Best Possible AC?

This is what I figure for the best possible AC for a non-monk character in 8.1, without active spells or console-use:

Shield: +7 (either Turjon's +5 shield or a +3 Tower Shield)
Armor: +8 (Black Elven Chain)
Dexterity: +8 (Gloves of Dexterity +6; requires a base of 20 Dex)
Ring of Protection +5 (Crafted by 15th level cleric or from Lich at Hickory Branch)
Amulet of Natural Armor +5 (Crafted by 15th-level druid/plant cleric or from Slavers)
Dodge: +1

Total: 44 AC (gnome/halfling 45)

Dipping into monk for the Wis bonus won't help unless you have perfect rolls for Dex and Wis (and you're an elf):
Shield: +4 (bucklers should cancel the wisdom bonus, but they don't)
Armor: +5 (Bracers of Armor +5 [crafted, lich, or slavers]
Dexterity: +8 (Gloves of Dexterity +6)
Ring of Protection +5 (Crafted by 15th level cleric or from Lich at Hickory Branch)
Amulet of Natural Armor +5 (Crafted by 15th-level druid/plant cleric or from Slavers)
Wisdom: +7 (requires very good rolls to max out Dex and Wis, 16+levels, + ioun stone)
Dodge: +1

Total: 45 AC (gnome/halfling 46)

With 20 monk levels: +4 AC = 49 AC (50 if small)

Did I miss anything?

With spells:
Barkskin: +5 (if 12th level; this shouldn't combine with amulet of natural armor, but does)
Shield: +3 for monk (using buckler); +2 if using a +5 shield; +0 if using a tower shield
Haste: +1
Reduce Person: +1 for character with maxed dex; +2 for monk (not recommended for non-spellcasters due to reduced str and damage)
Owl's Wisdom: +1 if monk (relative to ioun stone that already gives +2 Wis)
Anything else?

For medium-sized non-monk: 52 AC
For medium-sized 20th-level monk: 59 AC

 

Without armor limitations, the maximum possible DEX bonus is +10. If you're an elf and start with a 20 DEX, you could get to 24 by 16th level, and Gloves of Dexterity +6 get you to 30 (+10 bonus). This is preferable to throwing your ability score increases into Wisdom (for a non-divine spell caster) because it also gets you a bonus to hit with missile weapons, and you make vastly more to hit rolls than Will saves.

 

But what if you never make ranged attack rolls?

Well, for melee characters, DEX is still better because it improves initiative.

But whether the monk puts those points in DEX or WIS, the impact on AC is the same (which was the point of the numbers in my first post - I just set DEX at +8 for easier comparison with the armored character).

 

I think there is a limit on how things like armor and rings stack- a Dex 20 character with +5 armor may get no benefit at all from equipping an Amulet of Natural Armor +5- at some point they no longer stack but since I haven't played in a while (and have no high level parties active in previous saves) i can't say for sure when you stop getting the benefit of extra armor.

 

Physical Armor has a max dex bonus (the max dex bonus of black elven chain is +8, which is what makes it the best armor [unless you have a horrible DEX score]). Other than that, there are no interactions of AC bonuses of different types (but it is important to recognize that enhancement bonuses are different from the bonus from the thing being enhanced - so a shield spell [+4 shield bonus] can improve the AC of a character with a +3 buckler [+4 to AC] because the buckler is just a +1 shield bonus and a +3 shield enhancement bonus: so a character with both would get a +4 from the spell and a +3 from the buckler's "shield enhancement"). But everything I put up in the first post stacks.

 

I don't know if monk's belt works on lvl 20 monks. If it does, its +1 AC for the monk.

Did not know that bucklers did not cancel WIS AC bonus. Are you positive on this?

 

I think that the rules state about stacking;

It does not stack if it is the same bonus type - the better bonus is used

for example shield :
if you use a buckler (+1 AC)
the shield spell is used in its place (+ 4 AC)

DID ANYONE KNOW ABOUT CRAFTING THE BONE HELM?
appearently it is a master work helm



you can add a +3 magic armor bonus to an applied bone helm
found in TOEE level 3 held by the TROLL CHIEF LEADER near the hydra and
owl bear.

any character can use the HELM without restrictions

better idea would be to add spell resistance also.

The BONE ARMOR is also master work and the same could be crafted with
it.

