@@codesimpson6010 DawnforgedCast stacks *SEVEN* Shield Guardians that Nerdarchy decided *not* to do in their build. ua-cam.com/video/eGO40gt5lmI/v-deo.html
I played these kinds of shenanigans in a pathfinder game. My arcanist had the worst AC in the party, but he kept himself surrounded by enough skeletons and zombies to be untouchable by anything but ranged attacks (which were rare, for us) and hostile spell casters (even more rare). The trick I found that kept me from being obnoxious was I only ordered my minions to defend, so they would only ever attack if enemies came to them.
But this build uses a Warforged. The magic robot. They don't need to eat, drink, or breathe, and even if they choose to, they have advantage on poison saving throws and resistance to poison damage. And are immune to disease.
Maybe it's just me and my weak memory, but ... I love Nerdarchy's "crazy build series" but it would help so much to have text on the screen outlining the features of the build, rather than having to take notes as I watch. I'm considering taking this to my game tonight and chatting about it with our AC-obsessed fighter, but not sure I want to watch it all again.
Perhaps this will help. It's our worksheet notes - docs.google.com/document/d/1FN5yJz-1p3YKO5nVD7LLVB2eG8vDLkAuGEumXDiqyK8/edit?usp=drivesdk Nerdarchist Dave
Still, some graphics on screen would be immensely beneficial to the viewers. Even reading through these comments, I have no idea what class or classes you used to make this build. I'm completely lost even with your notes
In a dnd group discord, we had this player get to like 27 consistent AC by lvl 3. However, the dms figured out he deals next to no damage and nothing that messes up attacks on allies, so the end started just murdering his teammates till it was the bbeg v him. The bbeg turned around and finished his goal while the AC macho beat uselessly on the bbeg armor. Moral of the story, you gotta be a threat for AC to matter.
Put yourself infront of the bad guy so the others can hit the bad guy while you protect them, You're called the ultimate shield for a reason you aren't used for attacks.
@@deathlizard3047 And then the bad guy simply walks around the "ultimate shield" to attack the people who are actually threats. The usefulness of pure meatshields is directly related to the intelligence of the enemies they're fighting.
Like a Barbarian Paladin, with a passive AC of 23-27 depending on stats and gear, my personal one was an eldritch abomination after a wish, giving him a 30 Con, and he was originally a dex paladin, so his AC before items was 24, he had a +1 shield and defender scimitar so his neutral AC was 30, and could still smite and deal rage damage after he found a Belt of Cloud Giant Strength. But a normal Barbalidin with a +2 Dex score and a +5 Con, paired with a pair of Bracers of Defense and a Cloak of Protection gives them an AC of 20, can still use a two handed-weapon with smites while raging, get rage damage or if you want the AC higher and your damage to suffer *slightly* you can drop the bracers for a +1 Shield and get that AC to 21 and thats using only uncommon items on a “relatively” low level, maybe level 9 or so?
Sounds like a temp. It sounds like a temp... with rolling. Double oof. EDIT: I'm sure a bunch of Henries will still get some good usage out of it with luck on their side, combined with sheer ignorance of their plan's impermanence.
@@TheToasterbox One stipulation in the video was "Your DM has to be allowing non-standard races". I cant claim to have played DnD under a huge number of DMs, but the few I have were generally not sticklers about what content your race or archetype came from unless it was a specific themed game.
Realistically, unless you're in a situation where the Ancient Gold Dragon wields a +3 holy avenger and has a priest casting bless and a bard giving it inspiration; AC 39 is enough to prevent everything except critical hits.
adamantine armor works for that. IMO going the elf route is better because you can't get that on Warforged. AC 38-39 + crit immunity is SO much better than 45+AC
WhiskeyHound Actually, it *sounds* like they mentioned everything of relevance. So much for those random visuals to keep viewers listening from those clickbait normie theory vids pointing to Purple Man’s chin... Still, they could have at least recorded the data as they continued, like using a table to summarize, and maybe have improved organization? I didn’t have a problem with the order of items...
@@thejohnrahm I don't think anyone was saying anything about the order of items or the info being incomplete, just that having something on screen that shows what they've done for the character would be useful at the end of the video if someone wanted to use the video as a reference later and didn't want to watch the entire video again.
Going with the level ranges for acquiring magic items found in DMG, you can achieve the same AC 4, 2, and 0 levels earlier than before with plate armor +1, +2, and +3 respectively. Of course this means you need to get the magic armor. Except if you play an artificer you can make your own armor +1 at level 2, giving you 20 AC when before you could only achieve that at level 9, and armor +2 at level 10 giving you 21 AC when you used to need level 13. Note that that is only 1 AC less than the maximum was both then and now, without relying on your DM to give you anything.
