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What are the most economical/efficient ways to gain AC besides wearing armour in your armor slot? Items? Feats? Traits?
There is having a high DEX obviously, the dodge feat, bracers of armour, and a number of wondrous items I can't think of. What would you folks suggest for levels ~5-12 (as a PFS character, that's where we're capped)?
Levels in monk for bonus from wisdom, levels in kensai magus or duelist for bonus from initiative, several teamwork feats ( or other feats that require teamwork), cover, spells, etc
I meant intelligence not initiative, sorry
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Ring of Protection +1-5 Deflection
Bracers of Armor +1-8 Armor
Amulet of Natural Armor +1-5 Enhancement to Natural Armor
Belt of Dexterity +2-6 (+1-3 AC)
Dusty Rose Prism Ioun Stone +1 Insight
Jinghasa of the Fortunate Soldier +1 Luck (+2 with Fate's Favored)
1. Be a Monk
2. Get a Wizard/Sorcerer to cast Mage Armor on you
3. Be an Oracle with the Wind, Waves, Winter, Bones, Heavens, or Dark Tapestry Mysteries. You get a scaling Mage Armor for [Oracle Level] hours per day.
Be prepared to spend a lot of gold on the items that mplindustries listed.
1) Fight defensively for +2 dodge bonus to AC. To improve this,
a. Take Crane Style to reduce the penalty from -4 to -2 and add +1 AC.
b. Put 3 ranks in Acrobatics for an additional +1 AC.
c. If you're a Halfling, take Cautious Fighter for an additional +2 AC.
2) Snapping Crane Style gives you +1 shield bonus to AC if you have one hand free.
3) Combat Expertise gives you a dodge bonus to AC in exchange for a penalty to hit.
4) Cloak of the Hedge Wizard, abjuration, lets you cast Shield once per day without UMD (+4 shield bonus, works vs. incorporeal).
Alchemists get a +2 natural armor bonus with their mutagens, and they have access to magic to further boost themselves. The mutagen could also add to your DEX, but that increase in AC costs you in will saves.
We all know about monks, but the Monk of the sacred mountain archetype trades in evasion for toughness as a bonus feat and +1 natural armor. They also get a shield bonus (+2) if they start and end their turn in the same spot. They also get 1 DR at level 9, but I somewhat doubt that this is relevant to you, since you sound like you have a preexisting character you are working for.
potions of natural armor, potions of mage armor. If you're in a large city you might be able to buy extracts of shield (alchemist with infusion discovery and are available to use for 24 hrs).
there are a good deal of other suggestions in this thread. I had a rogue who would use the defensive property of his weapon to add to his ac. (trade enhancement for dodge bonus i believe). Generally I'd see what spellcasting classes are in your party, look at their spellist and buy them scrolls or a wand to use on you pre-combat.
It would be really helpful to know what class you're playing. The Shield spell can be a nice AC booster though. Even if you're not a caster you can use a wand via the Use Magic Device skill, and it is dirt cheap for +4 AC.
Another way to boost AC is to get an animal companion with the Bodyguard feat. Cavaliers, Druids, Paladins, Rangers, and Sorcerers can all use this. Depending on what archetypes are available it could work for Barbarians and maybe some other folks too. I'm not sure if Benevolent armor is available in PFS, but even without it the +2 AC can be nice.
Gunman's Duster (+4 AC, 1 grit per day), Body slot item.
Snakeskin Tunic (Chest). +1 AC, +2 Dex (with another +1 ac), chest slot item.
It seems nobody mentioned Dodge, straight +1 to ac.
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It would be really helpful to know what class you're playing. The Shield spell can be a nice AC booster though. Even if you're not a caster you can use a wand via the Use Magic Device skill, and it is dirt cheap for +4 AC.
The plan is to be a rogue who takes advantage of the Moonlight Stalker feat chain, ergo I'll be wearing mistmail, ergo I'll need some other form of AC.
Thanks for all the suggestions! I'll be reading into most of them. Dodge bonuses DO stack, right (as opposed to enhancement or armor bonuses)?
scroll/wand of shield is great, +4 AC including vs. non-corporeal Touch is great,
but it's a personal spell so you have to activate it yourself (UMD), no allies casting it on you...
the jingasa hat (already mentioned upthread) is nice because it also negates crits 1/day,
non-crits are more often manageable but it is the crits that can quickly take you into dead-meat territory.
The plan is to be a rogue who takes advantage of the Moonlight Stalker feat chain, ergo I'll be wearing mistmail, ergo I'll need some other form of AC.
AC is actually much less important if you have miss chance, but I have to think there's an easier way to gain concealment than using a once/day item like that.
