 to resist bullrush, grapple, disarm, overrun and trip attempts. You can also go with a +5 tower shield for a +18 bonus to touch AC, but then you don't get the +1 bonus from Specialization.

If you get your hands on a better shield or a class that improves your shield bonus (like the Knight), this number can easily go over 20.
I like the sound of this a lot, but how do you get those bonuses to stack?

Since they're both shield bonuses, wouldn't you only get one?