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"Breaking D&D 3.5: AC 50 and Higher for 9th Level Characters; or, the Best Offense is a Good Defense
Warning: The information in this post will piss off your DM. Use at your own risk!
When I first started playing D&D, my least favorite part about being a mage was how low my AC always was. Now one of my favorite parts about being a mage is how high my AC can get. I just had a DM actually request my wizard character lower his AC for party balance (which I will do to avoid an arms race), and I wanted to write about it. I’m only ECL 9, but a Mature Adult Red Dragon (CR 18) barely hits me on a natural 20. With a little more than half a dozen buffs, your AC too can be inappropriately high!
As a 9th level wizard, you can use the following buffs to shoot your AC through the roof, and still have plenty of spell resources left over for blasting, battlefield control, offensive buffs, winning initiative, or whatever else you want.
Broken down by level, I usually use these for my AC.
1st level: Shield (A +4 Shield bonus. minutes/level)
2nd: Cat’s Grace (A +4 Dex. minutes/level); Scintillating Scales (deflection bonus to AC equal to your Con modifier, but decreases natural armor by half that much. Rounds/level)
3rd: Haste (+1 to attack rolls, AC, reflex saves, and 1 extra attack during a full attack at your highest BAB! What’s not to love? Rounds/level)
4th: Greater Luminous Armor (+8 armor bonus to AC, melee attacks incur a -4 penalty if enemy is sighted (must be good-aligned to use, and take strength damage when the spell ends). Hours/level); Ray Deflection (immune to rays. minutes/level).
5th: Bite of the Wereboar (+4 to Strength, +6 to Con, +8 to natural armor, a bite attack, and the Blind-Fight feat. rounds/level); Draconic Polymorph into a Cave Troll (Sets Strength to 37, Dex to 13, Con to 29, and natural armor to +11. Also comes with 2 claw attacks, a bite, large size, and the Dazing Blow, Improved Grab, Pounce, Rake, and Rend abilities you get by Polymorphing. On it’s own, enough of a buff to make you horribly ferocious! minutes/level)
Those 8 spells don’t tax your daily resources or spells know slots too much. If done in the right order (Hours or minutes per level spells, then Bite of the Wereboar, followed by Scintillating Scales, and finally Haste), you wind up with stats like these:
Abilities: Str 41, Dex 17, Con 35
AC: 50 (–1 size, +8 armor, +4 shield, +13 natural armor, +3 Dex, +12 deflection, +1 haste), touch 25, flat-footed 47
Remember Greater Luminous Armor’s -4 to melee attacks for sighted opponents, so most often AC will be effectively 54. Ray Deflection isn’t actual AC, but your biggest weakness AC weakness is ranged touch attacks, and Ray Deflection shores up that vulnerability very well. Few if any ranged touch attacks won’t be rays. This set of spells not only gives you great AC, but makes you a powerhouse in melee combat as well. Indeed, the 9th level fighter or barbarian won’t come close to those stats without magical help.
Protecting yourself beyond AC
There are of course other things you can do with just 5th level spell resources (and Prestige Class abilities; see Abjurant Champion!) to boost AC even higher, but it’s important to remember that enemies can harm you via more than just your AC. A wizard can keep him or herself reasonably well protected with spells like Resist Energy/Protection From Energy to fend off energy damage, Greater Invisibility and Greater Blink to avoid getting hit or targeted altogether, Ice Shield for DR/15—, and Superior Resistance to shore up your saves by a hefty +6. But there is only so much one arcane caster can do on his or her own.
Having a buddy who is a 9th level divine caster gets you even more access to amazing defensive buffs like Divine Agility for +10 to Dexterity, and a potent protective suite in Favor of Il Mater, Death Ward, Sheltered Vitality, and Freedom of Movement—which together grant you immunity to nonlethal damage, charm and compulsion effects, attacks that function specifically by causing pain, effects that would cause you to be dazed, exhausted, fatigued, nauseated, sickened, staggered, or stunned, all death spells, magical death effects, energy drain, any negative energy effects, ability damage and ability drain, magic that usually impedes movement such as paralysis, solid fog, slow, and web, plus you automatically succeed on all grapple checks and escape artist checks to avoid or escape being grappled or pinned, and you can even move and attack normally underwater.
Combining those five divine spells with the five arcane spells—Greater Invisibility, Greater Blink, Superior Resistance, Resist Energy, and Ice Shield—will compliment the AC spells listed at the beginning of the article. Bundle them all together and toss in other modes of movement and the rare Planar Tolerance or Endure Elements when traveling to hostile environments, and you’ll be nigh invulnerable for a 9th level character! Your biggest weakness will be dispelling, and without blowing significant character wealth on components for Create Magic Tattoo, or persisting Suffer the Flesh, or using up feats for things like Elder Giant Magic and Reserves of Strength, or having a psion hit you with a Dispelling Buffer, you’ll have a hard time at 9th level keeping caster level high enough to stave off a good dispel. Granted, you can do all those things and have a very respectable caster level nearing 30 against dispels at 9th level, but you have to build for it.
Remember to always clear things with your DM when you are going to be ridiculously powerful!"
Or do you just like to play a character?
