Do crusaders need a high armor class?

[realbombchu]

I'm just asking for opinions here. The furious counterstrike ability encourages you to take some hits, and I know crusaders usually have the Robilar's Gambit feat from PHB2, so it seems like AC is kind of pointless to a crusader. But no one can take hits constantly, right?

I guess what I'm asking is how much armor I should load my crusader down with to be effective.

[Eldariel]

I'm just asking for opinions here. The furious counterstrike ability encourages you to take some hits, and I know crusaders usually have the Robilar's Gambit feat from PHB2, so it seems like AC is kind of pointless to a crusader. But no one can take hits constantly, right?

I guess what I'm asking is how much armor I should load my crusader down with to be effective.

Some AC helps, as ever. It's mostly true very early on. But no, like most melee characters, Crusaders are best off with other means of defense as the money spent upping your AC can do so much more. AC is just expensive. Unless you have mages providing you with all your AC, which is of course dandy (higher up level ~12-15, Magic Vestment, Shield of Faith and Barkskin alone mean you basically have every source of AC in Core from a handful of spells all day).

[Amphetryon]

Some AC helps, as ever. It's mostly true very early on. But no, like most melee characters, Crusaders are best off with other means of defense as the money spent upping your AC can do so much more. AC is just expensive. Unless you have mages providing you with all your AC, which is of course dandy (higher up level ~12-15, Magic Vestment, Shield of Faith and Barkskin alone mean you basically have every source of AC in Core from a handful of spells all day).

+1. In addition, a Crusader might be more well-suited to items and features that grant DR/- than many other melee frontliners, to help their ability to use their delay damage pool.

[realbombchu]

Okay, this makes sense so far, thanks. I've been playing 3.5 for a while, but not with Bo9S, so I still have a lot to learn. I also almost never play defenders, so I don't play them well.

[Ernir]

Tricky issue.

Crusaders want to take a beating. But obviously, they still don't want to take more damage than they have hit points.

If you're playing in a campaign, I'd start with the bare minimum (a.k.a. nothing but mundane armor). If you find yourself taking more beatings than you can handle, start hunting for stuff like amulets of natural armor, rings of protection, and such.

One thing that rocks on Crusaders is temporary hit points. If you have a constant way to infuse yourself with those, you're going to be awesome.

[true_shinken]

Eldariel is absolutely correct. Listen kindly to his wise words.

[JaronK]

AC changes value depending on level. At level 6 or so, it's great... a suit of Mechanicus Gear will serve you well. But as you level up, you'll find that keeping your AC at a sufficient level to be useful will cost far too much. Defensively, it starts becoming better to get miss chances and other non AC defensive measures. DR isn't worth it either (you can't get enough to matter).

JaronK

[dgnslyr]

One thing about DnD is that at higher levels, it's hard to have enough AC to actually matter. The typical answer for avoiding hits is to get a miss chance, like a Lesser Cloak of Displacement.

A crusader will want to take some hits, and temporary HP is awesome with the delayed damage pool, so the Stone Power feat, which gives you temporary HP in exchange for taking a penalty to hit, is made of win. Having magical sources of temporary HP is also great, like if you can find a way to have someone cast manifest Vigor (the psionic version, not the magic one that gives you fast healing) on you or something.