Fighter/ Knight gestalt

[Legoss]

First off, hello, first post on the forum. With that out of the way, I have an issue. I'm running a campaign soon, my first gestalt as DM. And we have a few new players in the group, so I'm creating some characters to show them, they'll also be NPC's. One of them is a fighter/ knight gestalt, and I'm looking at ways of getting his AC as high as possible. He's a main character to the story, what I'm really looking for is the best armor possible, cost is no object, and the same for his shield, which for now I'm also considering making armor and shield spiked, and using the Blood Spiked Charger tactical feat. Any suggestions as to how to work the armor and shield into best AC possible is appreciated, and like I said, cost isn't really an issue.

[Gavinfoxx]

Are you entirely sure you wish to do it this way?

Let's zoom out a little....

You want to make an NPC, or maybe a DMPC, and you want it to have high armor class.

You implied that you want it to have high survivability as well.

You implied that you want it to be the target of attacks of others, or to in some way negate the ability of enemies to affect allies.

You implied that it should do this in a martial way, as if martial means are the best way to achieve anything in D&D.

You implied that Armor Class is at all useful at high or mid levels.

Why do you need 'characters to show them'?

What exactly are you trying to achieve? Is it 'Here are some sample characters, yay!'?

Is it 'Look at how awesome these characters are! They are awesome!'

Is it 'You should try to do this?'

Why is an NPC the main character of the story? Why isn't a PC the main character of the story?

In other words... You are making A VERY LARGE AMOUNT of assumptions that seem to be very, very, very MAJOR GMing errors.

What you need to do is STOP, take a huuuuge step back, and write down your goals for this game, in as broad a way as possible, and then share that with us, and ask what the best ways of going about that sort of thing is.

[Legoss]

Ok, the character is a carry over from our last campaign, a DMPC (not me DMing). Balog was a reckless devil may care fighter, but he died quite often. I've decided to make him a paranoid crotchety man, and he believes that the absolute best armor will save him. The blood spiked charger, and a few other things are holdovers from his old attitude of just wading in and smashing heads in his new "indestructible" armor. I'm not implying that martial means are the best or any of the other things you were talking about, or that wasn't my intent. I merely want to figure out how to give him the best suit of armor that the coffers of his kingdom can afford. So I asked for options to give him the highest AC possible. Other options to increase survivability are welcome as well, but I'm just looking to fluff out his character.

[Gavinfoxx]

Okay. So if you had said, "Okay, I want some really, really good armor abilities for an NPC with more money than sense, who believes -- whether it is true or not -- that always having access to really, really good armor and shield will make him unable to be killed. If it matters, the character is a gestalt Fighter//Knight, who uses a Spiked Chain and an Animated Shield. What things can I do to his armor and shield, as well as miscellaneous other defense-oriented equipment to say, 'This guy has invested a seriously large amount of cash in these pieces of equipment', that might be reasonably good at accomplishing the character's goal?"

And if you had titled the thread, "Help with Defense-Oriented equipment for Martial Characters, please?" or something like that, you would probably be getting more help for what you need.

Remember, it isn't the build that this character cares about to keep him alive, it's the gear. Just use whatever build fits the training of the character.

[Legoss]

Yeah, the build is less important I guess, I'm just interested in giving Balog the best armor money can buy, his build is really suboptimal, but it's his armor that is meant to impress. The spikes on his armor and shield are an affectation of his old style, and sometimes he can't resist charging into the fray still, trusting his armor above anything else. So what can I do to make an "indestructible" suit of armor? Is there anything better than full plate for example?

[Gavinfoxx]

Well. There are a few things you can do.


Give him Mechanus Gear from Planar Handbook. Make it out of Adamantine for DR 3/-.

Make it a +1 armor with various enhancements for the other +9 abilities.

Make sure he has an item of high caster level wondrous item of "Magic Vestment", with two casts per day, to cast on his armor and shield, so he can make the weapons +5 weapons with various enhancements rather than +1 weapons with various enhancements.

Also make sure he has a wondrous item of "Greater Magic Weapon" 2/day at high caster level, to cast on his armor spikes and weapon, so he can make those +1 with various enhancements into +5 weapons with various enhancements.

Make sure it has these enhancements:

Heavy Fortification: DMG/SRD (+5)
Called: Magic Item Compendium
Healing: Magic Item Compendium
Greater Healing: Magic Item Compendium
Blurring: Magic Item Compendium (+1)
Greater Blurring: Magic Item Compendium (+2)
Death Ward: Magic Item Compendium (+1)
Mirror Image: Savage Species

Make the Armor Spikes Adamantine and make them +1, with these for the abilities:
Smoking: Lords of Darkness (+1)
Eager: Magic Item Compendium (+1)
Defending: DMG/SRD (+1)
Parrying (+2)

I'm sure there are a few more, too.

