[3.5] Question on the Nature of AC

[Phelix-Mu]

Can a character voluntarily lower their AC? Are there any rules for this?

Thanks for the help in advance.

[Vaz]

For what reason?

Spell Resistance can be lowered as a standard action. Taking a standard action to stand still could be houseruled to deny you dex to AC.

[Yogibear41]

from a non mechanical stand point im pretty sure you could tell your DM I stand completely still and just let him hit me to give up all your dex modifiers but the enemy could still potentially fail to damage you because his attack strikes you but not hard enough to overcome the protection from your armor (Armor/natural armor types of AC)

but for an official rule I doubt there is one

[ZamielVanWeber]

The closest thing to an official rule I know IS that fact that you can voluntarily make yourself helpless, although that lasts for a round.

[meemaas]

By RAW, no. Because there is supposed to be no beneficial reason to. Unlike SR. I run my campaigns with a houserule that lets my NPCs fight as though they are weaker than they are, which translates mostly to lowered saves, BAB, and AC, to give the PCs, who they are often toying with or testing, a fair fight. You could always ask your DM about something similar to that.

[Phelix-Mu]

The circumstance is that my epic level monk/wiz has an AC in the high 60s, pre-bard buffs. 95% of non-boss stuff misses her by a considerable margin. Her touch AC is likewise in the upper 40s. Her AC and touch AC will jump by another 6-7 points in a couple of levels, as well.

I'm looking at getting the epic level feat Reflect Arrows. For this to be useful, something has to hit her. It would therefor be nice if she could just drop one or two of her AC bonuses. The DM has ruled that Reflect Arrows works in conjunction with Exceptional Deflection (which I've already taken), so this may be pertinent beyond just mook-control. In time, she may also pick up Infinite Deflection, but it won't even be worth going that route if 95% of everything misses.

Anyway, thanks for the input. I may talk to the DM and ask if she can voluntarily be flat-footed or something, which would take away like...10 or so points off of her AC, I think.

[Glarnog]

Maybe consider the sources of some of your bonuses to Ac like the cover rules for incoming attacks. They may not hit you for damage, but maybe because it was stopped by your force effect, or shield or deflection bonus. So maybe chart that out. Eg. A miss by 10 hits the buckler, miss by 20 hits the bracers, miss of 30 is stopped by your natural armor. Maybe your wisdom bonus to Ac is more of a mind over matter than a dodge. So fluff all that in to you're still being "hit" just not by a damaging blows.

[Phelix-Mu]

Maybe consider the sources of some of your bonuses to Ac like the cover rules for incoming attacks. They may not hit you for damage, but maybe because it was stopped by your force effect, or shield or deflection bonus. So maybe chart that out. Eg. A miss by 10 hits the buckler, miss by 20 hits the bracers, miss of 30 is stopped by your natural armor. Maybe your wisdom bonus to Ac is more of a mind over matter than a dodge. So fluff all that in to you're still being "hit" just not by a damaging blows.

An interesting idea, but probably too exploitable, since I could could reflect arrows infinitely regardless of hits or misses.

As it stands now, Deflect Arrows is only useful on natural 20s, but it's nice because of the Exceptional Deflection. I'd really like to be able to bat orbs of force and such back at casters, and it would be a nice way to cap off my fairly not-op damage avoid build.

[ericgrau]

Even if you pull it off I would get some kind of spell turning as well, like a ring of spell turning. And robilar's gambit for melee attacks. And so on and so forth. The trap with defenses is that no matter how good you are with screwing over some attacks, it's pretty meaningless if that's only 3% of attacks.

[Phelix-Mu]

That's probably some good advice, there. I will look into Robilar's Gambit. So far the DM has been lenient about retraining during downtime, and we are epic level, so we have very considerable resources at our disposal.

I will shortly be completing Abjurant Champ and move toward swordsage, further boosting my abilities. I still am slightly worried about outshining the rest of the party, but tonight the DM raised the bar again for a mini-boss fight (except that he let us know OOC that that wasn't a mini-boss at all, but more like one of the elite footsoldiers of the enemy force). The whole party is probably going to need to up its game.