Quote Originally Posted by wunderkid View Post
It is an amazing combo if you get those 3 18s which as I've mentioned in another thread is a 0.01% chance, or in other words 1 character out of every 10,000 rolled will be able to make use of this particular combo.

Everyone else just sticks with mage armor.
It physically pains me to think of anyone actually using mage armor as their primary AC source.

AC, more than ever, is your primary line of defense. Neglecting it is, in my opinion, extremely bad policy.

Mage armor as primary ac source is not just neglecting it, but crippling it. It's bad, bad, bad.

Not only does it cap out at 18 (with a 20 dex, mind, most likely you'll probably cap out at 18 or 16 dex as it's not your primary), it also uses 1st level spells for very little benefit. (Note: at 1st level, you're using half your spells to give you the light armor feat, or something you get for free with literally every other class except monk and sorceror).

If it were a cantrip, then yes, it would be a no-brainer, but as things stand, it's a really bad option.

Keep in mind that at this point, mage armor is fixed and static. While proficiency bonuses and stat modifiers increase over the course of 20 levels, and weapons gain bonuses to hit, Mage armor doesn't improve not one bit. Let's say you've got a 16 dex: that's a 16 AC.

Meanwhile, the enemy builds up a +6 Proficiency + 5 stat mod (primary), + 3 magic item bonus = + 14 to hit. A properly built hitter will hit your AC on a 3 or better, or put another way, 85% of the time (An 18 AC only improves that ratio to 75%).

You're WAY better off taking a one level dip to get access to heavy armor and shields, as those cap out at 20 AC without magic items, and 26 with (meaning the theoretical beatstick needs to roll a 13 to get you). These AC numbers mean that your opponent will miss you more often than not.

Note that the CR 1 Animals tend to get roughly a +5 to hit: versus a 16 AC he will only need an 11 on the dice to hit you. CR1! It only gets worse from there.

I know that people will cry about capstone abilities or slowed spell casting progression - in preemptive response to that, I say this:

1. Capstone abilities and the time you spend being able to use them is a tiny fraction of your adventuring career that most people never see anyway.

2. One level's delay in getting access to spells is negligible. (Please don't argue: delayed spell access doesn't actually affect your saves anymore: it just changes which spells you have access TO - your level 2 spells will be saved against at the exact same rate as your level 3 spells, unlike in 3.5, and the benefits, in many cases, can outweigh the costs).

3. It doesn't matter if you get level 3 spells at level 5 or level 6 if you don't make it out of level 1.