"Breaking D&D 3.5: AC 50 and Higher for 9th Level Characters; or, the Best Offense is a Good Defense
Warning: The information in this post will piss off your DM. Use at your own risk!
When I first started playing D&D, my least favorite part about being a mage was how low my AC always was. Now one of my favorite parts about being a mage is how high my AC can get. I just had a DM actually request my wizard character lower his AC for party balance (which I will do to avoid an arms race), and I wanted to write about it. I’m only ECL 9, but a Mature Adult Red Dragon (CR 18) barely hits me on a natural 20. With a little more than half a dozen buffs, your AC too can be inappropriately high!
As a 9th level wizard, you can use the following buffs to shoot your AC through the roof, and still have plenty of spell resources left over for blasting, battlefield control, offensive buffs, winning initiative, or whatever else you want.
Broken down by level, I usually use these for my AC.
1st level: Shield (A +4 Shield bonus. minutes/level)
2nd: Cat’s Grace (A +4 Dex. minutes/level); Scintillating Scales (deflection bonus to AC equal to your Con modifier, but decreases natural armor by half that much. Rounds/level)
3rd: Haste (+1 to attack rolls, AC, reflex saves, and 1 extra attack during a full attack at your highest BAB! What’s not to love? Rounds/level)
4th: Greater Luminous Armor (+8 armor bonus to AC, melee attacks incur a -4 penalty if enemy is sighted (must be good-aligned to use, and take strength damage when the spell ends). Hours/level); Ray Deflection (immune to rays. minutes/level).
5th: Bite of the Wereboar (+4 to Strength, +6 to Con, +8 to natural armor, a bite attack, and the Blind-Fight feat. rounds/level); Draconic Polymorph into a Cave Troll (Sets Strength to 37, Dex to 13, Con to 29, and natural armor to +11. Also comes with 2 claw attacks, a bite, large size, and the Dazing Blow, Improved Grab, Pounce, Rake, and Rend abilities you get by Polymorphing. On it’s own, enough of a buff to make you horribly ferocious! minutes/level)
Those 8 spells don’t tax your daily resources or spells know slots too much. If done in the right order (Hours or minutes per level spells, then Bite of the Wereboar, followed by Scintillating Scales, and finally Haste), you wind up with stats like these:
Abilities: Str 41, Dex 17, Con 35
AC: 50 (–1 size, +8 armor, +4 shield, +13 natural armor, +3 Dex, +12 deflection, +1 haste), touch 25, flat-footed 47
Remember Greater Luminous Armor’s -4 to melee attacks for sighted opponents, so most often AC will be effectively 54. Ray Deflection isn’t actual AC, but your biggest weakness AC weakness is ranged touch attacks, and Ray Deflection shores up that vulnerability very well. Few if any ranged touch attacks won’t be rays. This set of spells not only gives you great AC, but makes you a powerhouse in melee combat as well. Indeed, the 9th level fighter or barbarian won’t come close to those stats without magical help.
Protecting yourself beyond AC
There are of course other things you can do with just 5th level spell resources (and Prestige Class abilities; see Abjurant Champion!) to boost AC even higher, but it’s important to remember that enemies can harm you via more than just your AC. A wizard can keep him or herself reasonably well protected with spells like Resist Energy/Protection From Energy to fend off energy damage, Greater Invisibility and Greater Blink to avoid getting hit or targeted altogether, Ice Shield for DR/15—, and Superior Resistance to shore up your saves by a hefty +6. But there is only so much one arcane caster can do on his or her own.
Having a buddy who is a 9th level divine caster gets you even more access to amazing defensive buffs like Divine Agility for +10 to Dexterity, and a potent protective suite in Favor of Il Mater, Death Ward, Sheltered Vitality, and Freedom of Movement—which together grant you immunity to nonlethal damage, charm and compulsion effects, attacks that function specifically by causing pain, effects that would cause you to be dazed, exhausted, fatigued, nauseated, sickened, staggered, or stunned, all death spells, magical death effects, energy drain, any negative energy effects, ability damage and ability drain, magic that usually impedes movement such as paralysis, solid fog, slow, and web, plus you automatically succeed on all grapple checks and escape artist checks to avoid or escape being grappled or pinned, and you can even move and attack normally underwater.
Combining those five divine spells with the five arcane spells—Greater Invisibility, Greater Blink, Superior Resistance, Resist Energy, and Ice Shield—will compliment the AC spells listed at the beginning of the article. Bundle them all together and toss in other modes of movement and the rare Planar Tolerance or Endure Elements when traveling to hostile environments, and you’ll be nigh invulnerable for a 9th level character! Your biggest weakness will be dispelling, and without blowing significant character wealth on components for Create Magic Tattoo, or persisting Suffer the Flesh, or using up feats for things like Elder Giant Magic and Reserves of Strength, or having a psion hit you with a Dispelling Buffer, you’ll have a hard time at 9th level keeping caster level high enough to stave off a good dispel. Granted, you can do all those things and have a very respectable caster level nearing 30 against dispels at 9th level, but you have to build for it.
Remember to always clear things with your DM when you are going to be ridiculously powerful!"
Or do you just like to play a character?
Which playstyle do you prefer?
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