Max PC AC

[FrancisBean]

I'm sure this has been theorycrafted to death, but I couldn't find the right search terms to bring up the right thread.

Using AL rules of PHB+1, what's the maximum possible Player Character Armor Class? E.g., 20 levels, 3 magic item slots, active spells counted. (3rd-party casters are awkward... Anti-stacking rules should keep that from being unbounded, but I'm not sure how much impact they have.)

This is just for pure AC, ignoring things like Displacement miss chances and so forth. I'm looking for a theorycrafting upper bound, not a playable character.

[ProsecutorGodot]

Well this changes if you're playing in an Eberron AL game where Warforged is the clear choice. They'll be able to gain a total of about 3-4 higher. Let's not assume that though as Eberron AL has different rules.

Eldritch Knight in +3 Plate(21 AC), +3 Shield (5 AC) and a Defender Longsword (3 AC) has an AC of 29 before further modifiers. With 6 levels in Forge Cleric they can gain an additional +1 AC in heavy armor and can cast Shield of Faith (+2) for a maximum of 32.

10 levels in War Magic also gives them Durable Magic for an additional +2 AC while concentrating on a spell (which is Shield of Faith) for a new total of 34.

So if we take PHB+ Xanathar's you can take a EK 4/Forge Cleric 6/War Wizard 10 to have a standing AC of 30 (34 with Shield of Faith+Durable Magic and 39 with Shield). That's the best I've got on short notice.

[JackPhoenix]

Here you go (https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/67197/what-is-the-highest-possible-ac). Not specific to PHB+1, but you can go through the list and ignore extra stuff.

[FrancisBean]

Here you go (https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/67197/what-is-the-highest-possible-ac). Not specific to PHB+1, but you can go through the list and ignore extra stuff.

Perfect! I was looking only over here in the Playground and missed that one entirely. I owe you a cookie.

[th3g0dc0mp13x]

Also keep in mind that in an adventure league setting the highest to hit you have to deal with is +19. So at an AC of 39 the only thing that hits is a natural 20. There's your magic number to aim for perfect AC.

[Yunru]

A Barbarian with 30 in Dex and Con (be it from books or the "increase a stat" alternate reward) can easily get 35 AC just by picking up a +3 shield.

[Silkensword]

the max AC you *need* is interestingly 39 since anything over that is pointless, as the highest to-hit of any monster is +19, meaning that if your ac is greater than 39 you're gaining no additional benefit! with magic items, a level 20 bladesinger warforged can achieve this number, though "bladesinger warforged" might make purists wince a little ;3

[FrancisBean]

Also keep in mind that in an adventure league setting the highest to hit you have to deal with is +19. So at an AC of 39 the only thing that hits is a natural 20. There's your magic number to aim for perfect AC.


the max AC you *need* is interestingly 39 since anything over that is pointless, as the highest to-hit of any monster is +19, meaning that if your ac is greater than 39 you're gaining no additional benefit!

Sure, and for practical play there's no reason to go even this high. I'm just curious about the theorycrafting upper bound.

It looks like (from the link posted earlier) it's technically possible to get up to AC 57 with situational bonuses and Epic Boons to get ability scores up to 30, which I hadn't actually thought about. I think I can accept that as a decent mathematical upper bound! I'm also pretty sure that there's no AL adventure sequence which gets the right items and boons to do that, so the actual AL upper bound is probably in that 39-57 range.