Armor Class Progression

[Crl1981]

What is a good Armor Class Progression?

Right now I am a 4th lvl Paladin wearing Splint Mail +1 and a shield with an AC of 20. I have routinely been getting hit with roughly 40% of the attacks comming at me. Right now I have a ring of spell storing that has been helping me, but as the inly tank in the party there is only so far it goes.

Thanks!

[MilkmanDanimal]

What is a good Armor Class Progression?

Right now I am a 4th lvl Paladin wearing Splint Mail +1 and a shield with an AC of 20. I have routinely been getting hit with roughly 40% of the attacks comming at me. Right now I have a ring of spell storing that has been helping me, but as the inly tank in the party there is only so far it goes.

Thanks!

Not that I've run the math, but that seems reasonably logical to me. AC 20 at 4th level, hit a bit less than half the time, major target of the attacks? Think that fits. If it's too much, you likely need other support like some Cutting Words, Shield of Faith, or the like.

[stoutstien]

Your AC is fine. Anything 20+ is going to fit the bill for front line material. If you are getting hit 40% at 20
((21-(AC-H))÷20)*100
Ac is your armor class we can figure the enemies you fight have +7 to hit (
Every point in ac you have will reduce their hit chance by 5%. Exclude crit hit/miss.
Heavy armor master is great at low lvs due to flat out damage reduction on hits but loses steam at higher lvs. What's your Cha at?

[Unoriginal]

What is a good Armor Class Progression?

Right now I am a 4th lvl Paladin wearing Splint Mail +1 and a shield with an AC of 20. I have routinely been getting hit with roughly 40% of the attacks comming at me. Right now I have a ring of spell storing that has been helping me, but as the inly tank in the party there is only so far it goes.

Thanks!

5e doesn't really have an AC progression, due to bounded accuracy. AC 20 is already pretty damn great and a Splint Mail +1 is very good.

You're likely not going to get better until level 10+, if any.

Of course by that point you'll have a lot more HPs which makes getting hit less of a problem.

[strangebloke]

What is a good Armor Class Progression?

Right now I am a 4th lvl Paladin wearing Splint Mail +1 and a shield with an AC of 20. I have routinely been getting hit with roughly 40% of the attacks comming at me. Right now I have a ring of spell storing that has been helping me, but as the inly tank in the party there is only so far it goes.

Thanks!

You're doing fine.

There are basically three 'progressions' of AC. (ignoring shields, spells and class features)

Heavy: 16 at 1st level (chainmail) to 18 at 20th (plate)
Medium: 16 at 1st level (scale +2 dex) to 17 at 20th (half-plate)
Light: 15 at 1st level (studded leather + 3 dex) to 17 at 20th (studded leather + 5 dex)

Shields put that up by 2, obviously, and the defense fighting style puts that up by one. The important thing to realize here is that absent magic items, your AC will become far less significant as you level up, capping out by eight level at the latest, and possibly as early as 1st if your DM is generous with loot and gold. With magic items, a sword and board character can have great AC, and its totally worth building for that. 27 AC before you cast shield of faith? Nice.

In other words, insofar as AC does 'scale' you are basically doing as well as you possibly could at 4th level, unless you had picked up the Defense fighting style.

Remember, though, that multiple defense layers is generally better than high numbers. Sanctuary, mirror image, and blink are all great spells if you can get access to them. Choose your defensive loadout based on your enemy group. As a paladin against a group of flyers, sanctuary on yourself, using your turns to buff and heal, is a perfectly adequate strategy.

Another fun one is, as a crown paladin, casting spirit guardians on yourself and your horse, then on the next turn casting sanctuary on yourself and your horse, then riding into the mass of enemies, dodging all the while. You're basically invincible.

[stoutstien]

Pally with inspiring leader. Even with only ok Cha mod it's good chunk on thp for all every rest.

[Crl1981]

I didn’t take +1 armor, but that hasn’t been an issue, I have yet to be hit on my armor yet. I keep getting hit on 27s and 28s plus a stupid amount of crits. Recently I picked up a Ring of Spell storing thst everone handed over to me. With Shield of Faith I have been barely holding on. Heavy Armor Master won’t held when I haven’t take single digit hits since early second level.

[Ganymede]

But what about the AC progression of wizards without armor proficiency?

[strangebloke]

But what about the AC progression of wizards without armor proficiency?

1 better than light armor with mage armor, three worse without.

Hence why mage armor is basically mandatory unless you get a similar effect for free from somewhere. (IE, you're a tortle, lizardfolk, mountain dwarf, dragon sorc, or one of several multiclass builds.)

[PhoenixPhyre]

But what about the AC progression of wizards without armor proficiency?

10 + DEX (usually 12) or 13 + DEX (usually 15-16) with mage armor.

[stoutstien]

Sounds like you fight 1-2 really tough enemies. Getting a way to cause the attacks to have disadvantage is going to be the best way to reduce incoming damage.

[Unoriginal]

But what about the AC progression of wizards without armor proficiency?

