How to get a really high AC

[Ivor_The_Mad]

I have made a new character who I was wondering if I could get an annoyingly high AC. He is a Homebrew lizardfolk (aquatic variant) eldritch knight. Im not positive wether natural armor stacks by RAW so I wont include that now. So far he has a dex of 16(+3) chain mail ac 16 and natural armor which is 13+dex. The armor is +2. He also has the defensive fighting style. I What is the highest AC possible with this? What items should I get to increase my AC even more.

[Demonslayer666]

Use your ASI's to increase dex, Ring of Protection and a Cloak of Protection, Magic shield and armor, Manual of Quickness of Action, Defender sword...

That's about it off the top of my head.

[sambojin]

If you want to open the yawning pit that is UAs, chuck in a lvl of Mystic. Between Bestial Transformation's +2AC for an hour (no concentration) and Iron Durability's focus of +1 constantly, you'll start to get pretty tanky. Sure, it's only for two hours a day, but that's still a fair bit of "free" armour. And it stacks with damn near anything.

[Foxydono]

Play a bladesinger with 30 int, 30 dex and 30 cha with bracers of defence and a dragon mask from the rise of Tiamat. Get the defender longsword for 10 + 10 +10 + 10 + 2 + 3 for an AC of 45 or 50 with shield. If you want you can skip the bladesinger and the bracers of defense and get a robe of the archmagi instead. It will lower your AC nu seven, but advantage against spells and a higher spell DC will be worth it.

Of course the haste spell provides another +2 AC and there are some other spells that boost your AC, but it should be high enough since a CR 30 hits for +19.

[Ivor_The_Mad]

On other thing I will note is I still want to have a practical character but i would like to stay 20 levels of fighter.

Edit: i was aiming for about 26

[Foxydono]

A +3 shield and a +3 full plate are an excellent way to give you aan AC boost. As said before the defender sword is very good as well. Getting the feat magic initiate for the shield spell and a ring or cloak of protection. Potions of haste work wonders as well. Buy some flying pots too if they are available.

When doing some good maths full plate +3 gets you 21 AC with a +3 shield that's 26. A defender long sword make it 29 and defense fighting style 30. Further you can have a ring and cloak of protection for 32 AC and 34 with a haste pot. Lastly, with the feat to cast shield you can make it 39.

Edit: I see that you are playing an eldrich knight, so you can cast shield anyway without the feat. And the natural armor doesn't stack unfortunately.

[Boverk]

With 20 levels of fighter, you can go plate+shield + fighting style to get 21, war-forged will get you 22.

if you go eldritch, you can get the shield spell to add 5 to get you to 27, buy you don't have that many spell slots

if you go Battle Master, you can use your superiority dice to add to your armor (d8 at level 3, d10 at level 10, and d12 at level 18)...at level 3, you have 4 superiority dice, 5 at level 7 and 6 at level 15, and they regen on a short rest.

other than that, magic items which give ac

if you're ok with leaving fighter after level 1 or 2, you can go

Fighter 1(2)/War wizard 19(18) can get pretty insane armor

18 - Plate Armor
2 - Shield
2 or 5 - Arcane Deflection or shield spell as a reaction..arcane deflection is available at War Wizard 2
2 - Durable Magic..+ 2 to ac and saving throws when concentrating on a spell
1 - Fighting Style

so at level 11, that would be 25 to 28 ac with no magic items just at the cost of sustaining a spell and your reaction

Ideally, you'd go at least War wizard 18 so you can have shield and and a level 2 spell at will (I like enlarge person).

