(pfs) how to best solve ac problems for a 2h paladin?


Advice

Silver Crusade

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Hey everyone,

Recently i've ran into some problems with my paladin's armor class in the higher level modules (10-11 range of the 7-11's). My character is a 9th (soon 10th) level human paladin (uses nodachi/power attack crit build) with a base ac of 24 (+1 fullplate, 1 dex, 2 am. Natural armor, 1 ring of deflection). Additionally, he makes heavy use of umd wands to among others cast shield in fights. If both smite evil/angel bond and shield are up then his ac is effectively 31. Most of his gold was spent on improving saving throws and his weapon. Using rage would drop it to 29 (one level bloodrager dip).

Up until now this ac combined with optimized lay in hands (mercy/feywild foundling) has always been more than enough to get by. However, ive noticed that enemies at the 10-11 range get dramatic boosts in both their accuracy, damage and attacks per round. There was a dragon in one of the recent modules that attacked 6 times per round with +27ish to all attacks which basically meant it almost couldnt miss me even with full buffs and no rage. Even if i'd spent all my gold on 3 extra ac, that still would have hit on a 7+. Its damage output was around 80-100 per round which one rounded everyone in the party except me (and it did, the 35 ac kensai also had a bad time). In that fight, im fairly sure i would have died if there hadnt been a cleric healing me for an additional 50-60 hp per round.

An somewhat related concern is that ive also recently seen a 95 damage crit from a monster outright killing another player even though he was at near full hp.

I currently have around 18 k gold ( was saving for a bracers of the merciful/avenfing knight since id had advance warning that ac would be less valuable at high levels) with around 22 k after next session which will be a level up.

So... What should i do with this money and the next level up to be more survivable?

I can see a few options:
- bite the bullet, spend the money on improving loh and soon after charisma and constitution but not ac. This would increase self healing a lot and improve the major strength, his saves and smite evil, further. Higher hp gives some indirect crit protection.
-spend the money on a 4 point ac increase (plate to +4 and buy insight ioun stone +1).
-sell the plate, buy a +3 mythril breastplate and an upgrade to headband of charisma, take a level of dual cursed oracle with deep one curse and misfortune and sidestep secret revelations. This would increase ac by 4, movement speed by 15 ft, all saves by 1, reflex by an additional 5 and will by 2. Also, it gives crit protection from the misfortune ability (and some mostly useless spells). The bad thing is that it looses 1 bab and delays the paladin abilities by 1 level. Also, it would require training away greater mercy which would further weaken loh until it can be regained at 11 and misfortune competes with both smite evil and loh for my swift actions.

I'm having a lot of trouble choosing an option and also wonder if there are perhaps options im not aware of. Does anyone have any advice?


Another + to your Armor is only 3000gp.

As a Paladin, your Charisma mod does improve your AC when Smiting Evil.

There are the Ironskin, Litany of Defense spells.

Get a Familiar somehow. Give your Familiar the Protector Archetype. Level 1 Protector Familiars have the Bodyguard and Combat Reflexes feats, effectively giving you +2 AC. Level 5 Familiars protect their Familiars with Shield Other. There is the Familiar Bond Feat. If you get your Familiar via a level in Wizard, you also can use lots of kinds of Wands, including Shield, without use of Use Magical Device. If you get your Familiar via 2 levels in Alchemist (Tumor Familiar Discovery), your Familiar gets Fast Healing 5 which would offset the damage it takes from Shield Other. Plus, Alchemists have that Mutagen and a wide variety of other options for self-buffing.

Gain a Miss Chance, like Blur or Blink. Take Dirty Tricks feats and make your opponent Blind. Blind your opponents with an Eversmoking Bottle. This makes you Blind, too, so you will need some means of coping with Blindness, such as Scent + the Blindfighting Feat.

Silver Crusade

You have the gold for a wand of displacement. UMD that thing.