Wizards have even less AC progression

Generally they'll have in the 13-16 range with Mage Armor (with ~16 if they've invested significantly in DEX), and then the Shield spell can help if they want to spend even more spell slots for that.

[Foxhound438]

Pally with inspiring leader. Even with only ok Cha mod it's good chunk on thp for all every rest.

I will always, always, always endorse taking inspiring leader on one character in the party, even if they only have the 13 charisma required to take it. It basically can negate one hit's worth of damage on each character.

Other recommendations: shield of faith gives +2 AC (that would drop you from taking 40% of hits to 30% of hits, assuming that you're getting attacked a statistically significant number of times and not having rare luck); wrathful smite causing the frightened effect means the enemy has disadvantage to attacks if it can see you; lucky can be used to replace an incoming attack, but note that you have to expend the die before you know the attack would have hit you.

Those are the good options you can take off the top of my head. Having things roll and get 27+ against you at level 4 is pretty much saying that the encounters are intentionally using things that are way above curve for your level, since most things below a cr of 5 have less than a +7 to hit in the first place. That's something I've had to deal with as well, since my playgroup for some reason only ever does the "daily boss fight" routine. Getting crit a lot is unfortunately the curse of having high AC, since the few times you do get hit are more often going to be crits as your AC gets higher; IE, you really remember that you got crit twice out of say 8 hits, but you forget that the other 32 swings at you missed.

[MaxWilson]

What is a good Armor Class Progression?

Right now I am a 4th lvl Paladin wearing Splint Mail +1 and a shield with an AC of 20. I have routinely been getting hit with roughly 40% of the attacks comming at me. Right now I have a ring of spell storing that has been helping me, but as the inly tank in the party there is only so far it goes.

Thanks!

Your AC is pretty good already. If you want to reduce monster hits further you need to either (1) get a defensive reaction like Defensive Duelist (feat) or the Shield spell (via multiclassing), or else (2) impose disadvantage on enemy attacks, by Dodging or Blur spell (multiclassing) or grappling/proning enemies or allied spells like Web or something like that.

[DarkKnightJin]

I will always, always, always endorse taking inspiring leader on one character in the party, even if they only have the 13 charisma required to take it. It basically can negate one hit's worth of damage on each character.

Other recommendations: shield of faith gives +2 AC (that would drop you from taking 40% of hits to 30% of hits, assuming that you're getting attacked a statistically significant number of times and not having rare luck); wrathful smite causing the frightened effect means the enemy has disadvantage to attacks if it can see you; lucky can be used to replace an incoming attack, but note that you have to expend the die before you know the attack would have hit you.

Those are the good options you can take off the top of my head. Having things roll and get 27+ against you at level 4 is pretty much saying that the encounters are intentionally using things that are way above curve for your level, since most things below a cr of 5 have less than a +7 to hit in the first place. That's something I've had to deal with as well, since my playgroup for some reason only ever does the "daily boss fight" routine. Getting crit a lot is unfortunately the curse of having high AC, since the few times you do get hit are more often going to be crits as your AC gets higher; IE, you really remember that you got crit twice out of say 8 hits, but you forget that the other 32 swings at you missed.

That's why both my 'tank' characters will probably wind up trying to find/buy Adamantine Plate Armor somewhere down the line, to nope those annoying crits right as they happen.

[Dark Schneider]

Heavy armor master is great at low lvs due to flat out damage reduction on hits but loses steam at higher lvs. What's your Cha at?
Heavy armor feat is great at any level. Usually big boss will be accompanied by minions, without magical weapons, and reducing 3HP from each attack from them is amazing.


But what about the AC progression of wizards without armor proficiency?
Wizards must rely on defense spells instead AC, that can be increased by mage armor. Blur, mirror image, blink, expeditious retreat, false life...many options to stay alive.
Also, a good elven chain, AC 14 + 1 + DEX(max 2) so you could save the mage armor spell.

AC20 on 5E is great, even powerful creatures have only slighty more. You have to rely on your allies to upgrade your defenses/capabilites. Stoneskin against massive normal creatures attacks is wonderful, protection from evil and good also is amazing against some kind of creatures, and Bless grants you an extra 1d4 for attack rolls and saving throws, nothing bad.

I think the only classes that would have an AC progression are the monk and barbarian, by increasing DEX and WIS/CON.

[Theodoric]

What is a good Armor Class Progression?

Right now I am a 4th lvl Paladin wearing Splint Mail +1 and a shield with an AC of 20. I have routinely been getting hit with roughly 40% of the attacks comming at me. Right now I have a ring of spell storing that has been helping me, but as the inly tank in the party there is only so far it goes.

Thanks!
In 5e you tank more with HP than with AC, especially at higher levels (this is part of why Barbarians are so good at tanking). Toughness in 5e focuses more on surviving hits than not getting hit in the first place.
AC tops out really quickly in 5e, for good reason; AC20 is only a few points below what most Ancient Dragons have.