Anyone know of a good way to boost touch AC without increasing normal AC?

[Yemeth]

I haven't been able to determine any way to actually do this, so I'm probably going to have to do a more thorough rebuild of the bad guys I'm working on.

Freaking alchemist and his casual exploding of all my monsters.

[MrSin]

Ghost Rager rage power for barbarian supercharges saves and touch AC pretty hard.

Can also help to have a short discussion on nova'ing.

[Stephen Ede]

Well you could give them a level in Monk and strip of their normal armour. Increase their Wisdom a bit + give Dodge and it should probably balance out.

[blashimov]

Or - snatch arrows. http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/snatch-arrows-combat---final

Mirror image, illusions, energy resistance - but the fact of the matter is alchemists, like gunslingers, essentially laugh at brute monsters.

You can also attack from outside their range. 100 feet away an enemy archer is taking 0 penalties but an alchemist is at -10 with bombs, -20 with regular alchemists fire.

High winds / wind wall can negate the attacks entirely.

Will saves are also an alchemists weak spot.

Ambushes that get into grips with the party right away - does he have the ability to exclude splash squares?

I also second a discussion with the player - are your other players having fun? It's often trivial to make a character so optimized it's essentially impossible to have a combat where everyone feels like they're contributing, is that the case here? (I've seen a DM torn between having no story at all and telling a player they pretty much just can't play their character).

[williamoak]

There is an item, I beleive, that increases touch AC specifically vs bullets... but that's it.

[Pupsocket]

Get energy resistances instead?

[aegrisomnia]

Really not sure about this, but do an alchemist's bombs work against incorporeal creatures? I guess the explosion is magical in nature, but can you score a "direct hit" against one, or just get splash damage? Maybe I'm overthinking this, but it seems like the bomb isn't magical, per se; it's physical, and might go sailing right through an incorporeal creature. Maybe somebody else can say whether this is a possibility or a dead end...

[blashimov]

You can tell because it has the SU tag. Though it would be an interesting house rule to say the explosion is magical, but you can't shatter it directly on the creature without some sort of ghost touch glass...

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/alchemist

OTOH, if the goop in the glass is magical, that might direct hit the incorporeal even as the glass tries to sail through!

[Umbranus]

There is an archetype (I think fighter) that allows to add his shield AC bonus to touch AC.

[Yemeth]

Thanks for the suggestions. For a little more info if anyone is curious, the character doesn't really go nova, but he's a tiefling with a stupidly high intelligence. I think his base bomb damage is 4d6+13 now, at 8th level. He has a 28 INT, and likes the targeted bomb admixture extract. I'm running Jade Regent right now, and he's about the most frightening thing the Oni could hope to encounter. We're in the middle of Hungry Storm right now, so lots of fire weak monsters as well. The game is kind of crazy over the top, using Mythic rules and some other stuff, I'd say the group, while being 8th level, is closer to ECL 10 or 11. I've gotten an enjoyable amount of screaming from the player for using deflect arrows in the past, so I expect that will come up again as well. He also just picked up dispelling bombs, so I'm hoping I can give him other things to do than just explode s@*$.

and the player is my GF, and she get's a little defensive about her munchkining sometimes. ;p

Resistance and Protection from energy are my good friends, and fortunately their enemies have become aware of what they can do and are able to make efforts to protect themselves. Got a remhoraz coming up soon, that should be pretty funny.

[Judecca Bishop]

I hate to resurrect the thread, but. A lot of people end up looking for high touch AC for one reason or another (players, NPCs, whatnot).

Without being too spastic about numbers, insisting on the highest everywhere (which is frequently unreasonable for one reason or another; how do they afford -that- high an item? How do they -happen- to have 18+ in all the stats that matter?), here are a number of things I've used (Off the top of my head; likely not complete):

*High Dex is, of course, important. Use compatible armor. (Fun fact: The Tower Shield Specialist fighter archetype, a favorite of mine for this sort of thing, increases max dex for tower shields and armor [The ability is meant to apply max dex bonuses to both simultaneously, according to the guy who wrote up the archetype]. A level 3 TSS Fighter wearing Stone Plate wielding a tower shield has a max dex bonus of +3)

*Feats.
-Dodge is always invaluable for a little extra oomph; it applies to AC, Touch AC, and CMD.

-Combat Expertise will let you drop some attack for AC (including Touch and CMD).

*Items.
-Ring of Protection, always good. For a paltry 2000 gold, that's a +1 deflection bonus to AC, including Touch and CMD; or for 8k gold, a +2, and so on.

-Dusty Rose Prism ioun stone will net you a +1 insight bonus to AC, including Touch and CMD.

-A Dex-boosting item can also be had, and the first +1 modifier will only cost you 4k gold, if you haven't hit your armor's max yet.

*Class features.
-Monk, if you have high wisdom and don't need to bother with armor for normal AC, will give you a quick boost that's hard to beat, as has been pointed out.

-Archetypes are also handy for this. Fighter has at least two; Armor Master will grant a +1 to Touch AC specifically at level 2, and +1 more per four levels thereafter. Tower Shield Specialist (Yes; I am biased, here's why: ) won't do anything until level 9, but then adds your shield bonus (including enhancement and Shield Focus bonus) to Touch AC. A +3 Tower Shield will run you just over 9k gold- easy enough at level 9 and, if you have Shield Focus and Greater Shield Focus, nets you a total +9 to your Touch AC.

[Glutton]

There is an item in the reign of winter AP called the cassock of the black monk that adds +4 to touch AC only. However it is worth 36,000 gold because of its other properties. You can probably reverse engineer it to get an idea of what it would be without the oracle enhancing abilities.

[boring7]

Chest-high walls.

Use cover, close to melee.

[RDM42]

Blink, displacement, mirror image ...