Ooohhh okay. Yeah.. They should delete or re-do this video lol or at least add a note now to clarify it's obsolete. I couldn't understand what the heck they were talking about "adding Prof to AC". I was like 0o?? I see now. I never read that U.A. when it came out. Only saw the final version before.
Alternatively: Level 17 Character (like in video) “New” Warforged 10 War Wizard, 5 College of Swords Bard, 2 Artificer Feats: Martial Adept, Medium Armor Master Magic Items: +3 Half Plate, +3 Shield, Defender Rapier, Cloak and Ring of Protection AC with only armor and racial/class features: 23 (21 from plate, +1 Warforged, +1 Artificer infusion) AC before abilities and spells: 31 Cast Haste and Shield yourself: 40 Use Martial Adepts “Evasive Footwork”: 46 Use Defensive Flourish: 54 Get Help from other cleric (Shield of Faith, Ceremony, and Warding Bond): 59 Not that any of this matters considering the highest bonus to hit is +19 capping the maximum to hit at 39, meaning you only need Haste and Shield to survive any attack!
How are you wearing plate mail if you have no heavy armor proficiency? None of those classes wear heavy armor so you'd either need it as a feat or have to multiclass into fighter, cleric or paladin.
Well, at lvl 1 forge clerics get the ability to do MaGiC armour or weapons. So, you get to go with Plate for 18. Plus two from shield add 1 from defense fighter Add 1 from forge cleric 22 ac
@@coopercummings8370 marry the zealot barbarian, once the week is up they kill themselves and the cleric revivifies them for free, repeat the process until your dm cries in the corner out of both pride and despair.
Remember to grab the cloak of displacement to negate those critical hits. Also remember to pack absorb elements for when your DM decides to nuke you with elemental damage.
The highest attack bonuses are Legendary creatures like Tiamat which have a +19 to Hit. Which means, if a DM rolls a 19 with Tiamat, that attack roll is only 38 to hit. So an AC of 39 is practically invincible and you don't need an AC any higher than that because a Nat 20 will always hit.
Ha, a meager 52? The great wizard Acumen has taught us how to to achieve an AC of over 100! Mostly with shield golems and it only lasts one turn, but still!
Bladesinger is a bonus to AC, not a replacement for the calculation: if you get Dex, Int, and either Con or Wis (Barbarian or Monk multiclass respectively), all to 20, that's an AC of 35. Before magic items.
Your DM should just grapple you into prone and laugh as your high a.c. does nothing. Heck just multiple enemies spamming help actions for advantage. High a.c. is meh if you aren't a threat.
From the Monster Manual, the highest attack bonus is +19 (Tarrasque), which means that, excluding crits, the highest attack roll from the book is 38, so an AC of 39 covers mostly everything in the core books. But the DM can still push it by making an epic level enemy, with a +10 modifier, +7 proficiency bonus, some fighting archetypes and +3 weapons... which means they REALLY want the party dead. At this point I'd just go for saving throws instead.
You can get the +2 to ac with the Eldridge Cannon from the artificer at 15th level as a party member. And have another artificer with the metal beast companion that can use its reaction to give disadvantage to attacks
My Warforged is an Artificer too. I went Alchemist, and with infusions, I drop a +1 or +2 AC on shields and armor. Warforged and Artificer is a good combination. (my dude is like Baymax)
This is interesting as a Forge Cleric I try and help my Meat Shield I mean Dwarf Warrior Tank out as much as possible, This has given me a few ideas that I may start implementing.
@Sean Fisher Be an Erudite and buy alot of Scrolls with the Spell to Power ability and make use of one of the many unlimited power point tricks of your choice. Size +8(Rod of Wonder used by a small creature) Natural +40(Polymorph and a +5 Item) Shield +16(Magic Shield and Abjurant Champion and agent savant plus a magic shield +5) Armour +18(Greater Mage Armour and Abjurant Champion and agent savant plus a magic armour +5) Deflection +5(Magic Item) Improved Cover +4(From an ectoplasmic field around you) Dexterity +20(By being a kobold and putting all your stats to 40 with a creatures ability from serpent kingdom) Dodge +2(Fighting Defencifely) Gives you an AC of 135 without even spending 1 feat which can make it go up by another 20 points atleast. Edit: Or just be Pun-Pun Godhood at lvl 1.
If someone is running a character designed to maximize AC, just start having enemies that go after saves. Breath weapons, wizards, gas attacks, and the like. That way, the player can continue enjoying his utterly impenetrable AC, but is also being challenged, without utterly decimating the rest of the party.