Heck, even just a Wand of Blur would be better for the most part.
1. Be a Monk
2. Get a Wizard/Sorcerer to cast Mage Armor on you
3. Be an Oracle with the Wind, Waves, Winter, Bones, Heavens, or Dark Tapestry Mysteries. You get a scaling Mage Armor for [Oracle Level] hours per day.Be prepared to spend a lot of gold on the items that mplindustries listed.
Or you could just have the Nature or Lore mystery and add Charisma to AC(instead of dex), via Nature's Whispers and Sidestep Secret, respectively.
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The plan is to be a rogue who takes advantage of the Moonlight Stalker feat chain, ergo I'll be wearing mistmail, ergo I'll need some other form of AC.AC is actually much less important if you have miss chance, but I have to think there's an easier way to gain concealment than using a once/day item like that.
Heck, even just a Wand of Blur would be better for the most part.
I admit that mistmail is not the perfect solution, but it is a cheap and easy solution. At a measly 2,250 GP a PFS character can acquire it at level three.
Well, I had thought about trying to get a wand of Blur (4500gp, correct?), but I wanted a way to gain concealment *consistently.* As a rogue, using a wand of Blur would be a DC20 UMD check. At fifth level with CHA 14 and assuming I maxed out UMD ranks, I would only be at a +10, I.E. I would fail that roll half the time and waste my turn (potentially the next turn as well). It didn't sound like such a good idea. Am I missing something about how wands and UMD work?
By level seven or eight (when I can afford it) a Cloak of Displacement (24,000 GP) seems to be the best way to go about it. It sounds crazy for this item to cost 10x as much as another item which does the same thing!
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1) Fight defensively for +2 dodge bonus to AC. To improve this,
a. Take Crane Style to reduce the penalty from -4 to -2 and add +1 AC.
b. Put 3 ranks in Acrobatics for an additional +1 AC.
c. If you're a Halfling, take Cautious Fighter for an additional +2 AC.2) Snapping Crane Style gives you +1 shield bonus to AC if you have one hand free.
Fight Defensively with 3+ ranks in acrobatics with a blocking weapon. +3 dodge, +1shield. If you have crane style, dodge goes up to +4. Combat Expertise on top and you get a scaling dodge bonus. With a rouge, I believe it goes to +6 by 12th level in PFS. But wand of blur is better overall.
The Crane Stance feat tree sounds awesome! I had not read about them until I heard them mentioned in this thread. After reading what they do, I have convinced myself that my next character MUST be a Monk to make use of these feats!
You know, the Minor Cloak of Displacement is pretty good. Sure, it's 30% less "displacey", but it's active all the time.
I have often considered bringing in feats or rules from other d20 games from genres where armor just really isn't common, to let PCs have decent ACs without having to strap 50 pounds of metal to their bodies.
Looking at the description for Mistmail, it does not have a duration for it to be in "mist form", so couldn't it get activated in the "morning" and just remain the 20% miss chance all day long?
Yeah, that's definitely missing text. My take on the RAI is that it should mimic the duration of Obscuring Mist at CL 3 (the CL of the armor), but that should really be explicitly stated rather than just implied.
In a normal game, I think most GMs would handle it as obscuring mist. In PFS, I have no idea what procedure they'd use.
The Crane Stance feat tree sounds awesome! I had not read about them until I heard them mentioned in this thread. After reading what they do, I have convinced myself that my next character MUST be a Monk to make use of these feats!
You do NOT have to be a monk to use or qualify for the Crane Style feats. You just need the Improved Unarmed Strike, Dodge, and BAB +2.
Sure monks pre-qualify for it, but you could just as easily be an unarmed fighter.
Mistmail is solid(ironically). The only problem I see with it is it takes the armor slot, do you have blur OR armor, instead of blur AND armor.
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What are the most economical/efficient ways to gain AC besides wearing armour in your armor slot? Items? Feats? Traits?
There is having a high DEX obviously, the dodge feat, bracers of armour, and a number of wondrous items I can't think of. What would you folks suggest for levels ~5-12 (as a PFS character, that's where we're capped)?
Classes:
1 level of Monk Would get you a bonus of your Wis modifier to your flat-footed, touch, and normal AC along with your CMD.(unarmored)4 levels of Monk for Ki Pool(monk) for +4 to Ac per round of use
4-12 levels of Druid would get you a Wildshape to a certain degree, and depending on form would change how much Natural Armor you gained(and possibly your Dex score too!)
