How to avoid getting hit with low AC

[Setharious]

So I am kind of being thrown into the deep end of a 3.5 game. I am playing an artificer and have a starting level of 9. My stats have lead me to dumb strength, but it feels like I want to keep a light load making it really hard to have decent ac. My strength is 4, so even leather armor is nearing my light weight carrying capacity. I have a good amount of starting gold though, which has allowed me to purchase an eternal wand of displacement for that 50% chance to avoid getting hit. It doesn't appear to stack with blur of mirror images. What else could I be doing to try not to die? I have been told most of our enemies may be spellcasters.

[Jervis]

It’s been a while since I’ve looked through miss chance rules but iirc overlapping miss changes, while they don’t stack, they do make a enemy roll multiple times against each. So three sources means three rolls missing if you fail any. Someone might know this better than I do so disregard if someone contradicts me.

[Elrak]

I believe there have been a few threads on how to best use Miss chances.

One such can be found here

[Setharious]

I believe there have been a few threads on how to best use Miss chances.

One such can be found here

Oh cool. I will check it out. However I want to specify I wasn't exclusively talking about miss chance. Mirror Images doesn't exclusively do miss chance, but it helps you avoid getting hit without ac and I didn't know if there were other effects that didn't affect miss chance, but did make you harder to be hit. Am I explaining myself well?

[Jervis]

Oh cool. I will check it out. However I want to specify I wasn't exclusively talking about miss chance. Mirror Images doesn't exclusively do miss chance, but it helps you avoid getting hit without ac and I didn't know if there were other effects that didn't affect miss chance, but did make you harder to be hit. Am I explaining myself well?

(Greater) Mage Armor can more or less replace plate. If you’re LG and want to get books thrown at your head then (Greater) Luminous Armor is scary, huge armor bonus to AC and a -4 to anyone attacking you in melee. You’re wearing a dawn spell though so stealth is impossible and people will look at you funny. Expect Drow party members to dislike you. Likewise (repellening) shield is a good minute per level buff, Craft with the quicken spell metamagic for maximum cheese. It probably won’t work but if your DM lets you UMD being a 5th level Abjurant champion to get a +5 to the AC buff from shield (and maybe luminous armor if you feel cheesy) then do it.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Putting effort into being unnoticeable and/or impossible to reach could make up for an extreme lack of AC.

For instance, a tinfoil hat can block anything that relies on actual LoS and LoE of any kind, which everything that targets AC does (with exceptions being abilities that pass through physical matter that are fired blindly, incurring major penalties to attack). Full concealment prevents any and all targeted abilities, including AoOs. Immediate action teleports take place before -- and can interrupt -- any attack made against you, making it auto-fail. Other forms of immediate action movement can do the same, and immediate action attacks used to sunder a weapon can ensure it can't be used to actually attack you. Psionic contingency + synchronicity, for example, can be used for all of these, although technically psionic contingency doesn't actually utilize or expend your immediate action.

And an optimized Hide skill means never having to say you're sorry worry about being noticed in the first place.

[edit] There is using minions as mobile walls for soft cover. You can also apply penalties to enemies' attack rolls through various means, such as alchemical items, skill checks such as Intimidate, and so on.

[bean illus]

So I am kind of being thrown into the deep end of a 3.5 game. I am playing an artificer and have a starting level of 9. My stats have lead me to dumb strength, but it feels like I want to keep a light load making it really hard to have decent ac. My strength is 4, so even leather armor is nearing my light weight carrying capacity. I have a good amount of starting gold though, which has allowed me to purchase an eternal wand of displacement for that 50% chance to avoid getting hit. It doesn't appear to stack with blur of mirror images. What else could I be doing to try not to die? I have been told most of our enemies may be spellcasters.

I assume that your Str is 4, but your Int is towering?

Maybe you started at Int 18? Is that where you put your inherent abilty raises? Can you afford a +2 item, or fox's cunning?

Would you like to add that +7 to your AC, even when flat-footed or vs touch attacks?? How about a +8?