If you take the defender rapier instead of the Longsword, you can pick up the defensive duelist feat which will allow you to use a reaction to add your proficiency bonus to your AC, that way, when you run out of spell slots for your shield spell, you can still get even a +6 to your AC. Granted, its not till your next turn, but its better than nothing
I had built the warforged Super AC Tank a while back, this was without spells or magic items. But this just proves that the warforged are this best race for front line characters.
Instead of shield spell you can have defensive duelist feat. If you are holding a finesse weapon, you can add your proficiency bonus to AC as a reaction, so you're essentially add this bonus twice (first as a racial trait, then as a duelist feat). Which is more than shield spell (another way to spend your reaction) can give you. Besides, it is a very funny mental picture to imagine a heavy armored robot with a rapier. SILVER CHARIOT, GOOOO!
Another potential: Defensive Duelist feat. If wielding a finesse weapon you are proficient with (such as a rapier, which has a Defender version, so that still works) you can add your proficiency bonus to your AC against 1 melee attack as a reaction. This is less useful than Shield, since Shield lasts an entire round and works on ranged attacks and spells, but technically your +6 proficiency bonus would be higher than the +5 for Shield, so if you're looking for the highest single number, this would be better.
Go Warforged and take 2 levels in paladin to gain defensive fighting style, Heavy armour proficiency and smites. Take 15 levels of college of lore bard to be able to add a D12 to AC. Grab a +3 shield, a Ring and a Cloak of Protection, a Shield Guardian amulet and the Defender (rapier or shortsword form). Take the defensive duelist feat adding +6 to AC as a reaction at level 17. Have a cleric cast warding bond and shield of faith on you. Learn haste from magical secrets adding a +2 to AC. Per round this should provide an AC of between 47 and 58.
I don't think Smite was the plan, but that's just me. Given the presence of time, any form of inconsistencies, such as temps/rolling shouldn't be given too much credit for any character, including a defensive one. I also hate when people feel the need to mention Magic Items (no offense to anyone); they aren't part of the build! Anyone can add Magic Items freely, so it should be assumed that, ideally, everyone has *all* the relevant Magic Items by default. Sadly, people still waste their time including such, since some people just don't get how meaningless their inclusion becomes. It's like saying, "And, you'll be able to add xyz!" Everyone gets to do that! It's not part of the build, given it's not a choice. Warforged, Defensive Duelist, Duel Wielder, Fighter 4, Monk 4, Mystic 1, gets 30+ AC naturally, without petty universal bonuses, and temps. You should note that this is all before reaching 10th level, and sacrifices can be negated with a delay. It's not as if *my *DM is just gonna give people a bunch of Magic Items for something as basic as gold! Regardless, AC isn't really as important as offense for 5e, since opponents will soon ignore your 50+ AC with their +999999999 to hit. The people who write these crazy Creatures clearly have no respect for AC PCs, so it's best to just play their little game. Pathfinder doesn't treat you any better. Worse actually. It's harder for the DM to create a fair fight, with so much filth available. Personally, I'm glad there's finally someone, or something, to counter Lord Variant Human. The God King has been Ch-Ch-Ch-Challenged! Now we have 3 Warforged, and 3 Vars, rather than 6. Yipee! Time to multi-class into Warlock 3 with Darkness spam as 6 Fighters!
@@thehealymeister9287 twitter.com/HellcowKeith/status/1103707688821760001?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1103707688821760001&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sageadvice.eu%2F2019%2F04%2F05%2Fdoes-the-blessing-of-the-forge-ability-by-a-forge-cleric-affect-the-integrated-protection-of-a-warforged%2F Integrated Protection doesn't grant any armor items. It does, however, add armor nonetheless. EDIT: fixed styling.
@@scottd521 Don't need to have (random number) AC, if you can have (higher number) AC with xyz. Of course, this isn't classified as a "selection" of the build. If someone were to get those Magic Boots, it's most practical to assume everyone will get them, unless you've found some way of forging them unique to your build. Save yourself the trouble; don't write every 50 or so Magic Items just for the sake of demonstrating power. People should be able to see that for themself, or so I would hope.
Fun fact: You can have multiple Shield Guardians stack their AC buff on you. You could have up to 8 Shield Guardians in the squares around you, or you could have them squeeze tightly in order to fit 16, or you could even use Reduce on them to stack up to 36 in the squares around you. That'd be a +72 to AC. It's worth noting that in the Princes of the Apocalypse official campaign, there is an opportunity to grab a Shield Guardian and its control amulet straight the official material.