Also note, if you use arcane deflection, you can only cast cantrips until the end of your next turn.

edit: I just realized I used the phrase "at least War wizard 18" which is a silly "at least"

[MagneticKitty]

Warforged race get +1 ac. Lv 6 forge cleric
Enchant your own armor to +1 at level 1 cleric.
+1 at level 6.
Dip 1 level fighter for a shield and fighting style defense
This gets you: 18 (heavy armor) +2 (shield) +1 (warforged) +1 (armor blessing +1 (lv 6 forge cleric) +1 (defense fighting style)
24 ac no spells. This is really good active no spells or magic items ac. You also get shield of faith. If you bring the fighter to lv 3 you get shield from Eldridge knight I believe

You could still do: 13 + 5 + 2 + 1 + 1
With the same build and max dex and no warforged.
(Lizard + max dex + shield + def fighting style + forge cleric.... Nevermind you can't bless your armor if you're not wearing any.)
So that's two ac less than my recommended build. At 22 before spells with no magic items

[apepi]

By raw without any magical items/very few magical items and high stats? Bladesinger with a dip of Barbarian. If you got 20 dex/con/int then you can get up to 25 AC. Then if you somehow get two feats while having those insane stats you can also grab Dual Wielder and Defensive Duelist. Though I doubt someone could ever get those stats. Getting an Amulet of Health would actually make this not so unattainable, your ac would be one lower but it would be possible.

I honestly think if your main reason is to not die and be tough, maybe consider going Barbarian/Druid. While raging you take half physical damage and can wild shape bringing up your health making it very hard to kill you.


Play a bladesinger with 30 int, 30 dex and 30 cha with bracers of defence and a dragon mask from the rise of Tiamat. Get the defender longsword for 10 + 10 +10 + 10 + 2 + 3 for an AC of 45 or 50 with shield. If you want you can skip the bladesinger and the bracers of defense and get a robe of the archmagi instead. It will lower your AC nu seven, but advantage against spells and a higher spell DC will be worth it.

Of course the haste spell provides another +2 AC and there are some other spells that boost your AC, but it should be high enough since a CR 30 hits for +19.

You can't use a shield while in Bladesong.

[Kyrinthic]

Play a bladesinger with 30 int, 30 dex and 30 cha with bracers of defence and a dragon mask from the rise of Tiamat. Get the defender longsword for 10 + 10 +10 + 10 + 2 + 3 for an AC of 45 or 50 with shield. If you want you can skip the bladesinger and the bracers of defense and get a robe of the archmagi instead. It will lower your AC nu seven, but advantage against spells and a higher spell DC will be worth it.

Of course the haste spell provides another +2 AC and there are some other spells that boost your AC, but it should be high enough since a CR 30 hits for +19.

This is meaningless. You cant even actually get 30 in stats.

A bladesinger, Monk, or barbarian can get two stats to AC, with books, that is +12. The bladesinger can use studded leather +3 with it, the barb can use a shield +3, either gives 5. The monk mostly falls out of the race with his +2 from bracers of armor. The barb could nudge it out with his +4 con at capstone for 2 more AC, but multiclassing caster is probably stronger ( see below).

The Dragon mask is neet, but it wont work with armor/shield, and you wont be seeing better than +5 with it short of absurd rolled starts, and then with a book, +6 is all you get, and you can get a +1 ac from a ring or cloak just as well.

Otherwise, the defender sword and two protection items (ring, cloak, ioun stone) are the most AC you will get from attunments (+5 here).

Now, if you multiclass into something with casting, to get haste/shield of faith and the shield spell, you can get a temporary bonus up to +7. There are a few other official ways to get small buffs. Warding bond, shield guardian, etc. But they are pretty circumstantial.

so 10 +6 (stat 1) +6 (stat 2) +5 (Armor/shield) +5 (Attunement items) is 32 full time AC with 39 available as needed. the best attack bonuses will still only hit on a nat 20.

[DarkKnightJin]

Highest AC character that I have ever theorycrafted, was a Warforged Paladin of the Ancients, with the Defensive fighting style. +3 Plate and shield.

18+3 for the Plate, gives 21.
2+3 for the shield, totals 26.
+1 for the fighting style for 27.
+1 for Warforged, for 28.
Cloak and Ring of Protection, for a grand total of 30 AC before expended resources, like Shield of Faith, or the Shield spell, if you've dipped Sorcerer. Or perhaps Hexblade.

If everything works in that character's favor, they can rock an AC of 37 for a round.
Though I'd be happy for the 'passive' AC of 30, to be quite honest.

Oh, and Ancients Pally for the +Cha to saves, and Resistance to spell damage.