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Fighting Defensively - +2 Dodge AC (+3 with 3 ranks Acrobatics/Aldori Caution Trait, +4 with both)
Extra +1 to Full Plate - +1 Armor AC (3,000 gp)
Dusty Rose Prism (Normal) Ioun Stone - +1 Insight AC (5,000 gp)
Extra +1 to Ring of Protection - +1 Deflection AC (6,000 gp)
Boots of Speed - +1 AC (12,000 gp)

However as mentioned by others, beyond level 10 you'll mostly rely on your hit points and saves rather than your AC for defences. Miss chance from Blur or Displacement can also increase your effective defences. Every class should have enough tools and tricks to let them debuff the enemy and manipulate the battlefield to their advantage. If you're just standing trading full attacks with the enemy, you're not going to get far at this level.

Liberty's Edge

Yeah, I think blur or blink is your best bet - plus increased charisma. You might hit things pretty easily while smiting, so consider combat expertise, fighting defensively. If you play with a regular group, see if you can pull together some debuffs, like sickened, shaken, entangled, fatigued, slowed, etc.


Sometimes, the best defense is a good offense. Perhaps instead of boosting AC, you can boost your damage and initiative along with mobility.

Scarab Sages

Another +1 to your armor is cheap.

Keep in mind that your charisma bonus to AC from smite evil is a deflection bonus, so it doesn't stack with the ring of protection. That just means upgrading the ring is less beneficial for you than for other characters.

Finding a way to get a miss chance is good.

You really shouldn't need to dip another class just to be viable as a paladin at that level. If you can get to 35 AC, I think that will be fine. It sounds like you ran into an enemy with particularly high attack and damage rolls. It happens from time to time.


2000 gold for the Buffering Cap for Crit protection (1/day turns crit damage into non-lethal).
What Belt have you got? As mentioned, you should be able to tank via volume of HP+loH. Assuming a starting Con of 14 and a +4 belt of Str and Con you should be at over 11 HP per level.
Having said that, even a 25% chance for an enemy to miss with 1 of 4 attacks when its averaging 25 per hit is worth upping your AC for.
If you're tempted by the Oracle level, swap the BRager level for it instead of taking it instead of a Paly level - you want the LoH and Smite progression of 10 levels of Paly. As mentioned by a number of people Smite gives you a deflection bonus, upping your AC, and in PFS 4 Smites should be enough for 1 per fight.


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As you've noticed, 10-11 is really where the gloves have come off. It can be rough before then, but IME there aren't really any easy scenarios in this range. Here are my ramblings.

Critical hits
Fortification in your armor can be a life saver. Having oodles of powerful LoH does you no good if you can pasted before you can use them. 1st level paladin spell, Hero's Defiance is worth prepping at least twice.

Hit Points
If you've already spent a bunch of gold hoping saves, I'd go for that belt of con now. Hp is very important and the more you can afford to lose, the better.

Damage
Many people say this: the best defense is a great offense. IMO this is only true when AC stops to matter (around the point you are at). Are there anyways to up your damage? Rage is good, I'd you are noticing that you are being hit the whole time, what's another - 2 going to hurt? Rage it up. Consider a furious enchantment on your weapon.

Party
The higher up you go, the more important each party member is. If you have people not contributing, unprepared, or have glaring deficiencies try offering some suggestions to them. I'm spoiled in that my local PFS group has ridiculous system mastery and are always prepared. This makes a huge difference in success rates. This ties in with the best section, but are you guys consistently buffing before combat? I recommend this as best as you can. It is unlikely you have pounce, so positioning is huge for you. Can party members help you with this? Things like dimension door, travel clerics, and conjuration wizards can really help you here.

Your combat actions
Are you starting every combat with a standard action to use your shield wand? If so, either start preemptively buffing or forget the wand. As a melee focused character, you should be putting pressure on the opponent as quickly as you can. Every round an enemy is alive is another full attack, another harm, another disintegrate.

EDIT:
Prestige Points
PFS has unrivaled access to consumable items. This comes in the form of using prestige points to acquire them. What have you been using them for? What does your local group typically use them for? That 40pp island sounds cool, but having scrolls of deathward when you fight the uberlich or having that scroll of circle of prot evil when the barbarian gets dominated keeps you alive. The other day a scroll of silence was the MVP in the game I ran. The character didn't do a lot for most of the scenario, but he was prepared with a library of scrolls and it saves them from a brutal encounter.


/Agree with Gummy Bear on consumables and action economy.


Scott Wilhelm wrote:

Another + to your Armor is only 3000gp.