I'd love it if at one point they talked about the Unearthed Arcana Mystic class. Edit: They actually did a cursory preview of the Mystic but it wasn't as in depth as I would have liked. The Mystic- Adding Psionics to 5E D&D| Unearthed Arcana Review Part 1 ua-cam.com/video/H83Ut8lhAjs/v-deo.html Mystic- Psionic Disciplines and Talents for 5E D&D Unearthed Arcana Review Part 2 ua-cam.com/video/6pEqD3cp_84/v-deo.html
Surprised haven't seen mention that Protection from Good and Evil is touch based, and can be cast by a familiar using its concentration freeing up your own for Haste, Shield of Faith, or anything else.
Time to use maddening hex. Now I just need a way to keep myself from taking damage while I stay within 30 feet of the high ac monstrosity for the next 24 hours. With a charisma of 5 that's 72,000 damage over the course of 24 hours.
Ceremony, if you have a cleric or paladin in your party they can marry you off to another player and both will get +2 AC when in 30 feet of each other for a week. And if you are kinda crazy, you can kill the spouse, revive them, and perform the ceremony again.
This is hilarious! Casually killing and reviving party members to get extra AC... Don't forget to kill them with enervation, vampiric touch or another necromancy spell, and get me some necromancy wizards in here.
I made a high AC Character 10 without Armour 18 without Dual Wield 19 with Dual Wield 20-31 or 20-25 if an attack hits 25-36 or 20-30 with a reaction (Shield Spell) Without Magic items Sword Bard w/ 15 +Dex (Max of 2) armour and the Medium Armour Master & Dual Wielder feats (this makes the armour 15 +Dex (Max of 3) instead) All he needs now is that armour that makes Crits ineffective and he is a beast
I was playing around and created a tortle monk with way of the kensai; at level 8 I managed get up to AC 25 without any magic items or help from other party members. I was pretty proud of that.
Lv1 dip into Fighter then lv19 in Bladesinger... Maybe through that lv19 into another class if lv19 doesn't add anything to the build. Preferably Dex requirement Classes...
If your dm doesnt allow the defender the staff of power gives a plus 2 to ac and saving throws while having a plethora of spells attached to it, but it requires attunment it. It can be used as a one handed weapon as well
You can get 45 on your own by taking only 2 feats along the way and a plus 3 shield and half plate armour, you don’t even need to multi class for it (though it’s not certain cos two of the abilities need to role dice so you could end up with less but it’s 45 max)
Another benefit of the blade singer is if you choose shield as one of your spell mastery spells, you can effectively get +5 ac permanently at the cost of your reaction each round.
If putting levels into mage, add in mirror image. Doesn't increase the armor class directly, but it makes a hit a likely miss, so even if the bugger manages to hit you (probably only through rolling a 20) it still might miss!
Your base AC, before applying anything else (Spells/Class/etc), is 22 with Heavy Plating. +3 Shield Simic Hybrid Dex Barbarian comes in at 10 base, +5 Dexterity, +5 Con, +1 Carapace, for 21 base, only 1 point shy of the Warforged, until level 20. At 20, it pulls into 23 base, 25 with mundane shield, 28 with a +3. Now we add a Skold Rune for +1, Ring of Protection for +1, and Ioun of Protection for +1, for 31 AC. All of them not too hard to get. At this point, its already hard enough to be hit, without accounting for anything else. Can still be SoF by the cleric for +2 for 33. Sure, its not 46.. but requires nothing from anyone else, to hit that 31 ;p
The best single character AC I've come up with is a bit cheesy and technically could be almost as high as the 40's. +3 plate armor +3 shield Defender longsword (allows for an additional +3 to AC or to attack) A cloak of protection And technically up to 20 rings of protection. 18+3+2+5+3+20=50 With this you have a 50 AC and if you take the defense fighting style it goes to a 51. An alternate but possibly more powerful option is to take a cloak of displacement instead of the cloak of protection. So either a 51 AC or a 50 AC with disadvantage on attacks against you. You would need to be a fighter or paladin for this build.
Except that ring of protection, cloak of protection and defender longsword all need attunement, and a character can only be attuned to a maximum of 3 magic items, 6 if you are a Level 18 Artificer. So you can only wear 1 Ring of Protection in addition, and not 20.
Dunno if anyone else mentioned this but whilst the Manual of Golems doesn't have a way to build a Shield Guardian, the Shield Guardian does give a cost for making the amulet, which I'm sure with a kind enough DM and good rolls or roleplaying on the players' part there'd be some way to find the information to make that, it'd just require the character to then attune said amulet to a Shield Guardian and it'd work properly.
