Easy ways to increase AC

[SpicyBoi_Nezu]

I am playing a knockdown tank that specializes in using his skill trick along with his +30 intimidate to to demoralize each and every enemy, charging, and using the knock down feat to take down one enemy at a time.

His main selling point is the combination of his +30 Intimidate as well as his 26 AC

I just want to know some easy tricks to increase his AC.

He currently has +1 Full Plate, a Heavy Steel Shield, a Ring of Protection, Dex score of 12, Devils Flesh Feat (Four Devil-touched Feats), and Combat expertise.

[The Kool]

Well, define easy. If money is no object, you obviously want to get the best armor you can, enchant it up, enchant your shield, grab that ring of protection, amulet of natural armor, defending gauntlet, and see where that gets you.

[emeraldstreak]

I am playing a knockdown tank that specializes in using his skill trick along with his +30 intimidate to to demoralize each and every enemy, charging, and using the knock down feat to take down one enemy at a time.

His main selling point is the combination of his +30 Intimidate as well as his 26 AC

I just want to know some easy tricks to increase his AC.

He currently has +1 Plate Mail, a Heavy Steel Shield, a Ring of Protection, Dex score of 12, Devils Flesh Feat (Four Devil-touched Feats), and Combat expertise.

The most efficient way is spell/power access. You can buy pearls of power if there are casters who can buff you in your party, alternatively you can learn Use Magic Device and buy your own consumables.

There are also some feats and such which give you access directly, eg. Spelltouched to be able to Alter Self into a form with high Natural Armor.

[AnimeTheCat]

as others have said, the "easiest" way is to procure better magical protection. An Amulet of Natural Armor +1 is 2k gp (I think), you've already got your ring of Protection. Getting your shield to +1 should only be about 1k gp give or take.

You may also want to think about improving your saves too, cloaks of resistance very fairly priced for what they do.

Moving Forward, you're probably going to want to pick up Power Attack then put the Animated enchantment on that shield so you can 2 hand a bigger weapon to get 1.5xstrentgh mod bonus to your damage and 2x power attack damage bonus to make sure you're proccing that Knock down.

[skunk3]

There is also an ioun stone that is 5k GP I believe that adds a +1 untyped bonus to AC.

[Draconi Redfir]

the Defender of Society (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/traits/combat-traits/defender-of-the-society-fighter-pathfinder-society/) grants you an easy +1 AC if you're a fighter. If you pick up a seccond sheild for dual-weilding sheilds, you could also get Two-weapon Defense (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/two-weapon-defense-combat/). Some levels in the Sheilded Fighter (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/fighter/archetypes/paizo-fighter-archetypes/shielded-fighter/) archetype might also help, but that may stray you too far from your knockdown tank.

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

When you upgrade your armor, make the new armor mithril, less of a dex cap, then you can increase or buff your dex for a few more points (have a current character with mithril Mechanus gear, +10 armor bonus and every point of my +3 dex mod). Cloak of battle gets you +4 ac, if your DM will let you, combine it with cloak of resistance per the rules in MIC. "Accidentally" cut off one of your arms and replace it with Arm of Nyr for +2 dex, +2 str, and +2ac. Buy a wand of Magic Vestment, have a caster use it on you to replace your shield/armor enhancement bonus with a higher one for cheaper. Get reincarnated (over and over if necessary) as a Githzerai (or take a dip in a psionic class) for an inertial armor bonus. If you're a Dwarf, battlesmith gets you an untyped bonus to AC when wearing armor you crafted.

A few of these are obviously not optimal in every situation.

[Biggus]

I am playing a knockdown tank that specializes in using his skill trick along with his +30 intimidate to to demoralize each and every enemy, charging, and using the knock down feat to take down one enemy at a time.

His main selling point is the combination of his +30 Intimidate as well as his 26 AC

I just want to know some easy tricks to increase his AC.

He currently has +1 Plate Mail, a Heavy Steel Shield, a Ring of Protection, Dex score of 12, Devils Flesh Feat (Four Devil-touched Feats), and Combat expertise.

What level are you? How much money do you have to spend?

By Plate Mail do you mean Full Plate?

As others have said, generally the best way to get large AC bonuses is from magic. Assuming you don't have a teammate who's able and willing to do this, there are several ways you can do it for yourself. If Leadership is allowed, get a cohort to cast spells on you. Cleric is probably best, at level 7 they can cast Shield of Faith, Recitation (SpC) and Divine Protection (SpC) for a total of +7AC, assuming they worship the same deity as you. Magic Vestment can save you a lot of money on armour.

If you have no other way of accessing these spells, and you typically have some time to prepare before fights, it might be worth a dip into Cleric yourself.

If you have a decent Charisma UMD might be worth looking at, gives you access to AC-boosting spells from all classes potentially. A 1-level dip into Rogue would help greatly with that.

Failing all of that, the key with items to boost AC is: lots of little ones are cheaper than one big one. Gloves of Dex +2, Dusty Rose Prism Ioun Stone, Ring of Protection +1, Amulet of Natural Armor +1, +2 enhancement bonuses on armour and shield cost a total of 21,000GP and get you +8AC, while +5 armour is 25,000GP (more if it has special abilities) and a Ring of Protection +5 is 50,000GP.


There is also an ioun stone that is 5k GP I believe that adds a +1 untyped bonus to AC.

