Upgrading my ac!

[gallagher]

So I am the meat shield of the party, and I have one minor problem. As a barbarian/berserker, I have an ac of 17, 15 when raging, plus an aditional -4 if frenzied.

I have about 19600 gold left, and I have a mithral shirt and some natural armor. I am already wearing bracers, strongarm ones to be precise. So what can I buy to boost my ac at the most cost-efficient way?

[Riva]

Don't even bother. As you've already pointed out, you are losing the game so hard on AC that it burns a bit when you get angry. Go for miss chance if you can, items of blink or multiple image if you can manage it. I'm sure someone will be along with an excellent list of specifics =D

[Hawk7915]

With that much gold, I assume you are playing at a reasonably high level? I'd say not to sweat your AC too much, honestly. You'd need an AC in the high twenties/low thirties to have a shot at reliably dodging most attacks at that level, and when you are eating a -6 for using your abilities (plus spending a lot of time charging for another -2), it just isn't worth it. Grab a Necklace of Con +4 for some extra HP instead, and pour the rest into useful items, further weapon enhancements, and potions.

If you insist on the AC, I think the best bet is a +2 Mithral Fullplate for ~ 14,250. Enough left over for a Ring of Protection +1 and a few potions, too. Assuming you are wearing just +1 Mithral Chain Shirt, this is a +5 AC upgrade and it's still medium armor.

[gallagher]

Well then what is the best miss chance to get with the 19k? I am large sized with 20 foot reach, so I am a bit more worried about arrows and various spells I guess. I should have specified, but I type too quickly sometimes

[Eldariel]

Frankly? Ring of Blinking is probably the most economic; moreso if you have Pierce Magical Concealment. 50% miss chance against most things, 20% against most of the rest. 20% miss chance of your own, but c'est la vie. Until you can afford one, I'd just save money. Other than that, you'll probably want to go for different immunities and DR; getting Starmantle Cloak (longterm investment; that thing costs like 130k), Greater Fortifications Armor, Ring of Freedom of Movement and so on gets you the defenses you want.

This guy outbrawled the Tarrasque; combination of Elusive Target (negates Power Attack), Starmantle Cloak (halves damage on DC 15 Ref-save, which always succeeds with Pride-domain and +13 Reflex; you'd want Pride-domain anyways to succeed in ending Frenzy whenever you want to, so it's pretty much a given), Greater Fortifications (so crits don't break things), Ring of Freedom of Movement (so grapple and such are non-issues) and Demonskin Shirt (DR 3/Good) just minimizes damage from anything really well. He was taking ~50 per full attack (from Big T). Better source of DR (something simple like DR 10/Alignment or /-) would've made him practically immune. Add to that e.g. Soulfire [BoED] for energy drain/negative energy immunity and you're really well off already.

[Jastermereel]

...I am a bit more worried about arrows...

It won't help with the spells but a Greater Crystal of Arrow Deflection is 5K gives you a bonus to ranged AC and lets you pretend you had the Deflect Arrows feat once a round. All you need is armor with a +3 bonus to stick it to.

[Darrin]

It won't help with the spells but a Greater Crystal of Arrow Deflection is 5K gives you a bonus to ranged AC and lets you pretend you had the Deflect Arrows feat once a round. All you need is armor with a +3 bonus to stick it to.

No! Lesser Crystal of Arrow Deflection is a better investment. 2500 GP, and you get a +5 AC vs. all ranged attacks instead of just a +2. The extra +3 AC is going to cause more misses than one deflection/round. And you only need a +1 shield (doesn't work with armor) to attach it to.

For higher AC, get your mithril chain shirt enchanted for 1000 GP.

Add a Heavy Darkwood Shield +1 (+3 AC), 1164 GP. If you need both hands for TWF/THF, you can make it animated for another +8000 GP.

Chahar-Aina (+1 AC, stacks with existing armor/shield bonus), 75 GP
Dastana (+1 AC, stacks with existing armor/shield bonus), 25 GP
Amulet of Natural Armor +1 (+1 natural AC bonus), 2000 GP
Ring of Protection +1 (+1 deflection AC bonus), 2000 GP
Crystal of Arrow Deflection (+5 AC vs. ranged), 2500 GP

That should get you up to AC 22, 27 vs. ranged.

Miss chance tends to be expensive... Minor Cloak of Displacement will set you back 24000 GP (don't bother with the Major version), or the Ring of Blinking is 27000 GP. Potions of blur/blink may have to hold you over until then.

[awa]

ninja
mw dastana and chariama from oriental adventures grant a +2 ac with no armor check penalty for a couple hundred gold that stacks with a chain shirt.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

See if you can switch your Rage to the Whirling Frenzy variant. That would get you an extra attack/round, and it grants +2 AC instead of the -2 for rage, so your frenzy + frenzy wouldn't hurt your AC at all.

[Eldariel]

See if you can switch your Rage to the Whirling Frenzy variant. That would get you an extra attack/round, and it grants +2 AC instead of the -2 for rage, so your frenzy + frenzy wouldn't hurt your AC at all.

Frenzy is -4 so it's still -2, but it'd help. That said, I much prefer just dumping AC, picking miss chances and lots of HP along with eventual Starmantle Cloak (which does everything you want of AC anyways, stopping mooks' attacks entirely and biting huge chunks out of big opponents' attacks). Standard Rage helps a ton there with the Con-bonus. Of course, the extra attack from Whirling Frenzy is absolutely brutal on a Barb, but meh.

[Tinydwarfman]

The awesome answer? Don't. Be the Barn Door that Hits Back.