I’ve finished making a character for my next campaign before I saw this video. I went with a Protector Aasimar. The DM is letting us start off 6th level. So I’ve 2 in Paladin to get the Defender fighting style and 4 in Forge Domain Cleric. I chose that specifically because it gets a +1 AC at 6th level and I can give an armor I wear +1 AC through Channel Divinity.
you dont give armor +1 through channel divinity, you give armor a +1 enchantment through your first level feature, the defense fighting style is only +1 AC, so you might as well go for Forge Cleric 6, and get your AC there, plus reistance to fire damage, and you'll retain build purity for getting the cleric 20th level guaranteed intervention, plus you'll get more spell slots you can spend on defensive measures
So with 8 more shield guardians forking a ring around you you can have an AC of 68 if I did my math correctly. I think this IS impossible to hit unless the opponent gets a nat 20...
Fourth level fighter human, two feats, medium armor master, sheild master, dex 16, fighting style defense, half plate and sheild ac 21 for a low level yay!!! Was making that character as a Spartan warrior eventually 12 fighter champion 8 theif assassin. But that's a different story. Less damage all around and high ac. What cha guys think?
Justin Harris bladesinger makes AC easy, especially with a dip into paladin for fighting style and shield of faith. Bladesong and shield gives you +10 alone. 12 + dex + int + 5 + 2 + 1
@@jackbarman7063 oh ya true that. The fighter I mentioned earlier can have a 21 armor class at level 1 if the DM allows him to find half plate that early. Which is a medium armor. That's an all the time ac no spells or abilities needed. But your right the bladesinger is pretty cool. How often can you do bladesong? Or Is that an all the time thing?
@@justinharris7181 Just for flavor then. I still regard Variant Human to be one of the best, but the Warforged is just too strong. Now that they're the new staple, I'm happy to see anything else. As one for combat, I always use Defensive Duelist as a Variant Human.
18th level elf druid, using the Manual of Quickness of Action every time possible, starting with a 10 dexterity. Near the end of the character's life, you will have a dex of 150, as well as a naked AC of 85, add +3 studded leather, wooden +2 shield, and a shield spell gets an AC of 97. If you add haste, AC is 99, add shield of faith, AC 101.
No mention of Defensive Duelist feat? It's a bonus to AC that equals your Proficiency, and Proficiency scales great starting at +2 and going up by 1 every 4 levels for a +6 at level 17. It only requires you to wield a finess weapon you're proficient with, which is very common and never really hurts a character - anyone can wield a Dagger and most a Shortsword or Rapier. And it stacks with any other bonus you can add to your AC. I think it's a golden feat for anyone who wants good AC. Note that you can use Finess weapons with strength too, so both the Barbarian and the Wizard and everyone in between can benefit from this feat. And it's just there, every turn, every day, for as long as you have a Dagger on you.
True, you can only use it once a round, so perhaps not great for dedicated tanks who expect to take multiple hits every round, but probably would still be useful.
I may be a little late to this train, but here goes - I came up with a Yuan-Ti Paladin 8/Wizard 12 who, all by himself, has an AC anywhere between 21 and 32, a bonus to saving throws of between +5 and +11, before considering ability scores, magic resistance, and resistance to damage dealt by spells. As a Paladin, you get the typical 21 AC from plate + shield + fighting style. You also get Shield of Faith, bringing you to 23 AC. This is where the Wizard levels come in. As a 10th level School of War Magic Wizard, you gain +2 AC while concentrating on spells (not just wizard spells), which brings your AC to 25. If hit, you can use Arcane Deflection to get AC 27 or Shield to get AC 30. However, if you make this a Dex build rather than Str, you can fight with a Rapier and take the Defensive Duelist feat, which can be used to bring your AC to 31 at high levels (+proficiency to AC with your reaction). As a Wizard, you also have access to Blur, which is approximately equal to a +3 to AC as well as a preventative measure against critical hits. This being your spell of concentration, instead if Shield of Faith, leads to an AC equivalent of 32. And the only resource spent was a single level two spell slot, which lasts for a full minute. This may not be as crazy high AC as discussed in this video, but recall this is a single character and that this defense will last for a very long time. Next is saving throws! The best tanks can block not only swords but spells, too. Paladin level 6 grants the player Aura of Protection, which grants a +5 bonus to all saving throws with a Cha of 20. The level 10 Wizard feature mentioned earlier also helps out here during concentration, granting a further +2 to saving throws to get you to a +7. If you fail a save, you can use Arcane Deflection to get a further +4. If this still is not enough, you can choose to concentrate on the Bless spell, including yourself as a target, granting you a +1d4 bonus to saving throws. This comes out to a +11+1d4 bonus. Note that these save bonuses also apply to concentration checks, so you will not have to worry about losing concentration any time soon. And of course, do not forget the race selection. Yuan-Ti have magic resistance, giving them advantage on saving throws against magical effects. This combined with the level 7 Oath of the Ancients feature, which halves all damage dealt by a magical attack, makes