That Pally would make a beastly tank. More so with Booming Blade to keep things from running away from them.

[Lunali]

This is meaningless. You cant even actually get 30 in stats.

A bladesinger, Monk, or barbarian can get two stats to AC, with books, that is +12. The bladesinger can use studded leather +3 with it, the barb can use a shield +3, either gives 5. The monk mostly falls out of the race with his +2 from bracers of armor. The barb could nudge it out with his +4 con at capstone for 2 more AC, but multiclassing caster is probably stronger ( see below).

For some reason, unlike in previous editions, 5e doesn't have restrictions on using multiple stat tomes (or the same one multiple times) to boost stats. This means that not only is it possible to get 30s, it's even possible to get them with only one book each if you start as a relatively young elf and get up to 18-20 through starting stats + ASIs.

This combined with the bladesinger inexplicably giving a bonus to AC instead of replacing the calculation like monk and barbarian do allows for some ridiculous unarmored ACs.

[Fire Tarrasque]

I built someone to get the highest AC, not relying on magic items.
Tl;dr: Barbarian for Unarmored Defense, then 1 Fighter for Defense, THEN take Monk 7 for Evasion, then 1 Forge Cleric for Shield of Faith + Free magic item (See if your DM will let your clothing be +1! Or ignore the armor requirement for defense!), then put the rest in Monk for using Ki to dodge. The level in Barb is because Barb, unlike Monk, permits shield w/Unarmored Defense. PS: I didn't have access to Bladesinger.
HERE WE GO, IMMA FIGHT YOU ALL WITH MY LEVEL 20 ABOMINATION, FULL ACSESS TO ANY MAGIC. FIGHT ME. We'll also assume Unarmored Defense doesn't stack with Bladesinger.
Warforged. 11 AC.
1 Barb, 20 Con and 20 Dex, 21 AC.
1 Forge Cleric, enchant your robes, grab Shield of the Faith, 24 AC.
Monk 18 for ALL DER KI. Constantly use Ki to dodge.
Take the Unearthed Arcana Blademastery feat. 25 AC.
Grab a shield for the other arm, 27 AC.
Now, magic.
Make that shield +3 and that sword defender. 33 AC.
Bracers of Defense, and we have 36 AC.
And we can force disadvantage 18 times.
Let's GO.

If Bladesinger stacks, then for obvious reasons, take 2 wizard levels out of the Monk pool, and we have 41 AC, with the ability to impose disadvantage on the enemy 16 times. Going even farther in, if Defense doesn't have the armor requirement included, we have 42 AC and 15 disadvantages.

I didn't include stat tomes, because really... Just don't even. We can up AC infinitely with that. Assuming I have 30 stats, my character now starts at 46 AC and caps at 57 best case scenario. So... Yeah.
Fight me.

Imma run through the calculations one more time.
+5 from con, +5 from dex, +5 from int, +1 from blademaster, +3 from defender, +5 from a +3 shield, +2 from bracers, +2 from Shield of Faith, +1 Warforged, (potential + 1 from defense, potential +1 from forge.) +10 from base AC.
So... yeah. 42, (43 with defense or forge, 44 with defense and forge.)

[DrowPiratRobrts]

We were actually just talking about optimal AC for any given campaign. It might interest you. The number you offered, 26, is actually one point beyond the breakpoint for the average monster (CR<=30) to hit you with anything other than a 20. In other words, if you actually hit 26 you'll have that annoyingly high AC.

As to the question, take whatever fighting style you want so long as it gives you AC. Note that if you go two-weapon fighting you'll need to pick up the dual wielder feat. There are several feats that increase AC depending on what armor/weapons you have. But obviously the easiest way is to roll with a shield so you can stack +3 armor and +3 shield if you ever find them. The warforged build mentioned above is something I've seen similarly with a fighter, so that might be an option to look at if you aren't set on race. Here's a link to that discussion on AC if you want to peruse it. It gets heady though: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?558345-Does-Increasing-AC-Work-on-a-Curve

[Fire Tarrasque]

Hey, so I made a mistake. I can fix it though. Remove the Bladesinger because it doesn't allow shields. -5 AC.