As a Paladin, your Charisma mod does improve your AC when Smiting Evil.

There are the Ironskin, Litany of Defense spells.

Get a Familiar somehow. Give your Familiar the Protector Archetype. Level 1 Protector Familiars have the Bodyguard and Combat Reflexes feats, effectively giving you +2 AC. Level 5 Familiars protect their Familiars with Shield Other. There is the Familiar Bond Feat. If you get your Familiar via a level in Wizard, you also can use lots of kinds of Wands, including Shield, without use of Use Magical Device. If you get your Familiar via 2 levels in Alchemist (Tumor Familiar Discovery), your Familiar gets Fast Healing 5 which would offset the damage it takes from Shield Other. Plus, Alchemists have that Mutagen and a wide variety of other options for self-buffing.

Gain a Miss Chance, like Blur or Blink. Take Dirty Tricks feats and make your opponent Blind. Blind your opponents with an Eversmoking Bottle. This makes you Blind, too, so you will need some means of coping with Blindness, such as Scent + the Blindfighting Feat.

paladins CANT use dirty tricks, it is the exact opposite ot "fighting with honor" Dogma

Silver Crusade

Lots of good advice here!

@Scott Wilheml: Ironskin is a really solid spell that I didn't know about and I will definitely be using that from now on, thanks! I'm considering blur as a wand as well as soon as the funds allow it.

@Talos: Displacement is very powerful, but the wand is both really expensive and the duration really short (5 rounds). Since it's not always perfectly possible to predict when you're attacked, that makes it a bit harder to use. It might still be worth it since the major threats this would be needed for are so rare that it might see me through all of it. Though... if i am that less likely to be hit, wouldn't the boss just go for the others and one round kill the squishies?

@JDLPF Good call on fighting defensively, i've rarely if ever seen that used but with 3 points in acrobatics (class skill via bloodrager) and smite to compensate for accuracy penalty that could really help in tight situations. All those items were the ones I was considering next except the boots, I've already got the winged boots which I kinda desperately need to get around and chase all those flying targets.

@ Lathira: There isn't that much I can still do to boost my offense further I believe. AFAIK, I could upgrade the str belt and the cha headband to their +4 counterparts for 24 k which would translate to +1 hit and +2 damage with an additional +1 hit vs evil creatures. That is against a scale of current attacks (assuming divine favor +2, rage, power attack and smite evil) of +23 vs ac and 1d10+33/35 (41/43 if evil) damage. So that would be less than a 10% increase in to hit bonus and 5 to 10-ish percent damage increase. I personally think the damage output is currently good enough, the problem is survival. Charisma might still help with that since it comes with a lot of side benefits.

@ Conjoy I currently have a +2 str belt. A +4 belt of str and con costs a massive 36000 gold to upgrade to which is over 50% more than what I currently have. If I fight in rage, I do effectively have 18 con and tons of hp.

So, if I try to take everyone's advice:
-Upgrade charisma headband (12 k)
-Upgrade the armor twice or armor and insight ioun stone (8k)
-Buy a wand of Blur (2,25 k)
-Prepare a stoneskin spell
-Put 3 skill points in acrobatics next level for fight defensively

Which seems good and is in line with the budget.

Dark Archive

Alright, first the bad news. The Ironskin spell hasn't been legal in PFS since July 9, 2015... It was legal, but not anymore. It really is too bad, but we have to live with it...

As for AC boosting options, most has already been said. The Dusty Rose Ione Stone, increasing the Armor enhancements, fighting defensively and stuff. I do not know whatever you got planned for further levels, but if you haven't decided on feats and class levels yet, there are some other options as well. Dodge is always a simple feat, but you really need to check if you find it worthy for one of your feat slots. And with two levels of Vigilante, you can pick up the Vigilante Talent Shield of Blades. This gives you Power Attack as bonus feat, and if you already have it you get a free-of-charge retrain of that feat for something else. Furthermore, if you use Power Attack on all your strikes, you gain a Shield bonus to your AC equal to the Power Attack penalty you took. At your level, that would be a +3 to AC, without having to time your wand of Shield to perfection each time.