this character nearly immune to magic. But if you want to be functionally immune to nearly everything, just stand in place and cast Blade Ward every turn. The only things that can have any hope of killing you now are magical weapons! This build does not have a crazy amount of hp at high level (~110) but then again, he will never be damaged in the first place. He is also not particularly aggressive, unless you use Divine Smite for damage. He can draw attention with Compelled Duel, though, so he is not quite ignorable. I am currently debating between favoring Dex for weapon attacks (and Mirror Image, which may further add to your defenses) or Int for wizard spells. The Wizard spells for this build would primarily be selected for field control, which is why I am reluctant to sacrifice Int, as anybody can do damage. Ability score array (at lvl 20): Str 8 Dex 14 Con 12 Int 15+1+2+2 Wis 8 Cha 14+2+2+2 Final ASI is dedicated to Defensive Duelist
I used to frustrate my DM with my Bard and his AC. We played Lost Mines of Phandelver and I got the Staff of defense. After LOMP we played homebrew campaign up to lvl 17. As Bard I also multiclassed to get shield and medium armor. Half plate +1, Staff of Defense, shield +1, 14 Dex, Shield spell = 15+1+1+2+2+5 = 26 AC all by myself. Not to mention Mirror Image cast on myself and Cutting Words :)
Cleric of the forge. Plate armor and a shield = 20 AC + shield of faith & the domain ability to give any armor or weapon a +1. That is 23 AC by lvl 2. +2 from dex mod if you have dex high enough. I did not have mine high enough on this character tho so possible to have 25 AC at lvl 2 on a forge cleric. I went Gnome as the race because one of the ways DM's mess with high AC characters is to force a lot of saving throws and gnomish cunning gives you advantage on Int, Cha & Wis saving throws vs spells & shield master gives you Advantage on Dex saving throws. Very difficult character to mess with by lvl 4 already and thats without magic items, potions or help from any other players. Also as a cleric you have healing spells so if you do manage to take damage you can heal it. I came up with this build initially trying to create a Tinkerer. Figured gnome tinkerer cleric of the forge was a thematically good concept that was not very meta but i was oh so wrong about that. To top it of i use tinkering and smithing to outfit my armor with all sorts of hidden compartments and items. Like D&D Ironman. I dont even use weapons unless i have to. I just sling cantrips and spells running around behind my armor and my shield like the main character from the rise of the shield hero anime.
@@KingKevin108 Oh ive only got a few games under my belt so i wasnt aware that plate didnt benefit, good thing you mentioned this before i invested in dex like i was just about to do lol
I dmed for a warforged paladin that had high 30s ac around level 10. So i designed a questline around how a lich used his body as a phalactery. Every d100 days. During the night, hed roll a wisdom check to see if the liches soul would corrupt him making him lose his paladin powers. This happened the rest before the final boss, against the lich, who thought he could just toss in whatever he wanted at the party and his phalactery would be perfectly fine. Turns out him losing his paladin powers gave him a bunch of boosts i didnt quite notice i guess and he got murdered straight off by a stray spell from a necromancer. Gg necrodude you saved the world from the lich
i've got a character that's basically this - its a juggernaut warforged thats a hexbalde warlock. at level 4 i took the feat for heavy armor, and between all the warlock's debuffs and shield spells ive effectively got an AC of about 50 by level 9
Wouldn't that be inferior to the +3 from the Defender, and the +5 from the shield? Although it could be a solid replacement if you can't get the defender. :)
That only works if you can't get a plus 3 Magic Shield from your DM. I don't think that it will work on your integrated armor seems how that's a race feature and not actual armor
@@ToadimusPrime it still counts a armor you thats why you still need proficiency in armor to use its forms if it was natural armor you wouldnt need proficiency.
If you are allowing UA Mystic is very helpful. You can use Bestial Form: Tough Hide to gain an additional +2 (no concentration) and you can set your psychic focus to Iron Durability for another +1. That only takes one level. If you want to take 9 levels you can use your reaction (with Iron durability) to get +7 to AC instead of shield's +5. (You can also take diminution with the ability sudden shift to make attacks automatically miss, or Precognition to give disadvantage on attacks that would hit with all around sight)
If you take forge cleric you get a plus one while wearing heavy armor, if you take some level in fighter you take the defensive fighting style and get another plus one and forge clerics can enchant a piece of non magical into plus 1 armor once per day so you could enchant some basic gauntlets or something while wearing enchanted plate mail
None of my campaigns have ever made it past lvl 4, so my recent brain child is a lvl two warforged with one lvl in fighter and one lvl in forge cleric. Where I can add +2 AC by using a shield. It counts as armor for the defensive style, and I can add +1 from being a forge cleric. So, at lvl 2, 16+ 2 prof+ 4 shield=22
Doesn’t the Cleric require an Armor Item, and not a class feature? If it does, then Cleric is a complete dump, and is outclassed by the Artificer (UA) entirety. Of course, even without the UA, Fighter would give you something, and Warlock covers temps (Spell-caster), if you’re into that sort of thing.