[Ivor_The_Mad]

We were actually just talking about optimal AC for any given campaign. It might interest you. The number you offered, 26, is actually one point beyond the breakpoint for the average monster (CR<=30) to hit you with anything other than a 20. In other words, if you actually hit 26 you'll have that annoyingly high AC.

As to the question, take whatever fighting style you want so long as it gives you AC. Note that if you go two-weapon fighting you'll need to pick up the dual wielder feat. There are several feats that increase AC depending on what armor/weapons you have. But obviously the easiest way is to roll with a shield so you can stack +3 armor and +3 shield if you ever find them. The warforged build mentioned above is something I've seen similarly with a fighter, so that might be an option to look at if you aren't set on race. Here's a link to that discussion on AC if you want to peruse it. It gets heady though: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?558345-Does-Increasing-AC-Work-on-a-Curve

One problem i'm seeing is the shield. I forgot that my character uses a glaive. Is there a way to get around that? Ill check out the feats now.

[DrKerosene]

Would using an Animated Shield work for solving your issue?

[DrowPiratRobrts]

One problem i'm seeing is the shield. I forgot that my character uses a glaive. Is there a way to get around that? Ill check out the feats now.

To my knowledge there's not a way to boost your AC by wielding a glaive. It would be under feats if it exists though. If you want to use a glaive, your AC will necessarily be sub-optimal. That doesn't mean you still couldn't find a way to get up to 25 or 26 though. I'll think through some more suggestions and list them in a bit as options to pull from.

[apepi]

I built someone to get the highest AC, not relying on magic items.
Tl;dr: Barbarian for Unarmored Defense, then 1 Fighter for Defense, THEN take Monk 7 for Evasion, then 1 Forge Cleric for Shield of Faith + Free magic item (See if your DM will let your clothing be +1! Or ignore the armor requirement for defense!), then put the rest in Monk for using Ki to dodge. The level in Barb is because Barb, unlike Monk, permits shield w/Unarmored Defense. PS: I didn't have access to Bladesinger.
HERE WE GO, IMMA FIGHT YOU ALL WITH MY LEVEL 20 ABOMINATION, FULL ACSESS TO ANY MAGIC. FIGHT ME. We'll also assume Unarmored Defense doesn't stack with Bladesinger.
Warforged. 11 AC.
1 Barb, 20 Con and 20 Dex, 21 AC.
1 Forge Cleric, enchant your robes, grab Shield of the Faith, 24 AC.
Monk 18 for ALL DER KI. Constantly use Ki to dodge.
Take the Unearthed Arcana Blademastery feat. 25 AC.
Grab a shield for the other arm, 27 AC.
Now, magic.
Make that shield +3 and that sword defender. 33 AC.
Bracers of Defense, and we have 36 AC.
And we can force disadvantage 18 times.
Let's GO.

If Bladesinger stacks, then for obvious reasons, take 2 wizard levels out of the Monk pool, and we have 41 AC, with the ability to impose disadvantage on the enemy 16 times. Going even farther in, if Defense doesn't have the armor requirement included, we have 42 AC and 15 disadvantages.

I didn't include stat tomes, because really... Just don't even. We can up AC infinitely with that. Assuming I have 30 stats, my character now starts at 46 AC and caps at 57 best case scenario. So... Yeah.
Fight me.

Imma run through the calculations one more time.
+5 from con, +5 from dex, +5 from int, +1 from blademaster, +3 from defender, +5 from a +3 shield, +2 from bracers, +2 from Shield of Faith, +1 Warforged, (potential + 1 from defense, potential +1 from forge.) +10 from base AC.
So... yeah. 42, (43 with defense or forge, 44 with defense and forge.)

You need armor for Defense, and you need no armor for unarmored defense...

[Beelzebubba]

For some reason, unlike in previous editions, 5e doesn't have restrictions on using multiple stat tomes (or the same one multiple times) to boost stats. This means that not only is it possible to get 30s, it's even possible to get them with only one book each if you start as a relatively young elf and get up to 18-20 through starting stats + ASIs.=

Nope. It's not there because it doesn't need to be. In the PHB, chapter 7: "Adventurers can have scores as high as 20." The Tomes don't trump that unless it's specifically called out in the specifics of the magic item.

