Highest AC build

Ok, this will tell you how to make a high AC build. (Hint: This build is most definitely a "Level with friends" build because your Attack Bonus will be very low)

Deity: Gort

Race: Human

Alignment: Lawful Neutral (no annoying Smite Evils or Smite Goods on you)

Base Stats: Get dex to 12, Wisdom to 18, Charisma 18 if possible then put the rest into int and strength and constitution. Skills- whever possible, invest in ride and tumble.

Take one level of Monk and then go into cleric. Folllow cleric until you have 1 Monk/23 cleric. Grab weapon profiecieny: martial and Great Wisdom

Feats you should have grabbed: Expertise, Improved expertise, dodge, toughness, Zen Archery. The only thing you need to add attribute points into is wisdom. You will have 23 Wisdom, granting +6 bonus to AC because of the monk's Wisdom AC bonus. So far with a Heavy Plate and Tower shield both imbued with Magic Vestment you will have so far 39 AC. Going into Improved Expertise gives a +10 for 49, dodge gives you a +1 vs your current target giving you 50. NOW. Take 10 levels in Ironheart prestige class. Again, just keep adding wisdom, taking Great wisdom.

Grab 10 levels of the Ironheart prestige class, taking Great Wisdom and armor skin. Then go all the way cleric. At the end the feats and skill you should have will look like this:

FEATS~
Armor Profs Heavy Light and Medium
Armor Skin
Cleave
Dodge
Epic Toughness 1
Exasion
Expertise
Great Wisdom VII
Improved expertise (Be warned- You can't use this while wielding a bow)
Mobility
Mounted Combat
Skill focus Tumble
Zen Archery
Weapon Prof Martial

SKILLS~ (that matter)
Tumble 25
Ride 22

Notice how tumble is 25? Thats from the skill focus. You get 5 extra AC from that.

So your base AC without any clothing or armor should be 39. On a horse, it is a terrifying 43. Get a full plate on imbued with +5 from Magic Vestment, and same spell for a tower shield, that adds 22 for 65 AC. Get the boots with Haste because you are a cleric of Gort, that adss +4 bringing it to 69 *snigger* AC. Get a cloak with deflection AC +5, something with natural armor +5 and that brings you to 79 AC. Get protection from alignment up and you have 83 AC vs that specific alignment. I'm not done yet. Dodge gives you +1 AC vs your current opponent. 84 AC. Improved Expertise gives you +10 to AC. 94 AC. Mounted combat gives you another +4 for 98. Armor skin gives you +2.

Your total AC should be...An insanely high AC of 100. Your character will absolutely suck at hitting things besides chests, but hey, stick him in the middle of a mob and let them all focus on you and the rest of the people in the party can just whale on the mob.

This is quite possibly the only build that will make you immortal. Because of Ironheart, you are immune to Disease, Posion, knockdown, Sneak attacks and critical hits. So the only way you can be damaged is if a monster or player rolls a 20. (don't know if anybody or monsters have an AB of 90+ ) On your custom gear, get immunities to Necromancy, Evocation and if possible, Abjuration. Voila. You now have a build that quite possibly only a DM can kill.

Very nice!

Heh...one of my PCs can get up to 100 AC (for a short time). I believe that the PC will eventually break 100.

I'm sure there are higher AC gear out there, and books ect...

So you may possibly end up with 110+ AC

I think that you're right.

And that is a great write-up you did, you saw a class/feat combination I hadn't thought of.

yes, the only reason I have martial weapon proficiency and Zen Archery in there is so you can actually hit something lol


Beware, you cannot use Improved Expertise with a bow. Or a shield. lol

100 is a good number. Not too many other class combos can hit that high. Sorc+ paladin/rogue or blackguard/assassin could hit that, maybe more depending on dex. Shifter/monk or druid/monk with dragonshape.

MannyJabrielle wrote:100 is a good number. Not too many other class combos can hit that high. Sorc+ paladin/rogue or blackguard/assassin could hit that, maybe more depending on dex. Shifter/monk or druid/monk with dragonshape.

Yes, but since that build is immune to sneak attacks, they are going to be doing regular damage.

Higher AB though. The sorc/pal//sorc/bg can hit low 70's. If you're comparing for a PvP match-up, the sorc builds are going to win hands down.