@@thejohnrahm For forge Cleric. Yes and No. it's second level effect I think it is requires a non-magical item and gives a +1. Less useful at higher levels. But at level 6 it gets a class feature for heavy armor that is basically the same that fighters get at level 1.
Quandry1 You do know that adding +1 to a +3 Plate, granting the same as the Warforged is a dump of 6 levels, and it’s nearly impossible to find such a good Magic Item without an extra-relaxed DM.
@@thejohnrahm for soul of the forge it is 6 levels and is restricted to heavy armor. However, at level 1 or 2 forge domain clerics can temporarily enchant a non-magical armor or weapon with a +1 bonus and count as magical until next long rest. Fighters and paladin get the equivalent to just wearing any armor at level 1 and level 2 respectively.
Personally I'd drop warforged for v. Human and try to get adamantine armor. It may lower your ac by 4, 3 if you take the armored fighting style, but critical hits become normal hits. Also remember that the war wizard micro shield can give a +4 to a save as well to help keep you up and not mind controlled.
One of the Dm's I have played with used the homebrew rules for rather high magic vs high tech campaign. The three important notes are that you can attune to a number of items equal to your proficiency bonus, and in his world, he had already confirmed that rings and cloaks of protection could be upgraded to plus 3 , and that the ban on attunning to the same item multiple times was not in place. I showed him a character concept that was a level 20 artificer, (gets 3 more attunement slots for a total of 9 now) Grab 8 rings of protection, obviously leaving your middle fingers free to flick off your enemies, and a displacer cloak. Upgrade them all to +3 (standard is considered +1, Money is provided by crafting endless amounts of robes of useful items and selling the content from patches). Take the heavy armored feat in order to get heavy armor access. Warforged Heavy Plating: 22 AC 8 rings of +3 protection (+3 bonus to saves and AC)= +24 bonus to AC, +24 to saves Artificer Soul of artifice (+9 to saves for attuned items) Displacer cloak: Disadvantage to hit (for most enemies) (With an AC things will pretty much only hit on crits, so disadvantage becomes more important. ) Overall 46 AC +33 to all saves on top of normal proficiency, and stat bonuses. When I showed it to my DM. He said, technically it can exist in my world, but remember if you can do it, so can my NPC's Since then I have been looking to make a pact with a beholder to antimagic someone if the need arises. So far we have a spectator friend but no base beholder.
Well and good build, but it relies on a lot of factors: Access to 3 books, specific party composition, and a lot of magic items. Here’s a build that’s adventures’ league legal. Half-Elf: Point-buy 16 Dex, 17 Cha 1 Fighter / 1 Hexblade / 18 Sword Bard Feats: Elvish Accuracy +1 Cha, Med Armor Master, +2 Cha, Shield Master Use Foresight, Mirror Image, Blink, Haste, Shield. Let’s tally it up... Half-Plate+M.A.M: 15+3 Shield: +2..20 Defense FS: +1..21 Haste: +2..23 Shield Spell: +5..28 Inspiration: +12..40 Foresight: Disadvantage Blink: 50% chance you’re not a target Mirror Image: 1/4th of a chance for miss to be a hit. Go forth and Solo a tarrasque! No magic items or teammates. Adv League Legal
Still in love with my tanky shield master warcaster wizard with one level in fighter, two shields, and a 21-26 AC. Only melee attack was booming blade with a shield bash shove.
There's more to the Shield Guardian: they can store spells - up to 4th level - and cast them on command. So long as it's something the owner can cast, the guardian can cast it too. The stat block doesn't actually specify what happens vis a vis Concentration, so it's up to the DM whether the owner can offload Haste or the like onto it. But if it can, that's one fewer allies that need to be in on the action for the character concept to work. Provided, of course, you don't mind the spell only being cast once before needing to be stored again.