Now the good news: such creatures are rare in PFS. But when they do appear, almost everyone has the same problem as you do. And in case of dragons, they usually have true seeing, meaning that stuff like blur/displacement/invisibility does not work on them. You need to try and make sure they do not have much opportunities to gain full attacks, because they have a lot of them and they hurt. So range it, ask the casters for shutdown and support, and stuff like that. Because one-on-one, you're very unlikely to win. This is why it is a team-game


A 2H character is just not going to have as good an AC as a character more focused on defense, so your best bet is to work on inflicting damage to your enemies and mitigating damage to yourself. Boost your strength. Power attack. Prepare heroic defiance for if you get knocked below zero. Cast things like divine favor and archon's aura. LOH yourself as a swift a few times to keep fighting when your HP get too low. Get the wizard to cast stoneskin and resist energy on you. Take the mirrored property on your armor for that touch AC boost if somebody is shooting really nasty rays like enervation at you.

Liberty's Edge

Trevor86 wrote:

Hey everyone,

Recently i've ran into some problems with my paladin's armor class in the higher level modules (10-11 range of the 7-11's). My character is a 9th (soon 10th) level human paladin (uses nodachi/power attack crit build) with a base ac of 24 (+1 fullplate, 1 dex, 2 am. Natural armor, 1 ring of deflection). Additionally, he makes heavy use of umd wands to among others cast shield in fights. If both smite evil/angel bond and shield are up then his ac is effectively 31. Most of his gold was spent on improving saving throws and his weapon. Using rage would drop it to 29 (one level bloodrager dip).

Up until now this ac combined with optimized lay in hands (mercy/feywild foundling) has always been more than enough to get by. However, ive noticed that enemies at the 10-11 range get dramatic boosts in both their accuracy, damage and attacks per round. There was a dragon in one of the recent modules that attacked 6 times per round with +27ish to all attacks which basically meant it almost couldnt miss me even with full buffs and no rage. Even if i'd spent all my gold on 3 extra ac, that still would have hit on a 7+. Its damage output was around 80-100 per round which one rounded everyone in the party except me (and it did, the 35 ac kensai also had a bad time). In that fight, im fairly sure i would have died if there hadnt been a cleric healing me for an additional 50-60 hp per round.

An somewhat related concern is that ive also recently seen a 95 damage crit from a monster outright killing another player even though he was at near full hp.

I currently have around 18 k gold ( was saving for a bracers of the merciful/avenfing knight since id had advance warning that ac would be less valuable at high levels) with around 22 k after next session which will be a level up.

So... What should i do with this money and the next level up to be more survivable?

I can see a few options:
- bite the bullet, spend the money on improving loh and soon after charisma and constitution but not ac. This would...

I play a pally as well, but went sword and board. I just added Crusading to my +1 plate as I have stacked Charisma. As a swift action I can activate the crusading for a +2 sacred bonus to ac (+3 vs evil outsiders, evil dragons and undead). Its only a +1 bump cost wise to the armor. And its a sacred bonus so stacks with all your other ac buffs.


I wouldn't suggest any more dips as this is a L9 PFS character. May as well finish out as a paladin. But, yes, the armor, ioun stone, and fighting defensively are good. Don't bother upgrading the ring.
Sipping Jacket + Potion of Displacement gives you a better action economy (though it does require a swift).
Against a foe with seven attacks at +27, don't trade full attacks if you can help it. Attack and move, eating the AOO to only trade 2-for-1 instead of 7-to-1.5. However, if you can't move and have to tie it up in melee so the gunslinger or wizard or whoever can do their thing, fight defensively and don't rage (unless Urban Bloodrager), as long as you are still doing enough damage to warrant its attention. That +5 AC might make a big difference.
Most of all, be willing to vary your tactics depending on the situation and teammates. Barroom Brawler is a good feat if you take it with the mindset that you don't just have a hammer and not everything is a nail (you are not always using BB for Dedicated Adversary). Sometimes all-out offense is fine, sometimes you are holding back the enemy so others can focus on dealing damage, and Shield of Swings might be called for.
I would say 33-35 AC at 10th is an excellent target to aim for.


Pathfinder Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I would like to second the suggestion of Fortification on the armor rather than another +1. Critical hits cause huge spikes in damage which Fortification can prevent.

