Pumt the wasoo out of my AC

[Max Caysey]

I have a level 6 human fighter I just need AC... As much as possible. Thanks...

[Segev]

What are his stats? His dex mod will factor in to whether it's a good idea to buy armor or just to focus on dex-based AC.

[Inevitability]

Maybe dip ninja? There's a feat that makes ninja and fighter levels stack for certain purposes.

[Max Caysey]

Ofc.... I sometimes forget to give propper info.

Stats are:

str 18
dex: 12
Con 14
Int:10
Wis: 10
Charisma: 10

[Segev]

Is any of your wealth-by-level spoken for, or can we assume we can spend all your gp as a 6th level character on gear for AC boosting?

[Max Caysey]

Is any of your wealth-by-level spoken for, or can we assume we can spend all your gp as a 6th level character on gear for AC boosting?

You can spend all the level 6 gold as you like.

[Segev]

Alright. Then you can afford a +2 Dex item (4,000 gp) to get you to a +2 dex mod, total. That means you want chainmail and a tower shield, as those have a max dex bonus to AC of +2, and grant a +5 armor bonus to AC and a +4 shield bonus to AC, respectively.

Throw another 1000 gp at each of those for a +1 enhancement bonus on them. Totals are 1,300 and 1,180 gp value for those (they're MW, so they CAN be enchanted). That's 5,480 gp.

You're also at 10+2+6+5=23 AC so far.

There are probably more efficient means to improve this further than the following, but you could add another +2 to this (for a total of 25) by upgrading your chainmail to Mithral Full Plate (+5,350 gp, to a total of 10,930 gp).

You might also consider buying your party sorc or wiz a Wand of Blur for 4500 gp; that's 50 castings of a spell that gives you a 20% miss chance for 3 minutes/charge. Have them buff you with it when you're about to barge into a combat situation. A 20% miss chance is (very) roughly equivalent to a +5 to your AC.

[thethird]

When you say human fighter you mean a human with 6 levels of fighter, or a human who happens to fight and be sixth level? Also are the attributes set in stone?

[Max Caysey]

When you say human fighter you mean a human with 6 levels of fighter, or a human who happens to fight and be sixth level? Also are the attributes set in stone?

No... nothing is set in stone. I want to see your proposals.

He is level 6 fighter!

[Kennisiou]

Alright. Then you can afford a +2 Dex item (4,000 gp) to get you to a +2 dex mod, total. That means you want chainmail and a tower shield, as those have a max dex bonus to AC of +2, and grant a +5 armor bonus to AC and a +4 shield bonus to AC, respectively.

Throw another 1000 gp at each of those for a +1 enhancement bonus on them. Totals are 1,300 and 1,180 gp value for those (they're MW, so they CAN be enchanted). That's 5,480 gp.

You're also at 10+2+6+5=23 AC so far.

There are probably more efficient means to improve this further than the following, but you could add another +2 to this (for a total of 25) by upgrading your chainmail to Mithral Full Plate (+5,350 gp, to a total of 10,930 gp).

You might also consider buying your party sorc or wiz a Wand of Blur for 4500 gp; that's 50 castings of a spell that gives you a 20% miss chance for 3 minutes/charge. Have them buff you with it when you're about to barge into a combat situation. A 20% miss chance is (very) roughly equivalent to a +5 to your AC.

Don't bother with the bonus dex item until you have mithral full plate. Full plate and 1 dex is 19 AC, add a tower shield and it's 23 AC. Same as you got but without spending 4k on any magic items. Don't enhance the full plate until you can afford to replace it with mithral, but enhance the shield all you want. With that 4k you spent you can spend 1k on a +1 shield and then spend the rest on items that give other AC bonuses. A ring of protection or an amulet of natural armor would both be good choices. Each are 2k for +1, 8k for +2. If you really just want to maximize AC with your 13k gold and do nothing else then a +2 tower shield, Full Plate, a +1 amulet of natural armor and a +1 ring of protection will give you a total of 27 AC for 9680. If the GM allows custom magic items you could get a cloak of +1 sacred bonus to AC for 3k if I remember custom magic item rules correctly, giving you a total of 28 AC. This is all just from gear. If you take the combat expertise feat and use it to fight defensively you can dump your base attack bonus into AC every round as well, giving you 34 AC.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Make friends with a spellcaster. Several, if possible. Otherwise keeping your AC relevant is a task that will eat up most of you WBL. Miss chances are cheaper and useful no matter how high your enemies AB is.