Custom gear will make spells useless mostly. PvP match up, yes, if you can hit this build regularly, you will win.

buff spells are always useful. even if you cant attack directly with magic

A few thoughts:

Also, I think that you lose the monk AC bonus from high wisdom if you wear any armor or shield at all... im pretty sure.

I dont believe skill focus tumble bonus actually counts for the purpose of AC bonus from tumble ranks.

As you have a good number of cleric levels, it might be worth making sure you have 13 strength and pick up power attack instead of armor proficiencies... this would allow you to qualify for divine shield to get a little dodge bonus boost out of your charisma. may or may not make up for not having the armor and shield (probly not) but it would help some.

You're right, shield and armor will negate the monk wisdom AC, and the tumble is base ranks only, not adjusted.

Shift the skill focus to ride, and grab divine shield, and that should still give a extremely high AC, so this is still a nice tank-build.

Custom gear is always a wild card, so it may be better not to try to factor them in... consider and tweak the builds on their own merit. Factoring the right custom gear, one can turn a weak build into a decent one... which is more a case then of good gear, not a good build.

Dave-Yes, I just found that out. And depending on your Wisdom modifier, just plain clothing buffed by Magic Vestment will actually be higher AC than armor. Also, Clerics get the Armor Proficiencies for free.

MJ- I leveled the PC as I went, you can't take Skill focus in Ride. But yes, if you are immune to Abjuration, Necromancy, and Evocation and cast Spell Resistance, mages won't be able to touch you. Abjuration has all the dispelling magic.

Abjuration immunity doesn't block mords from stripping buffs of even lowering your SR. Not 100% sure about the dispells or breaches, but at epic levels, dispells aren't useful against an epic caster, and if you're gonna breach, may as well go with the big daddy than the lesser versions.

But again, if we're to discuss builds, I think it'd be best to discuss builds, not optimally constructed voucher items.

As a non-spellcaster/Pal, I'm fine with discussing optimally constructed voucher items. :-)

My cleric can consistantly reach 69 AC. That includes +5 Full Plate, Tower Shield, Amulet and Shield of Faith and custom +5 boots (All 4 types at +5 basically) That's not to mention adding dodge giving me a 70 vs my current/last target.

the only thing I can do to increase it much further is get the last 3 levels I have left to get to get an extra Stat point and add it to CHA for divine shield, and take a level of rogue at level 40 when using a set of relevel scales to get the +8 from tumble instead of my current +4.

However, given all that, if I were to ascend this cleric, and give her crit immunity that way, she'd never die. She's got enough Health, AC and such that she doesn't die. All of that, and her AB gets to 58ish at the moment, and that'll go up a few with the last few levels so she even hits hard too. Not to mention she has innate immunities to death magic and fear due to being a cleric of Zolaras and a Dead Stalker.


Offensively, her crits do 300+ damage, and against undead, she can use her Dead Stalker d-wave abilit 4 times per rest, and turns undead at an ECL of +11 when properly equipped. Simply put, undead don't stand a chance against her. Plus since she uses the spear as a weapon, she can use one of the only +10 weapons out there (Impaler) so that's an extra +5 AB/damage on that, and since they're now one handed, Tower Shields are still wearable (YAY)

I'm considering dropping planar turning since there's little use for it, but I will wait a while and see what happens. I'd probably take either Great CHA (And drop the 6 WIS I added, reputting them into CHA too) or something else that I haven't decided upon yet. That all depends on what bonus feats I can take.

I'll post her build later if anyone's interested.

However, even though the above one sounds more solid for tanking, it sounds good for little else. I'd prefer mine over that one any day, cause it's more soloable.

As a general suggestion, unless you want the overall abilities that CHA bonuses give you, (Turn Undead bonuses, Divine Might/Shield etc.) just dump all of your stats into WIS and don't worry about power attack and divine might/shield. The bonus/duration isn't worth it without a CHA of 26+. DEX stats also help, cause they help with reflex saves and AC, so either way is good, but the WIS gives spell DCs too, so it helps twice as much IMHO.

You can, with the right disguise, pick up a +8 armor AC bracer from a certain shop.

"Offensively, her crits do 300+ damage..."


Doh! I was all proud of myself of getting +220 plus Crits until I saw this. I'm 1/3 less proud as I was before.

<sigh>