With the relatively recent change to how upgrades are handled, you could eventually upgrade from the light to moderate fortification.

Fortification plus the buffering cap mentioned above are probably your best defense against critical hits.


666bender wrote:
Scott Wilhelm wrote:

Another + to your Armor is only 3000gp.

As a Paladin, your Charisma mod does improve your AC when Smiting Evil.

There are the Ironskin, Litany of Defense spells.

Get a Familiar somehow. Give your Familiar the Protector Archetype. Level 1 Protector Familiars have the Bodyguard and Combat Reflexes feats, effectively giving you +2 AC. Level 5 Familiars protect their Familiars with Shield Other. There is the Familiar Bond Feat. If you get your Familiar via a level in Wizard, you also can use lots of kinds of Wands, including Shield, without use of Use Magical Device. If you get your Familiar via 2 levels in Alchemist (Tumor Familiar Discovery), your Familiar gets Fast Healing 5 which would offset the damage it takes from Shield Other. Plus, Alchemists have that Mutagen and a wide variety of other options for self-buffing.

Gain a Miss Chance, like Blur or Blink. Take Dirty Tricks feats and make your opponent Blind. Blind your opponents with an Eversmoking Bottle. This makes you Blind, too, so you will need some means of coping with Blindness, such as Scent + the Blindfighting Feat.

paladins CANT use dirty tricks, it is the exact opposite ot "fighting with honor" Dogma

I think the only thing particularly dirty about Dirty Tricks is the name. I don't think there is a specific rule that prohibits Paladins from using them.

Paladin wrote:
a paladin’s code requires that she... act with honor

That's the closest thing I could find to a rule supporting your position.

But while I certainly believe in conducting yourself with honor, I don't believe there is such a thing as fighting with honor, unless you're talking about a high school wrestling match or something. When you are talking about real fighting, not an exercise between gentlemen, when you are in a real fight with people you don't know, and deadly weapons are involved, you have passed out of the realm of civil, honorable conduct. The honor goes to the one who is still standing.

Meanwhile, even if I did believe in honorable, deadly, combat, I really don't see why using nonlethal force to debuff your opponent who is trying to kill you is less honorable than using lethal force to kill your opponent.

Dishonorable behavior in combat comes when you have your enemy begging for mercy which you then don't grant. Or if 2 people enter a combat that is not supposed to be lethal, and it ends up getting that way. For instance,

Shakespeare in Love

Shakespeare was not being dishonorable when he started fighting with a rag and jester's scepter: Wessex was when he kept trying to kill a man he'd disarmed. When Lord Wessex gets stabbed in the chest, and it turns out that Shakespeare was only using a theater sword after all, the honorable thing for Wessex to have done was to admit defeat and walk away instead of fighting a man with a real sword when all he has is a pretend sword.

Those are my notions of honor, anyway.

I think that different cultures have different views on notions such as the value of human life and honor as public reputation as opposed to honor as a personal moral conduct. I think that the World of Golorion is a fantasy world that is loosely based on a variety of real-world cultures and a Pathfinder Society player should be allowed to create a variety of Paladins with a variety of personal codes that should be accepted as honorable by a PFSGM. And while I concede that a Paladin using Dirty Tricks might be suspect, I think that the Pathfinder Society should give the player a chance to play the game honorably according to the rules, regardless of the name of the Feats he takes.


Divine Bond can also be used to increase your AC.


I do think paladins should be free to use dirty tricks in ordinary combat, though I understand some disagree. It could come down to deity.

Similarly, Osyluth Guile is mechanically a great combat feat for a paladin, but it requires 8 ranks in Bluff and is inspired by the tactics of the bone devil. Again, some players may not want that on a paladin, some will be fine with it.

Liberty's Edge

If you find yourself needing more accuracy to compensate, blade tutor's spirit is nice.


blashimov wrote:
If you find yourself needing more accuracy to compensate, blade tutor's spirit is nice.

Also not PFS legal.


The real issue is that the armor should be +4 and you should have the ioun stone for +1 AC for tier 10-11.
Doing that gives you +4 armor and gets smiting to 35.

Also your smiting AC seems rather low, maybe investing in a better cha headband to get more AC with that.