Contrast that to the Barbarian: "At 20th level, you embody the power of the wilds. Your Strength and Constitution scores increase by 4. Your maximum for those scores is now 24." It's called out specifically there because it *does* trump the PHB rule.

[DarkKnightJin]

Nope. It's not there because it doesn't need to be. In the PHB, chapter 7: "Adventurers can have scores as high as 20." The Tomes don't trump that unless it's specifically called out in the specifics of the magic item.

Contrast that to the Barbarian: "At 20th level, you embody the power of the wilds. Your Strength and Constitution scores increase by 4. Your maximum for those scores is now 24." It's called out specifically there because it *does* trump the PHB rule.

The Tomes(and Manuals) that are talked about here are magical items that bump the respective stat by 2 points, and also increase the maximum for that stat by 2 points. Downside, the Tome or Manual then loses its magic for 100 years.

[Kyrinthic]

For some reason, unlike in previous editions, 5e doesn't have restrictions on using multiple stat tomes (or the same one multiple times) to boost stats. This means that not only is it possible to get 30s, it's even possible to get them with only one book each if you start as a relatively young elf and get up to 18-20 through starting stats + ASIs.

This combined with the bladesinger inexplicably giving a bonus to AC instead of replacing the calculation like monk and barbarian do allows for some ridiculous unarmored ACs.

Sorry about that, for some reason I thought 5e had a 1/character restriction there, not sure where I thought I read that though.

That said, it is still a pretty meaningless measure. The highest ac is anyone who can acquire infinite stat books. That dude with normal clothes and 100 dex has a better ac than the guy in full plate. In reality, a campaign may see 1-2 stat books per character and even that is a stretch. An elf can live the 100 years to reuse a book, but no campaign is going to give a 100 year gap.

Bladesinger or Barb are equally good choices for the highest base AC with no books available at the high end. Once you add books, the breakdown is about the same unless you give an uneven number of books to one flavor or another. IE, a rogue goes up just as much as for having 5 or 10 books as a bladesinger, so will be the same relative place after applying the same amount of magic items.

Bladesinger added AC would be pretty bland if it was just a replacement, honestly. They have significant restrictions (light armor, no shield) to make up for it.

Overall this is what will get you ac options:

Low stat investment: Platemail and a shield.
Medium stat investment: Light armor and a shield
High stat investment: Monk/Barb/Bladedancer
Top end AC with good magic items and high stats: Barb/Bladedancer/anything with a dragon mask


That bladedancer may have a higher in theory AC, but that Eldritch knight that bought full plate at level 3 will probably have higher AC until the very late levels, baring silly high rolled stats. Using standard point buy, the bladesinger only beats the AC at level 16 if they both have the same magic level on armor, and the fighter doesnt get a magic shield. The bladesinger needs statbooks to get past the fighter if he has a magic shield too.

Fullplate+3 & shield +3 & fighting style = 27 AC with 1 legendary and 1 very rare magic item, and 0 ASI.
Leather +3 & 22 int & 22 dex = 27 AC for bladesinger, with 1 legendary and 2 very rare magic items, and 4 ASI. (and that much only twice per rest or something).

Overall, heavy armor remains the way to have high AC in anything outside of a theorycraft build. Honestly, I never understood the love of bladesinger for AC, it really doesnt stack up in real world scenarios. In a theorycraft build, there are several top options, bladesingers being one of them, but not any better than other options.

[DarkKnightJin]

Huh, I read something and didn't see that the first time. I'll be damned. I was completely wrong.

It is a funny theoretical exercise, though. Elf Archdruids should be the absolute God-Kings of the planet.

Happy to help you learn something new. Hope I didn't come across as too aggressive. I just figured bolding the relevant bit would help it stand out and get noticed.

But yeah, that's why the Tomes and Manuals are such lovely magic items, that anybody would be happy to get their mitts on.