4e maximizing defenses

**EarFall** · 2009-05-25, 04:42 PM (ISO 8601)

As far as I can tell, there, at one time, was a thread about maximizing defenses. Does anyone have a link to it, or can anyone tell me a good maximized defense build? I have played very little 3.5, but my best guess is a Paladin does it best...

**Anonomuss** · 2009-05-25, 04:53 PM (ISO 8601)

And right you are, it only lasted about 4 posts:

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=110239

**holywhippet** · 2009-05-25, 06:43 PM (ISO 8601)

Those builds kind of assume the DM will let you get your hands on things like that. It's also a level 30 build which means you have to work towards it.

Paladin gets a nice bonus because they can add their charisma bonus to their saving throws. However, monks are the only core class (no idea about the splat book classes) who get full progression in all saving throw categories.

**EarFall** · 2009-05-25, 06:55 PM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by holywhippet

Those builds kind of assume the DM will let you get your hands on things like that. It's also a level 30 build which means you have to work towards it.

Paladin gets a nice bonus because they can add their charisma bonus to their saving throws. However, monks are the only core class (no idea about the splat book classes) who get full progression in all saving throw categories.

In 4E they add their cha to... wait. what? Wrong edition.

**Tengu_temp** · 2009-05-25, 08:24 PM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by holywhippet

Those builds kind of assume the DM will let you get your hands on things like that. It's also a level 30 build which means you have to work towards it.

Godplate Armor isn't hard to get on levels 26+. Also, in 4e a build that has high AC at level 30 usually has high AC at all other levels, as well.

Originally Posted by holywhippet

Paladin gets a nice bonus because they can add their charisma bonus to their saving throws. However, monks are the only core class (no idea about the splat book classes) who get full progression in all saving throw categories.

Wrong edition. Unless you're one of those people who purposely give 3.5 advice in 4e threads, in which case I must tell you - it's not funny. It wasn't funny even when it started. It's just being a prick.
Sorry if you're not one of those people.

**Behold_the_Void** · 2009-05-25, 09:52 PM (ISO 8601)

A friend of mine crunched some numbers and got the highest AC on an Avenger, if I recall. Can't remember how he did it though.

**Dublock** · 2009-05-25, 09:59 PM (ISO 8601)

avenger eh? I did have that post and was going to keep it up, but my real life has been busy about it. I did make a few changes to it, and I believe overall the pally was highest defense. I didn't do avenger though (didn't think of it, and lack of time to do another 30 build)

While the build I post was level 30, I did do it level by level and I never felt like it was unusable at lower levels. The only problem I see with it is people arguing that a pally isn't a defender, but other then that, it should be fine.

**EarFall** · 2009-05-25, 10:00 PM (ISO 8601)

Highest AC was on an avenger eh?
More importantly though, are it's NADs...

**holywhippet** · 2009-05-25, 11:12 PM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by EarFall

In 4E they add their cha to... wait. what? Wrong edition.

Oops. My mistake.

Some of my points still stand though - it depends on what level you are and what your DM will let you get your hands on.

**Colmarr** · 2009-05-25, 11:52 PM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by Tengu_temp

Wrong edition. Unless you're one of those people who purposely give 3.5 advice in 4e threads, in which case I must tell you - it's not funny. It wasn't funny even when it started. It's just being a prick. Sorry if you're not one of those people.

I hadn't noticed this phenomenon on the GitP boards. Is it common somewhere else?

Regardless, my past experience of Holywhippet suggests that he's not the sort to do it. "Pricks" tend not to make it to Barbarian in the Playground status

**Rockphed** · 2009-05-26, 12:23 AM (ISO 8601)

Originally Posted by Colmarr

I hadn't noticed this phenomenon on the GitP boards. Is it common somewhere else?

For a while there were a few trolls that would respond to any 4e question thread with "Play 3.5." This was about 6 months ago, so I think most of them have either been poked by the mods for misbehavior or been rebuffed by the community at large. Either way, I don't see anywhere near as much of it now.

**Yakk** · 2009-05-26, 10:46 AM (ISO 8601)

In any case, the there are 4 defences.

Boosting any one NAD tends to lower the others.

AC is often concentrated on. There is some Wizard tricks you can pull off to get your AC high (staff of defence/shield/etc), together with a starting 20 int and demigod paragon path. This ends up running into some seriously sub-optimal attribute allocation, as you have to burn your stat-ups to get prereqs for feats you otherwise wouldn't want if you wheren't going max AC.

In general, heavy armor classes have the easiest investment to get a decent AC. Buy up either shield specialist feats or armor specialist feats to get that point of AC in paragon, wear high-AC masterwork plate, and you are done. If really working at it, pick a paragon path that gives you an AC boost.

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