But still, my lv10 bloodraging paladin has AC 33 when raging against his smited target with no shield bonus.
champion full-plate+3 = +12 +14 when smiting
22 cha = +6 when smiting
Dusty Rose Prism = +1
amulet of nat armor +2 = +2
nagaji +1 natural = +1
dex = +1
rage = -2
So a shield spell would put him at AC 37 while raging and smiting.


I have a Paladin in a similar situation, I don't have the level of Bloodrager to have rage or to have access to the shield spell in my case, but I agree with what is being said here, especially Chess Pwn.

My Paladin actually currently has 26 AC, up to 32 when smiting at level 9.

Full Plate +3=+12
Dex=+1
Nagaji +1 Natural=+1
Dusty Rose Prism=+1
Amulet of Natural Armor +1=+1

Something for not having the Bloodrager level to cast shield, I have been told to get the Ring of Force Shield and use it for the +2 shield bonus. (I can't find an official ruling on it with a 2HW, but my area seems to think it works so that is what I am going with unless proven wrong)

I am avoiding the Ring of Deflection because not stacking with the Smite Bonus.

I had never heard of Crusading until this thread and it will likely find it's way on my armor here soon enough, I like the champion quality, but since it is only on smite targets which I get the +6 to anyways it seems less useful than Crusading ( since I currently have 12 LOH a day and have only once needed more than a handful [and that time was because...well...reasons...]).


yeah, crusading v champion is how often do you find things you don't smite and how decent is your AC if not smiting?
In my PFS career with this guy he's been able to smite A LOT of the things he's fighting. Like only elementals are the things you aren't smiting. So for me the question comes, is it worth a swift always to have the AC when not smiting?

And my answer was, if I'm not smiting my AC isn't really all that great, the things that weren't smitable are elementals and huge animals which have amazing attack bonuses anyways, so a +2 as a swift for the edge cases wasn't worth it to me.


This is actually my first reasonably leveled character so I am not too experienced with PFS and my opinion is based on "I can only smite 1 guy at a time and a +2 for the whole group I am fighting is better than just the 1 presumably tougher guy I am smiting"

Is that not prevalent enough in PFS to be important? (I mean crusading does only last 1 minute also, but I have rarely if ever seen a combat last more than 10 rounds)

Liberty's Edge

Zephyre14 wrote:

This is actually my first reasonably leveled character so I am not too experienced with PFS and my opinion is based on "I can only smite 1 guy at a time and a +2 for the whole group I am fighting is better than just the 1 presumably tougher guy I am smiting"

Is that not prevalent enough in PFS to be important? (I mean crusading does only last 1 minute also, but I have rarely if ever seen a combat last more than 10 rounds)

I went with crusading for several reasons, first its a +2 bump as a sacred bonus to AC that I am only having to pay for on my armor as a +1 bump.

next it is a sacred bonus, not to many things provide that so it fills another stack slot.

Finally as the person above mentioned its a +2 against all the things in the fight not just my smite target, and if it meets the right criteria its a +3 bonus.

In a recent mod I played as an 8th level pally at tier 10-11, (Rats of round mountain part 1). I had to face off against the big bad at the end (no spoilers). After three rounds of talking I had buffed and declared smite and as sword and board was a 43 AC. I managed to get through the fight without taking a hit from the big bad. (Dm did roll exceptionally bad which helped). So with pallies its a question of time and stacking to get the AC, if I had dropped the shield and gone 2H weapon I would have been a 39 AC wich still gave a good chance of getting missed.


combats don't last longer than a minute.

Usually you're only fighting 1 guy at a time, sure there are multiple enemies, but you personally aren't fighting them all at once.
Plus it takes a swift action. So instead of r1 smite and r2+ LoHs or smite new target it's r1 AC, r2 Smite and you're delaying smite or it's r1 Smite r2 AC, in which case you hope you're not needing to heal or smite something else, and you're going the first round with lower AC against your target.

Like the 10-11 fights aren't really structured differently than what you'd see in all the other scenario's you've been in. I'd use all that experience to decide which is the right answer for you. Have you been swarmed a lot and thus would want AC vs lots of enemies? Have you ran out of smites/ had more people you'd want to smite in one scenario and thus couldn't rely on smite?