If you can't do that for some reason your options are limited. Armor and Shield enhancements, Ring of Deflection and Amulet of Natural Armor will add to the non-stacking AC types.
Boots of Speed adds +1 dodge. Dex adds dodge AC but will conflict with your armors max depending on what you wear, and you probably want to boost your strength, too.

You can spend feats on AC (though most of them are situational) but they suffer from the same problem. Because of the way costs scale you're going to end up investing ever increasing amounts of money just to stay on par AC-wise. Your other needs (weapon, immunities, utility like fly/tactical teleport and other magic items) will suffer accordingly.

A level 6 character has a WBL of 13000gp. You want an AC of about 30-33 to at least keep up at that level. (AB for CR 6-7 goes up to +19 in extreme cases, but it's enough for most enemies).
Figure 1000gp for masterwork armor and shield, another 2000gp to make them both +1, 2000gp for a Ring of Protection +1, another 2000gp for an Amulet of Natural Armor +1.

With full plate, tower shield and 12 Dex that leaves us at AC 27 and 6000gp. Upgrading your armor or shield with another +1 would cost 3000gp each, the ring or amulet 6000gp each. You're already behind in the AC race and you still need a weapon. You'll probably want some kind of flight soon, too. And some defense against stuff that doesn't target AC. The more levels you get the more abilities become necessary, while more AC gets even more expensive.

Once you run the numbers it becomes readily apparent that you can't keep up with the monsters AB without resorting to spellcasting, and even then it consumes a lot of spell slots that could be better spend on other stuff.

On the other hand you can get the Blurring armor enhancement for about 4000gp, for a 20% chance no matter how high the enemies AB is.
Get your AC increase from your parties spellcasters casting Magic Vestment, Shield of Law and Barkskin so your enemies don't autohit when your miss chance fails. They should be able to spare 1-2 lower level spell slots.

[thethird]

First you say that nothing is set in stone and then that he is a 6 lvl fighter. I'm confused.

Still, subtract 2 from WIS and CHA, swap them to INT so you have INT 14, Swap Dex and Con around.

Kalashtar Fighter 6 (Darksong fighter lvls at 2 and 6)
lvl 1 Fighter Feat: Power Attack
lvl 1 Feat: EWP Broadblade Shortsword
lvl 2 Fighter Feat: Deadly Defense
lvl 3 Feat: Path of Shadows
lvl 4 Fighter Feat: Combat Expertise
lvl 6 Feat: Dancing with shadows
lvl 6 Fighter Feat: Improved Combat Expertise

For items, you can use the ones suggested by Segev, but you no longer need the +4 Dex item, instead you can invest in a vest of defense

This gives you:

10+2+6+5 (Items and Dex) + 10 (Improved combat expertise + Vest of Defense + Broadblade Shortsword)

Your attacks have a +1d6 to damage (if you are using combat expertise), if you maintain combat expertise for at least a round your first attack gains a +10 to hit, if you maintain it for at least 2 rounds you keep the bonus for an extra round without needing to maintain it.

Edit: Some people posted before me recommending items, take them into account I was looking more into feats.

[sleepyphoenixx]

You can't Power Attack with a Broadblade Shortsword because it's a light weapon.

[Hecuba]

Starting with sleepyphoenixx's 27 from gear, we can then add some feats.

Cumbrous Dodge from savage species will net you +2 (not actually explicitly typed to dodge IIRC).
Heavy Armor Optimization should get +1
Combat Expertise and Superior expertise will get you +6 (at the cost of your full BAB, but c'est la vie).

That should get us up to 36. But you won't be hitting anything.

[Zirconia]

If the GM allows custom magic items you could get a cloak of +1 sacred bonus to AC for 3k if I remember custom magic item rules correctly, giving you a total of 28 AC.

If this is allowed, by the way, keep stacking +1 alternatives to Enhancement bonuses for your armor. There are examples of Deflection (standard), Insight - Moment of Prescience p. 255, Dodge - Haste, Luck - Staff of Power, DMG p. 245, Sacred - DMG table footnote p. 285, and obviously Natural armor if your DM needs examples of alternative bonus types. Basic cost is 2x normal for a nonstandard bonus, so 2k GP each. Either use obscure slots, or make them slotless for another 2x multiplier.

[Rebel7284]

Don't artificers get a way to change the bonus type?

At level 6, you also qualify for leadership, which may be the BEST feat for boosting your AC. :D