He should trade his tower shield proficiency for Extreme Shield proficiency. I believe that is in Races of Stone. His Extreme Shield should be:

Made of Mithral

+1
Animated: DMG/SRD (+2)
Gleaming: DMG/SRD (+3)
Radiant: Magic Item Compendium (+4)
Mirror Image: Savage Species
Called: MIC

Remember, the various miss chances don't stack for a crazy high miss chance -- what you do, is you roll all the miss chances separately, and if anything misses due to one of them, it doesn't hit.

Make everything Dwarvencraft (Races of Stone).

[Aegis013]

If money is absolutely no problem, there's no reason not to load up on all kinds of enchantments. Something like this might good:

-Heavy Fortification (+5), +5 Adamantine Full Plate - +13 AC, DR 3/-, Critical hit immunity.
-Tag on Defending (+1) +5 Armor Spikes - +5 AC
-Add on Crystal of Mind Cloaking Greater(MiC), grants you +5 on saves against mind-affecting spells and abilities and lets you reroll such a save once per day as an immediate action.

Then for the shield, Fighter gives Tower Shield proficiency so use something like
-Animated (+2), Energy Immunity(MiC) (+2), Death Ward(MiC) (+1) +5 Tower Shield - +9 AC
-Add on Crystal of Arrow Deflection Greater(MiC), grants you the ability to deflect one ranged attack per round as if you had deflect arrows.

Add to the shield:
+5 shield spikes with whatever other enchantments you feel like.
Throw in a Dusty Rose Prism Ioun Stone and a Lavender and Green Ellipsoid Ioun Stone and a Talisman of Undead Fortitude(MiC).

This should net you, defense-wise:
+28 AC from all of these.
DR 3/-.
Immunity to Critical Hits.
+5 on saves against mind affecting spells and abilities.
Flying shield lets you two hand primary weapon.
Immunity to Death Effects (death spells, magical death effects, and energy drain).
Immunity to negative energy effects (inflict spells and the like).
1 minute per day of immunity to an energy type of your choice (acid, cold, electricity or fire).
The ability to Deflect Arrows as the feat once per round.
The ability to use a readied action to absorb spells 8th level or lower until 50 spell levels have been absorbed.
3 rounds of immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, critical hits, nonlethal damage, physical ability damage, ability drain, energy drain, fatigue, exhaustion, death from massive damage, and any effect that requires a fortitude save. Also, you don't need to breathe.


After those things consider filling in other slots with useful other items. I've focused specifically on survivability aspects, since my understanding was that is what you were looking for.

[Gavinfoxx]

Oh yea, right. The shield should be a spiked shield, and the spikes should be enchanted too...

But I don't suggest +5 with +5 of enchantments. I suggest +1 with +9 of enchantments and items to cast spells to make up the rest.

[Krazzman]

IF I recollect correctly...there is an Interlocking Full Plate that netted out at +12 AC or so... don't know which book it is in though...

[Gavinfoxx]

There are a few 'better than full plate' armors. I chose a really good one that isn't made of stone, and doesn't require exotic armor proficiency...

Yes, there is Interlocking Plate, Thaluud Stone Armor, Mountain Plate, Battle Plate, etc. -- but I generally prefer to get Mechanus Gear. More like Iron Man that way.

[Snowbluff]

Bracer of Armor +5, put Magic Vestments on it? Amulet of Natural Armor +5, use Barkskin with it?

[Gavinfoxx]

Bracer of Armor +5, put Magic Vestments on it? Amulet of Natural Armor +5, use Barkskin with it?

But bracers of armor doesn't stack with wearing armor... he wants, you know, big spiky full plate-y armor...

[Snowbluff]

But bracers of armor doesn't stack with wearing armor... he wants, you know, big spiky full plate-y armor...

Uhh... sorry, I was thinking Ring of Protection +5 , always confusing the two.

Also, those are +5 Defending Shield Spikes. Also, a +5 Defending Sword.

[Gavinfoxx]

The thing is, as long as you have greater magic weapon and magic vestment, these things don't need to be +5. Just give him a wondrous item of high caster level GMW 2/day, and be done with it.

[Morph Bark]

Don a chain shirt, chahar-aina and dastana all with +5 defending armor spikes and themselves with a +1 bonus and +9 of enhancements. If you can't find enough enhancements to put in, make the chain shirt +5 with +5 in enhancements. Can a tower shield have armor spikes? If so, make them +5 defending ones and give him a tower shield. Otherwise put those spikes on a heavy shield and give him one of those.

Shield Specialization + Shield Ward make sure special combat actions won't work well either. If he has some soldiers to command around, he could also just take Phalanx Fighting and Shield Wall. If you drop in a level of Cleric you could also power some Devotion feats like Law and Protection Devotion (and if you want to go extreme perhaps even War Devotion), since you will likely pump Cha to keep the Knight's abilities' DCs up.