For me it was, I smite basically everything I fight, I'm not getting swarmed by lots of stuff that hits well, really I'm not being swarmed, and I prefer the action economy of it being free when I do my normal smiting and not blocking other smites/LoHs I'd want to do then needing to use it's own action on a different turn.

Liberty's Edge

Just wanted to say that, although the advice here is really good, I don't know that I would be too worried about AC. If this is the scenario I imagine it is, it's notorious for being unreasonably challenging, especially to characters out of level. I too brought in a level 9 character with excellent AC, only to be manhandled by that dragon, a feat that really wasn't repeated in the rest of the characters career. Also worth noting, is that the dragon is a CR 14 creature, so an epic fight for a party of level 11 characters, plus a dragon, which are creatures known for being particularly challenging for their CR rating.

Personally, I would boost AC by a couple points, but mostly so that you don't have to cast shield every battle. That should be reserved for fights where you know, or at least suspect, that you're not going to be able to take out the enemies in a couple rounds. Also, keeping a couple scrolls of stoneskin for when you know you're going to be in a tough fight can be a real lifesaver, even if you have to get party members to activate them for you.

Silver Crusade

Chess Pwn wrote:

The real issue is that the armor should be +4 and you should have the ioun stone for +1 AC for tier 10-11.

Doing that gives you +4 armor and gets smiting to 35.

Also your smiting AC seems rather low, maybe investing in a better cha headband to get more AC with that.

But still, my lv10 bloodraging paladin has AC 33 when raging against his smited target with no shield bonus.
champion full-plate+3 = +12 +14 when smiting
22 cha = +6 when smiting
Dusty Rose Prism = +1
amulet of nat armor +2 = +2
nagaji +1 natural = +1
dex = +1
rage = -2
So a shield spell would put him at AC 37 while raging and smiting.

The champion's armor enchant seems great and i'll definitely look into that when I can. I'd probably be able to afford the same set of items over the course of level 10. I'm assuming you began with 16 str and 18 cha and currently have a +2 str belt and +4 cha headband. Looking back, I probably should have done that as well but I believe I cannot change this retroactively.

Currently, my full list of items is: Furious nodachi +2, eyes of the eagle, handy haversack, winged boots, +1 fullplate, +2 am natural armor, cloak of resitance +2, lucky horsehsoe (fate's favored increases luck to +2 to all saves), ring of deflection +1, 18.7 k unspend gold (and tons of level 1 wands bought with prestige). I'm not sure if that's average or low compared to par for end of level 9, i was however screwed over a few times by season 0 modules giving much less gold than the current average for levels.

I suppose If I hadn't bought the winged boots and the ring of deflection +1 I could have purchased everything you described here and be 2 points of ac behind from charisma + no nagaji. Having no flight would probably have really hurted then in a number of scenario's.

Silver Crusade

Deighton Thrane wrote:

Just wanted to say that, although the advice here is really good, I don't know that I would be too worried about AC. If this is the scenario I imagine it is, it's notorious for being unreasonably challenging, especially to characters out of level. I too brought in a level 9 character with excellent AC, only to be manhandled by that dragon, a feat that really wasn't repeated in the rest of the characters career. Also worth noting, is that the dragon is a CR 14 creature, so an epic fight for a party of level 11 characters, plus a dragon, which are creatures known for being particularly challenging for their CR rating.

Personally, I would boost AC by a couple points, but mostly so that you don't have to cast shield every battle. That should be reserved for fights where you know, or at least suspect, that you're not going to be able to take out the enemies in a couple rounds. Also, keeping a couple scrolls of stoneskin for when you know you're going to be in a tough fight can be a real lifesaver, even if you have to get party members to activate them for you.

Spoilers for the very hard dragon fight module location:

Spoiler:

It's the brine dragon from the final season 8 modules. I believe her name is Razethka?