 

I had no idea the helm could be crafted. That's +3 AC for any char and I don't think there are other craftable helms in the game, are there?

 

I read that you could craft the helm, but I have never been able to. Is this something that was changed in a patch? But even if you can craft it, the +3 bonus doesn't stack with other armor enhancements, right?

And spell resistance on armor doesn't make much sense to me. By the time you can craft it, what good is 13 spell resistance? (a 12th level wizard would automatically overcome that)

 

What about hendrak's helm? It is another unique helm that might be craftable. And it already gives a bonus, doesn't it?

 

I believe the Bone HELM is the only craftable HELM ITEM in the whole game.

MAGIC ARMOR AND MASTWORK ARMOR IS CRAFTABLE,

but that is the only helm you can craft (the BONE HELM from the troll chief),

I tried the hedrik helm, not craftable, gives will save bonus


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

but then again anything could be done to any item to make it possibly
craftable via HACKING THE PROTOS TAB

now a' days I invent a new MOD every time I run through the game, because of
bordem anyway.


the only difference I see by means of Proto edit
is COL or TAB 171 that states it has bonus type [ Armor Masterwork ]
making the BONE HELM Item craftable

I also notice that taking the BONE ARMOR TOGGLES a SCRIPT for
an encounter with maybe some assasins?

this was the script code i found related to the item

Code:

from toee import *

def san_insert_item( attachee, triggerer ):
	if (( triggerer.name == 8048 ) or ( triggerer.name == 8049 ) or ( triggerer.name == 1204 )):
		game.encounter_queue.append(3000)
	return SKIP_DEFAULT

 

I tried to craft the bone helm and it did not appear on my craftable items list.

Anyway...

I don't know about this fo sure, but Amulet of Natural armor gives enchancement bonus. So with black elven chain (+3 enchancement) you should only get +2 AC from using a +5 AoNA right? The game might be bugged and not work like that... but i don't have means of testing it right now.


What really strikes me in this game... maybe in D&D in general, is that there is higher AC to be had without armor than with it.

At least in ToEE, your best armor will provide you with 16AC (+8/+8 Black elven chain), banning the use of Bracers of armor and if my theory is not mistaken, allowing for an extra +2 AC from amulet of natural armor. That's 18 AC from equipment. Ring and shield can be worn with or without armor so they are irrelevant to the calculation of the difference.

Without armor you can get: +2 from tattoos, +5 from bracers, + 5 from amulet and up to +10 in DEX.

That's 22 AC from the same equipment slots. Even if my theory about the amulet of natural armor is wrong, you still get only 21 AC with armor. That's without any monk WIS AC. Even a Wizard can have this much AC

Of course, if you are not an Elf/Halfling you cannot get +10 in DEX, but +9 is still possible with a human. In this case 21 AC is the best theoretically possible AC with the respective equipment.

Witch kinda draws the debate. ..... if not for a small detail....

Black elven chain is only obtainable in Verbobonc. Until then, by the later temple bits, every armor user is going to be probably at least 2 AC points behind their unarmored friends since the best you can do is +3 mithral plate witch nets 14 AC points maximum.

Any way you look at it, it is just not worth it to use armor in this game if your main concern is AC. Of course,if you plan on using some type of bracers like archery ones, armor is best. But even in this case, a character with a single monk level can get the same AC as a black elven chain wearing archer with owl's wisdom.

Like this:

+8 from elven chain/+8 from dex = 16 AC

vs.

+2 from magical tat's/+4 from WIS/+2 from Owl's wisdom/+8 from DEX = 16 AC

The monk can even surpass the armored char if he uses a monk belt or has +9 or +10 DEX bonus

IMO, there should never be such thing as magical tattoos. They are the unbalancing item that gives "free" AC to unarmored chars. It stacks with everything and pushes the unarmored to the top of the AC charts every time.

Armor, for me, is a last resort. As I like everyone in my party to have high DEX.

But I can see the benefit for lower DEX builds

 

The tattoos provide a natural armor bonus, so they don't stack with amulets of natural armor. At least that's what I saw the last time I had them. Besides, Periapts of Wound Closure are vastly superior to using the neck slot for AC.

 

Hmmm... Nice to know that.

 

In case you did'nt know

armor class is determined like this


AC = 10 + MAX DEX + ARMOR BONUS + MISLANEOUS

your AC starts at 10 no matter what.

No like this
10 +8 +8 = 26 AC