Get your hands on a monk's belt:
If the character is not a monk, she gains the AC and unarmed damage of a 5th-level monk. This Ac bonus functions just like the monk’s AC bonus.
Price 13,000 gp; Weight 1 lb.

One of the best things about this, it stacks with ... well, just about anything.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Delay death + Beastland ferocity makes you immune to death from hp damage until one's or the other's duration expires. Add Extend + Persistent for 48 hour durations on each, and make sure you have access to both fast healing and/or regeneration, if only through Persistent lesser vigor. Doesn't help with non-hp effects, but it's still a huge chunk of what may kill you.

[edit] Astral projection means you don't die when you run out of hp. You just wake up in your actual body.

[Biggus]

I assume that your Str is 4, but your Int is towering?

Maybe you started at Int 18? Is that where you put your inherent abilty raises? Can you afford a +2 item, or fox's cunning?

Would you like to add that +7 to your AC, even when flat-footed or vs touch attacks?? How about a +8?

Get your hands on a monk's belt:
If the character is not a monk, she gains the AC and unarmed damage of a 5th-level monk. This Ac bonus functions just like the monk’s AC bonus.
Price 13,000 gp; Weight 1 lb.

One of the best things about this, it stacks with ... well, just about anything.

I'm confused. A Monk's AC bonus works off Wis, but here you're talking about Int?

[Jervis]

I'm confused. A Monk's AC bonus works off Wis, but here you're talking about Int?

Carmindine Monk feat can make it work off Int, personally I don’t think it’s worth a feat outside of specific situations

[bean illus]

Carmindine Monk feat can make it work off Int, personally I don’t think it’s worth a feat outside of specific situations

Yeah, i forgot to note that part. So, it does cost a level, a feat, and 13k.

On the other hand +8 monk's AC bonus is unnamed. Depending on the build, and the sources allowed, there are a few other minor abilities there (Combat reflexes and IUS?).

[Twurps]

How about a STR boosting item, so you can actually carry decent armor?
It might not be the most cost-efficient solution, but walking around with a STR of 4 is a liability for much more reasons than just your type of armor.
And besides: You're an artificer, you laugh at item creation costs.

[Khedrac]

How about a STR boosting item, so you can actually carry decent armor?
It might not be the most cost-efficient solution, but walking around with a STR of 4 is a liability for much more reasons than just your type of armor.
And besides: You're an artificer, you laugh at item creation costs.

Yes - Strength of 4 is one hit by a shadow and you are hard to raise (i.e. dead, cannot be brought back by raise dead and probably need killing as an undead before they can resurrect you). Even strength 8 is one crit by a shadow and you are coming back as a shadow. Allips may be grossly under-CR'd, but they are a reasonable bunch of opponents at level 9 - how high is your wisdom?

Iirc the Libris Mortis rules for ghosts allow ghosts that can attack any stat - I once DM'd a LG module that had a bunch of ghosts with spring attack that (if I read it correctly) not only had empowered ability drain (1d4*1.5) but could choose which stat to hit - so in the main I chose Charisma as it is a common dump stat - I don't think anyone had seen the master of many forms retreat to will-o-wisp form so fast!

So - check out Armor Crystals - Deflection (penalty for incorporeal undead attacking you) and Missile Deflection (bonus to AC for ranged attacks). Every little helps.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

How about a permanency'd strength of my enemy? A permanent +8 enhancement bonus to your Str score once you've caused enough Str damage, and you can deal Str damage to enemies you hit in either melee or at range. You can hire a manifester to manifest soul crystal (from MoI) with SoME in it, then cast permanency and manifest SoME from the soul crystal yourself.

[edit] Also, you could hire a high level manifester to create a soul crystal of inertial armor. Weighs nothing, lasts 1 hour/ML, grants +4 to AC and incorporeal touch AC +1 per 2 MLs. It's quite nice to have +14 to AC at ML 20 (which can be achieved well before level 20).