Feats
Lvl 1: Power Attack
Lvl 3: Furious Focus
Lvl 5: Shield Focus
Lvl 7: Unhindering Shield
Lvl 9: Dodge

This allows you to use a buckler without penalty with your two handed weapon. WIth the prereq of shield focus, that is +2 AC. Make it +1 for only 1k gold and you have added +3 to your AC.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/unhindering-shield-shield-master y/

Dex 13 (+1 AC)
Full Plate +2 (+11 AC)
Ring of protection +1 (+1 AC)
Amulet of natural armor +1 (+1 AC)
Buckler +1 (+3 AC)
Dodge (+1 AC)

Total: 28 AC

Then cast litany of defense (swift action) and for 1 round your AC jumps up to 30.

That's how I would go about making the paladin. With power attack and furious focus, you have all of the offensive power that you need. Then focus on your defense so you'll be good to go.

--------------

This can also be done with an Enlightened Paladin using the same feats.

Dex 14, Cha 18 (+6 AC)
Mithril Chain Shirt +2 (+6 AC)
Ring of protection +1 (+1 AC)
Amulet of natural armor +1 (+1 AC)
Buckler +1 (+3 AC)
Dodge (+1 AC)

Total: 28 AC

The AC comes out to be exactly the same. With the difference being that you can sleep in a chain shirt and have 0 ACP.

This build works best with an aasimar who can give +2 Str and +2 Cha or a dual talent human.

25 point buy

Str (18) Dex (14) Con (14) Int (8) Wis (10) Cha (17)

At lvl4 Cha becomes 18. Boost strength from there on out.


I started with an 18 str and 18 cha and I have a +2 belt and +4 headband.

champion full-plate+3
nodachi +1 furious
mw cold iron Morningstar
adaptive +1 comp+3 longbow
belt of strength +2
cloak of resist+3
headband cha +4
Bracers of the Merciful Knight
amulet of nat armor+2
Dusty Rose Prism
wayfinder
buffering cap
cracked dusty rose


Grumbaki wrote:

Feats

Lvl 1: Power Attack
Lvl 3: Furious Focus
Lvl 5: Shield Focus
Lvl 7: Unhindering Shield
Lvl 9: Dodge

This allows you to use a buckler without penalty with your two handed weapon. WIth the prereq of shield focus, that is +2 AC. Make it +1 for only 1k gold and you have added +3 to your AC.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/unhindering-shield-shield-master y/

Except that Unhindering Shield isn't PFS legal. So not helpful to the OP.


Damn. This is, in part, why I am fed up with PFS. So many extra rules on what is and isn't legal. So hard to keep track of everything.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16

The two problems I see are:

1) Your armor is weak. A +1 bonus is low for a 10th level martial. You should use that wealth to enhance your armor and get a good buckler shield.

2) You need to be careful when dealing with solo enemies. PFS likes to have tough enemies that solo the party. These enemies will have absurd attack bonuses, so your best bet is to play smart to prevent the enemy from full-attacking and/or nova the enemy before they have a chance to deliver the hurt.

Silver Crusade

I'd like to state for the record that the reason i kept the fullplate at +1 was to keep the option of the potential dip into oracle open. Buying a mythril breastplate +x isnt that cheap and afaik there is no way to eithet transfer an enancement bonus to a different item or add mythril to the heavy armor retroactively.

If i am wrong about this, then i'd LOVE to hear how this coupd be accomplished. The closest i have seen is making an argument for limited wish being able to do 'virtuallu anything'.


I'm a fan of getting armor enchanted with Spell Storing.
Pick up a wand of Frigid Touch (wizard 2nd) and umd that spell in the armor.

Get hit, use a immediate action to trigger the spell, attacker takes 4d6 cold and is staggered, ending his turn.

While this doesn't really help your AC, it does help reduce incoming damage for 1 turn per encounter.

Use Only Against Something Full Round Attacking You.

Only thing you need to worry about is creatures with SR or cold resistances.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16

I don't think dipping into oracle is a good idea. It's not worth losing your full BAB. There's no way to transfer an enhancement from one armor to another. However, selling your full plate wouldn't be too bad of a loss.

Regardless, I think just increasing your existing armor and buying a buckler is the best choice.

Sovereign Court

I don't think you can use wands to charge up Spell Storing armor. The Ring of Spell Storing specifically calls out that you can use scrolls to charge the ring; I don't think the armor is more liberal.

But you can have NPC casters charge up the armor betweeen events, and carry scrolls for PC casters to do it.

An additional worthwhile spell for that is Stricken Heart.

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