It's an Insight bonus, but as Insight is one of the rarest bonus types, it stacks with most things :)

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#iounStones


If you're a Dwarf, battlesmith gets you an untyped bonus to AC when wearing armor you crafted.


It's a Sacred bonus, but as Sacred bonuses are even rarer than Insight that's rarely going to be a problem...

[Rebel7284]

The easiest way to increase AC is to fight defensively. Typically not an optimal tactic, but it's there and is FREE!

Otherwise yeah, pearl of power/leadership->caster type of things are optimal. +1 defending armor/shield spikes + greater magic weapon is popular in that vein (lesser rod of Chain Spell is great here)

Law Devotion can give a nice AC boost 1/day, but if you ever get turn undead, can be used a lot more.

[The Kool]

The easiest way to increase AC is to fight defensively. Typically not an optimal tactic, but it's there and is FREE!

Grab some ranks in Tumble if you're going to be doing this, it improves the AC bonus. Note that this actually stacks with Combat Expertise, you can apply both if you want to really focus on defense.

[SpicyBoi_Nezu]

When you upgrade your armor, make the new armor mithril, less of a dex cap, then you can increase or buff your dex for a few more points (have a current character with mithril Mechanus gear, +10 armor bonus and every point of my +3 dex mod). Cloak of battle gets you +4 ac, if your DM will let you, combine it with cloak of resistance per the rules in MIC. "Accidentally" cut off one of your arms and replace it with Arm of Nyr for +2 dex, +2 str, and +2ac.

Can I get some pricing on these, we have a pretty easy way of obtaining money, but I need to know which of these would still be mildly obtainable.

About losing an arm, my party has two resident necromancers, one being a Crazy undead skeleton, who would LOVE to chop my limbs off.

[JeenLeen]

Not AC per se, but getting a Blink or Blur effect to give you a miss chance is helpful. I think a Cloak of Lesser Displacement isn't exorbitantly expensive and would limit how often you get hit. It does add another layer of annoyance to almost every attack against you, though.

This is probably very sub-optimal, but if you can contain level 1 arcane spells (such as by dipping a level of Wizard), the Shield and Protection from X spells can give you a bonus. Shield is easily replaced by having a good shield, but it's expensive to get a +5 shield, so it's up to you if you want a lower AC all-day or a higher AC for crucial fights. Protection from X gives a small bonus to AC against certain enemy types, plus great mental immunity to few things.

Having allies do buffs on you is also a good option.

[darkela5]

A magic weapon spell on armor spikes that have the magical proprety to transfer a part of their bonus to AC? its in the DGM guide

[AnimeTheCat]

A magic weapon spell on armor spikes that have the magical proprety to transfer a part of their bonus to AC? its in the DGM guide

Defending? That's not a bad idea. I'm not sure on the type of bonus it grants to your AC, but you could do the same with shield spikes as well. That's a kind of hefty investment, but could pay off if you're not using the spikes for attacking.

[The Kool]

I'm not sure on the type of bonus it grants to your AC

It is an untyped bonus that explicitly stacks with all others.

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

Can I get some pricing on these, we have a pretty easy way of obtaining money, but I need to know which of these would still be mildly obtainable.

About losing an arm, my party has two resident necromancers, one being a Crazy undead skeleton, who would LOVE to chop my limbs off.

Cloak of battle is 22k I believe (MIC). Arm of Nyr is 12500 (DotF) (3.0 rules, priced pretty low for a slotless untyped bonus to STR and DEX, the ac bonus is deflection)(RAW its for a good aligned character, idk what your alignment is if you're running with crazy necromancers, but you could always corrupt it a la BoVD).

Mithril is 9kgp mod for heavy armor (DMG), Mechanus gear is heavy armor from Planar Handbook, 1750 gold, masterwork another 150 to get that total +10ac, +3 max dex, -6 ACP. 10,800 gp and non magical.

[Uncle Pine]

+1 defending (DMG) surprise weapons (Complete Scoundrel). Loads of them. Then get hit with a chained Greater Magic Weapon and you're free to enjoy a conspicuously higher AC for a quite a few hours.

[ArtAndor]

Hello. I know this is a bit late, but I wanted to mention these three possibilities as I find them quiet easy and your character would greatly benefit from the first one at the very least.

3 levels in Factotum (Dungeonscape) will give you 3/Encounter INT to AC, Attack or Save (Which is helpful) and INT to strength and dex checks (Trip, which is part of knockdown depends on those.) The + Intelligence items are as cheap as it gets and having people cast Fox's cunning on you is not that bad of an idea. (+2 extra on things you are reliant on, which stack with all other bonuses). The bonuses are competence and thus do not stack with other sources of same name, but competence to AC, saves and Attack rolls is so rare that I do not think you should worry about that. ((Also True Strike 1/Day is pretty nifty))

Another class worth mentioning is Arcane Duelist (Web (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20030224a)) The requirements are steep, though negligible if you go Factotum, Rogue or anything else that gives you skill points. The reason why I point to it is due to its 2nd level ability "Apparent Defense", it adds CHA to AC, untyped and unlike most other Bonus Stat to AC, you get it when wearing armor.

Other than that there is also possibility of going Sorcerer 1/Abjurant Champion 5/ Uncanny Trickster 3 for that +11 Shield AC spell (And +13 mage armor if your DM rules Mage Armor as Abjuration instead of conjuration).