I'm playing a Kensai Tiefling magus at the moment, and naked it has 17 AC at level 4. I'm taking the Armor of the Pit feat at 5 to bump that up to 19, but I want to make it higher as fast as I can. Problem is, I'm running out of ideas beyond what I've already planned for.
Mage Armor and Shield can get me +8 until I have enough spare gold to buy Bracers of Armor, but a Ring of Force Shield won't help me due to needing my off hand free. I'm sure I can come up with a shield bonus somewhere (if not, I'll just buy a wand of shield later). I already have a Ring of Protection, and I'm intending to make an Amulet of Natural Armor later. I also plan to make a belt of dexterity and headband of intellect to boost those bonuses, and later, a dusty rose ioun stone. I might take Dodge at a later level, but feats are expensive for a +1. I've also considered Combat Expertise, but for right now, the +4/+6 bonus from fighting defensively/total defense is just as good and using both would make hitting things very difficult.
The problem is, that only covers:
Natural + Enhancement
Armor
Dexterity
Deflection
Insight
Dodge
There are still other bonuses though. What ways are there that I can get, for example, a sacred AC bonus?
I'd rather avoid dipping into other classes, so magic items and feats are my preferred method of getting there. Other, unmentioned bonus types would also be helpful.
Instead of Bracers of Armor you could look into getting either Mithril chain shirt or parade armor, as Mithril would reduce the penalties for non-proficiency to 0. It would also give you more AC for you gold than Bracers of Armor and then you can still enchant it normally. The only real issue is that you could have some spell failure chance, 10% with chain shirt and 5% with parade armor. That said it's still decent trade off.
Let's see -- the Kensai lacks the usual Magus immunity to arcane spell failure for light armor, correct?
You could try the haramaki and armored kilt combination and get the haramaki enchanted. You are slowed down as though wearing medium armor (ditch the kilt if that is unacceptable) and have a net +2 armor bonus before appying enchantments. Your arcane spell failure chance still adds up to zero regardless of proficiency.
Also remember that eventually you're going to need to worry about both AC and saves.
And also that eventually, miss chance is going to become more reliable than your AC.
I beg to differ with your advice Chaoseffect but the magus can wear light armor with no arcane spell failure. A chain shirt will give AC+4 with no penalty. Also a ring of force shield incurs no armor check or arcane spell failure. The Amulet of Natural armor is not an option however since it will not stack with the NA bonus given by the Armor of the Pit feat.
I beg to differ with your advice Chaoseffect but the magus can wear light armor with no arcane spell failure. A chain shirt will give AC+4 with no penalty. Also a ring of force shield incurs no armor check or arcane spell failure. The Amulet of Natural armor is not an option however since it will not stack with the NA bonus given by the Armor of the Pit feat.
Both wrong. A normal magus can wear light armor with no arcane spell failure, but a kensai cannot. And the Amulet of Natural Armor (which grants an enhancement bonus to natural armor) stacks just fine with the Armor of the Pit feat (which grants a natural armor bonus).
I also just realized that I missed TC saying he has Mage Armor available... in order to make any Bracers of Armor or mithril armor viable it would have to have more than a +4 bonus as they would not stack. With that in mind mithril armor could still be decent for you, but not really until you can afford to give it a decent plus as well. Until then Mage Armor all the way for your armor bonus.
Oh right, I'd forgotten about the Jingasa. And yeah, Kensai means no armor. For now I've been using a Wand of Mage Armor and just making the UMD check (thanks to the duration I just use it before going into a dangerous area), but I might look into the silken ceremonial robe.
And as for trading out Armor of the Pit for Scaled Skin to free up a crafting feat, I'm not worried. I'm intentionally avoiding the Shocking Grasp/Magical Lineage/Intensified anyway, and I'm taking Craft Wondrous as my bonus feat for 5th level.
So, that adds a luck bonus, and more reliable ways to get an armor bonus (Huh, actually, if you enchant a silken ceremonial robe with an enhancement bonus, that should stack with the base armor bonus of Mage Armor or Bracers of Armor, wouldn't it?) but anyone have any ideas on how to get a Sacred or similar bonus?
Ah, you're right, darn.
Another question; I just found the Gunfighter's Poncho. It gives a +2 luck bonus to Touch AC. Normally I'd assume that it's a +2 to AC AND Touch AC, but given that it's base spell only defends against ranged attacks I'm not sure. Is it only +2 to Touch AC and doesn't help base?
Correct desril, the poncho only boosts touch ac. The idea is that since gunslingers often target touch ac, the boost to touch becomes useful.
Yeah, that looks like what I'll be taking, though it may be more than a few levels until I can take the Additional Traits feat. Also found the Sanguine Talisman (+3 Profane), but it's more expensive than a +5 Amulet of Natural Armor, so not worth the trade off.