[Jervis]

How about a permanency'd strength of my enemy? A permanent +8 enhancement bonus to your Str score once you've caused enough Str damage, and you can deal Str damage to enemies you hit in either melee or at range. You can hire a manifester to manifest soul crystal (from MoI) with SoME in it, then cast permanency and manifest SoME from the soul crystal yourself.

[edit] Also, you could hire a high level manifester to create a soul crystal of inertial armor. Weighs nothing, lasts 1 hour/ML, grants +4 to AC and incorporeal touch AC +1 per 2 MLs. It's quite nice to have +14 to AC at ML 20 (which can be achieved well before level 20).

How do you permanency spells not on the list?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

How do you permanency spells not on the list?

...Good point.

One could always use the (un)hallow/acorn of far travel trick.

[icefractal]

Carmindine Monk feat can make it work off Int, personally I don’t think it’s worth a feat outside of specific situations

Questionable if just having a Monk's Belt qualifies you for that feat, given the need to be in a specific monk order. It's worth the level in Gestalt, but not IMO worth being behind in casting for.

That said, as an Artificer, the ability to treat your whole body as a weapon has some potential too.

[Maat Mons]

Even if you don't want to invest in AC, armor serves as a receptacle for magical special abilities, so I recommend getting some.

One of the best light-weight armors is Spidersilk (Underdark, p66), coming in at 5 pounds for +3 AC. If that's too heavy, Nightscale (Underdark, p66) and Feather Cloak (Sandstorm, p99) are each 3 pounds for +2 AC. Whatever you choose, you can cast Magic Vestment on it for a little extra AC.

Feycraft (Dungeon Master's Guide II, p274) reduces the weight of armor by 10%. If Dragon Magazine is on the table, Lightweight (Dragon354, p42) reduces weight by 20%. Shadowsilk (Tome of Magic, p155) reduces weight by 75%, but isn't compatible with the armors I listed above.



Unfortunately, I don't believe it's generally possible to force multiple miss chance rolls on a single attack.

If a creature receives miss chances from multiple sources, such as from being incorporeal and having concealment, only the highest miss chance applies.

If a creature receives miss chances from multiple sources, such as from being incorporeal and having concealment, they don’t stack. Only the highest miss chance applies.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Even if you don't want to invest in AC, armor serves as a receptacle for magical special abilities, so I recommend getting some.

One of the best light-weight armors is Spidersilk (Underdark, p66), coming in at 5 pounds for +3 AC. If that's too heavy, Nightscale (Underdark, p66) and Feather Cloak (Sandstorm, p99) are each 3 pounds for +2 AC. Whatever you choose, you can cast Magic Vestment on it for a little extra AC.

Feycraft (Dungeon Master's Guide II, p274) reduces the weight of armor by 10%. If Dragon Magazine is on the table, Lightweight (Dragon354, p42) reduces weight by 20%. Shadowsilk (Tome of Magic, p155) reduces weight by 75%, but isn't compatible with the armors I listed above.



Unfortunately, I don't believe it's generally possible to force multiple miss chance rolls on a single attack.

The Rules Compendium is wrong. If you have a chance to miss because you're potentially firing in the wrong spot altogether (blur), and because there's a chance the target is ethereal (blink), there's no way you have a 100% chance on one just because you made the other, because even if you happen to fire in the right place in space, there's still a chance that target isn't even on the same plane of existence.

[Twurps]

The Rules Compendium is wrong. If you have a chance to miss because you're potentially firing in the wrong spot altogether (blur), and because there's a chance the target is ethereal (blink), there's no way you have a 100% chance on one just because you made the other, because even if you happen to fire in the right place in space, there's still a chance that target isn't even on the same plane of existence.

"Mayday! Mayday! common sense detected"

Although I fully agree with your logic, and I might even rule it that way in games I DM. the whole 'rules are wrong because logic' argument is never going to hold RAW, and in this case even RAI (for me, and I'm guessing most people, RAI is tricky though..). I'm actually not even sure I want it to hold. We're playing a game here where magic is a thing. Magic and logic don't exist on the same plane.