Dwarven Two-Handed Fighter/Barbarian (Gestalt) Best AC Possible?

[Weepingxxbadger]

Hey there guys and gals,

I have a level 20 Fighter/Barbarian Gestalt that reached 20 a week or two ago, I was using a tower sheild and Dwarven Waraxe for a long time. I just recently switched to a two handed Dwarven Greataxe +5 with Cold, Fire, Acid, Sonic, and Electricity because I am trying to pump out more than and average of 75 dmg a round. My AC was in fact unhittable by most CR 20-25's I believe I had 54 and we were fighting giants so 58 because of the dwarf feature. But I am looking for the most optimized AC I can get without a tower sheild and preferably mythril Armor, but I am down to hear anything you guys have to put out there.

Mainly things like Magical Items, or feats when I go epic, different armors, etc...

Dwarf Feats:
Power Attack
Toughness
Cleave
Great Cleave
Combat Reflexes
Iron Will
Lighting Reflexes
Quick Draw
Dodge
Endurance
Diehard
Improved Initiative
Combat Expertise
Mobility
Spring Attack
Whirlwind

THis is 3.5 by the way, sorry for not stating.

Thanks! :D

The Badger

[infomatic]

Books allowed? Judging by your feats I'm guessing Core.

[Weepingxxbadger]

Yeah I would stick to all the published books.

[eggynack]

Yeah I would stick to all the published books.
Those two things are kinda the opposite of each other. Core means just the PHB, DMG, and MM I. All the published books means everything from complete arcane to sandstorm to waterdeep, and everything in between.

[Weepingxxbadger]

Those two things are kinda the opposite of each other. Core means just the PHB, DMG, and MM I. All the published books means everything from complete arcane to sandstorm to waterdeep, and everything in between.

Sorry, then I would do not core, just all the published stuff. My bad.

[infomatic]

All books allowed? How many feats of yours can you replace? Because most of them are extremely subpar in a non-core-only game, and there are plenty of options for getting better AC that way.

[Weepingxxbadger]

All books allowed? How many feats of yours can you replace? Because most of them are extremely subpar in a non-core-only game, and there are plenty of options for getting better AC that way.

Shoot whatevr you've got for me, I am sure I can talk to my DM into letting me switch out a few feats.

[Dorian Gray]

Sorry, then I would do not core, just all the published stuff. My bad.

Assuming you mean that all books are kosher... :smallamused:

Make sure your barbarian levels are lion totem (found in unearthed arcana). That gives you full attacks on a charge. After your first couple barbarian levels, start taking levels in Frenzied Berserker (Complete Warrior). Take Power Attack, and follow it up with Shock Trooper and Leap Attack, so you can take a -20 penalty to armor class instead of to your attack roll. Instead of your elemental enhancements, get the Valorous enchantment (Unapproachable East), which multiplies your damage by 2 when you charge.

All of this means that your -20 to attack (now a -20 to armor, because of Shock Trooper) becomes +320 to damage, 4 times (lion totem, yall!). Your strength bonus should be +15-+20 or more, which adds up to +22-+30- we'll assume the higher result, so we're at 360 damage per attack now. At this point the damage from your weapon becomes inconsequential, but that 1d12 is now 2d12, or 13 damage- 372, now.

But mounted combat is a thing, so don't forget that if you're outside, you can take 10 levels of cavalier, and use a lance to multiply your charge damage by 5 (six with valorous, seven with spirited charge). 1300 damage per attack, about, with a massive attack bonus, because Shock Trooper is awesome. Assuming three out of your four attacks land (and you can charge on a horse while raging, which is questionable), you can probably pump out about 5000 damage per round.

And at that point, armor class isn't really necessary.

[eggynack]

Shoot whatevr you've got for me, I am sure I can talk to my DM into letting me switch out a few feats.
Basically, you'd do well to ditch everything aside from power attack, combat reflexes, maybe cleave, combat expertise if you actually do something with it, and improved initiative is decent but not particularly good in a game with broad book access. There are a lot of good replacement feat paths. You have tripping, composed of improved trip and knock-down (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineAbilitiesFeats.htm#knockDown), charging, with stuff like improved bull-rush, shock trooper (CW, 112), leap attack (CAdv, 110), and you're almost certainly going to want to pick up pounce through the spirit lion totem ACF (CC, 46), intimidation, with feats like imperious command (DotU, 50), intimidating rage (CW, 102), the never outnumbered skill trick (CS, 87), and zhentarim soldier substitution levels (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060327a), and attacks of opportunity, with feats like robilar's gambit (PHB II, 82) and karmic strike (CW, 102). There're a lot of other feat paths too, and a bunch of other feats within those feat paths, but the main idea here is that there's a bunch of room for improvement.

[Ellowryn]

If you havnt guessed it already by some of the other threads posted, the basically AC is for the most part worthless. While i don't know how you got 58 AC the truth is you should still be easily hittable by most melee focused BBEG. Bab (+20) + Str (~30 for +10) + Enchancement (+5) + 1st level Spell (+20) = +50 to hit before d20, and thats without any other bonuses like moral. Im not sure how you were not being hit, but its great if you weren't. Most of the time you are going to be hit by stuff that is mostly unaffected by your normal AC: Touch Attacks and Save vs Suck/Lose/Die Spells. If you are really worried about being hit the get miss chance such as from displacement or mirror images because that can negate the aforementioned targets.

[Sian]

Assuming you mean that all books are kosher... :smallamused:

Make sure your barbarian levels are lion totem (found in unearthed arcana). That gives you full attacks on a charge.

Nope, wrong Lion totem. Its the Lion Totem from Complete Champion that gives Pounce ... UA Lion totem gives the 'Run' feat, +2 Hide and +2Damage when charging