Equipment:
Bracers of Armor(Uses Mage Armor essentially)
Monk's Robe
SnakeSkin Vest(or something like that)
Ring of Protection(Uses Shield of Faith essentially)
Amulet of Natural Armor(uses Barkskin essentially)
Spells:
Mage Armor
Shield(spell)
Barkskin
Shield of Faith
Actions:
Full Defense
Fighting Defensively
Feats:
Mobility(+4 ac while on the move)
You should go to "http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats" and do a ctrl+f and search "AC". Any feat that modifies AC should be listed in the short description at least.
That is all I can think of off the top of my head atm.
You can add Gunman's Duster (+4 AC, +1 Grit) Body slot armor item
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For higher level PFS play realize that AC while useful diminishes in value at higher levels ( where monsters may have a +20-25 or higher to hit).
Not neccesarily. That situation is where you fight those solo baddies for the whole encounter. Usually if you are attacking a bunch of enemies, they would be at around +10-15.
Now going though my High AC PFS character (50 AC @ 12), here is what I can give out, though many are those that people already pointed out before:
- Monk Class - Add Wisdom Bonus to AC if not wearing any armor
- Duelist Prestiege Class - Add Intellect Bonus to AC (Bonus caps at current Prestiege Level)
- Dodge Feat - +1 AC (Dodge)
- Halfing or Gnome Race - +1 AC (Size)
- Underfoot (Halfling) - +1 AC (Dodge) against Larger Creatures
- Scaled Skin Racial Trait (Tiefling) - +1 AC (Natural)
- Armor of the Pit (Tiefling) - +2 AC (Natural)
- Iron Hide (Dwarf; Half-Orc) - +1 AC (Natural)
- Fighting Defensively - +2 AC (Dodge), add +1 AC (Dodge) if at least 3 ranks in Acrobatics
- Cautious Fighter (Halfling) - +2 AC (Dodge) if Fighting Defensively/Total Defense
- Crane Style - +1 AC (Dodge) if Fighting Defensively/Total Defense
- Ring of Protection - +1-5 AC (Deflection)
- Amulet of Natural Armor - +1-5 AC (Natural)
- Jingasa of the Fortunate Soldier - +1 AC (Luck), add +1 AC (Luck) if having Fate's Favored Trait
- Dusty Rose Prism Ioun Stone - +1 AC (Insight)
- Combat Expertise Feat - +1 AC (Dodge) for a -1 Attack per 4 Levels
- Osyluth Guile - Add Charisma Bonus to AC (Dodge) when Fighting Defensively/Total Defense; Single Target
- Ring of Foe Focus - +2 AC (Unnamed); Single Target
- Bracers of Armor - +1-8 AC (Armor)
- Mobility - +4 AC (Dodge) when moving
- Snakeskin Tunic - +1 AC (Armor), +2 DEX (Enhancement), +2 vs Poisons (Resistance); Chest Slot Item
- Gunman's Duster - +4 AC (Armor), +2 AC (Luck) vs Touch Attacks, add +1 AC (Luck) if having Fate's Favored Trait
- Mage Armor Spell - +4 AC (Armor), includes incoporeal attacks
- Shield of Faith Spell- +2 AC (Deflection), add +1 AC (Deflection) per 6 Caster Level
- Shield Spell - +4 AC (Shield)
- Ring of Force Shield - +2 AC (Shield)
- Blocking Weapon - +1 AC (Shield) if Fighting Defensivly
- Two Weapon Defense Feat - +1 AC (Shield) if wielding two weapons
- Shield of Swings - +4 AC (Shield) by reducing damage output by 50%
This is all the ones I can currently think of. I know that there are a bunch of other spells that can increase AC, but I am not going to list all of them.
Or you could just have the Nature or Lore mystery and add Charisma to AC(instead of dex), via Nature's Whispers and Sidestep Secret, respectively.1. Be a Monk
2. Get a Wizard/Sorcerer to cast Mage Armor on you
3. Be an Oracle with the Wind, Waves, Winter, Bones, Heavens, or Dark Tapestry Mysteries. You get a scaling Mage Armor for [Oracle Level] hours per day.Be prepared to spend a lot of gold on the items that mplindustries listed.
instead.... not in addition...
Nature's Whispers (Ex): You have become so attuned to the whispers of the natural world, from the croaking of frogs to the groaning of great boulders, that your surroundings constantly keep you preternaturally aware of danger. You may add your Charisma modifier, instead of your Dexterity modifier, to your Armor Class and CMD. Any condition that would cause you to lose your Dexterity modifier to your Armor Class instead causes you to lose your Charisma modifier to your Armor Class.
I never said in addition. In fact, I specifically said the opposite.