Armor for a Scrollmaster wizard

[MindLord]

My character for an upcoming campaign is an Oread Wizard. I wanted an Earth Elementalist that wasn't necessarily a hermit, but wasn't very personable either. He's kind of a medieval geologist. He studies rocks and formations, and after learning everything he can in an area, he moves on.

The main reason for taking the archetype is to change the Arcane Bond feature. I don't want a magic item that can potentially get stolen or broken, and everyone has a familiar.

So, is there anyway to have a Scrollmaster keep a high enough AC to stay in melee combat. Or is there another archetype that is worth taking to change the Arcane Bond. I looked at Primalist and that's kind of interesting, but not much help if your DM isn't using Primal Magic. This one isn't.

[Ravingdork]

At higher levels, tanking as a spellcaster is EASY.

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10 base AC
+8 bracers of armor +8
+6 mithral buckler +5
+6 Dexterity
+5 amulet of natural armor +5
+5 ring of protection +5
+8 natural armor (shapechange into a huge dragon 24/7)
+1 jingasa of the fortunate soldier
+1 dusty rose prism ioun stone
+1 Dodge feat
-2 size
49 TOTAL AC

That's higher than most published creatures and characters can hit without a natural 20. Even the mighty Tarrasque is going to miss more often than not.

[Seranov]

I just read through the Scrollmaster archetype to be sure, but you still don't really want to wear actual Armor as a Scrollmaster.

Scrolls suffer from Arcane Spell Failure from Armor, so you'll want to stick to Mage Armor/Bracers of Armor/Armored Kilts/Ceremonial Silken Armor.

[MindLord]

I didn't actually say I wanted to wear armor, I just want to keep my AC high enough to stay in melee combat.

[LazarX]

Believe it or not...for the Scrollmaster, melee with scrolls is just a beginner's gimmick.

His true power comes much later.

Improved Scroll Casting (Su)

At 10th level, the scrollmaster can cast a Wizard spell from a scroll and use his own Intelligence score and relevant feats to set the DC for the spell, and can use his own caster level if it is higher than that of the scroll (similar to a caster using a staff ). The scrollmaster must have already deciphered the writing on the scroll to use this ability.

[Seranov]

Mage Armor, Bracers of Armor, enchanted Armored Kilt/Ceremonial Silken Armor, a friend willing to cast Barkskin and/or Shield of Faith on you, the Shield spell, I could go on. There are lots of ways to have good AC, but very few you can, or will even want to, have up all the time. Especially if it requires your friends to go out of their way to cast round/level or minute/level buffs on you when they've got their own business to worry about, too.