Armorer Artificer Warforged 10th level with infusiton AC is 25+shield (which can be a infused shield) (total with shield 29), and has shield spell, it can also replicate cloak of protection for a +1 bringing it up to 30 (using infused shield) before the regular magic shenanegans begin. Oh and did I mention that you can attune 4 items? (5 at level 14)
we shouldn't forget that fixating on AC means nothing if you're weak to most saving throw based damages. One of the best damaging spells in the game is a dex save in fireball after all
I’m am new to D&D, like just a few months new, my friends told me that a barbarian roll is more than likely what I’ll enjoy so I started looking into how to build characters and how to be somewhat busted, I’m playing as a leonine barbarian and so far I’m level 3 with an armor class of 23, all the other party members are druids and a rogue with armor classes from 13-16, The DM is struggling to give us difficult combat encounters because something that is of average difficulty for my character is a deadly encounter to the rest of the party
What are you guys' thoughts on Sorcadin for survivability? What I've found is that finding a way to impose disadvantage on attacks instead of just straight stacking AC is actually more important. I think a sorcadin is really good for this because you can still get high AC (Plate Armor + Shield + Defense = 21 AC immediately) + (Shield Spell = 26 AC) at like level 3. This is before any other magical items and scaling proficiency mod. Then you couple that with the Blur spell and you are almost impossible to hit... Think about it like this: let's say you are fighting some monster with a +11 to hit (like an adult green dragon). If you had a Sorcadin with only 21 AC but access to Blur then the probability that this dragon could hit you is 25% with Blur activated. Another class would need a straight AC of 26 to get that same probability if they don't have a way of imposing disadvantage. This doesn't even take into consideration that a sorcadin can still use shield spell while blur is active and get down to a 6% chance of being hit (in this situation)! That is all at like level 5 not to mention it almost entirely removes the possibility of being crit (unless the DM rolls two nat 20s at once). Another class would need an AC of 30 to get to that same ~6% chance of being hit.... Obviously this assumes that the other class doesn't have a way of imposing disadvantage but Blur is unique in my mind because it's only a level 2 spell (and a sorcadin has a ton of level 2 spell slots) and it lasts for so long - it will easily last the whole combat.
I did a Gish 1ftr/7wizard was still getting hit consistently with a stand 24AC(29 with shield) completely destroyed the build cuz the DM didn't like that he couldn't hit him the first few games. Then a few session after he "adjusted" he 1 rounded my tank. I was like well he's dead, Dm was like "what?!", I told he to check the sheet. He only had 50 or so HP, his survivability relied on him not being hit constantly. Was an interesting and fun build. Dm was just a bit sour on it.
Or just be Paladin 2/College of Swords 15+ who gets everything you mentioned excluding the Warforged stuff, all the spells, is almost a full caster and can smite And will get lv 9 spells the last two levels. AC in the mid 30's without friends help and before defensive flourish d12.
I found three I didn't hear mentioned -Fighting style defense +1 -Forge cleric soul of the Forge +1 -Banner of the Krig Rune Gift of Battle +1 (yes it location based but for the party fortress/town/home)
I got a Bladesinging Wizard-Monk-Cleric to have a base AC of 34 up to a potential AC of 47-52 at level 14, solo. If I had a cleric and Paladin casting Warding Bond and Shield of Faith, that would also be +3 there. Something I haven't considered is the newly "official-ized" Articifer class, and the buffs it provides could up that by a couple more points. If I wanted to build a completely unhittable character, I'd start with a Warforged Artificer to buff its Adamantine Plate and continue along the same build you outlined in the video.
You could also get the unarmoured defence feature from barbarian because the warforged ability "intergrated armour" counts as natural armour like the lizardfolks scales
I know this is a year old, but there is a way to get 31 AC at level 7 (but is much more plausible at level 9) You will need 6 levels in Forge Domain Cleric, 1 Level in Fighter while taking the "Defensive" fighting style and somehow getting access to the "Shield" spell. It's much more plausible at level 9 because you would put one more level into Cleric, bringing you to level 7 and gaining access to the "Fabricate" spell. You can gain plate armor fairly easy using this. And then you put a level into one of three classes: Sorcerer, Wizard, or Hexblade Warlock. These classes get the Shield spell at first level that you can use as your reaction to gain +5 AC till the start of your next turn 18 (plate armor)+2 (actual shield)+1 (warforged)+1 (blessing of the forge feature)+1 (soul of the forge feature)+1 (defensive fighting style)+2 (shield of faith spell) for a total of 26, then with a +5 on reaction with the shield spell you'll have 31 AC Thank you for coming to my Ted talk Edit: I forgot to mention this does not use any Magic Items, this is using purely mundane items. The Blessing of the Forge makes the armor magic, but everything *is* mundane still And, this is all done by yourself, you don't need anyone else to cast anything on you
Caduceus Clay from critical role has an ability to cancel out crits as a reaction, but I honestly don't know what subclass he uses (or if it's homebrew).
I've been kicking around a similar build, but it's slightly less AC overall, but substantially more versatile. Without multiclassing, just go all in on paladin Oath of Ancients, for half damage on all spells +3 platemail and defensive fighting style (or warforge, same base AC of 22, and allows for dueling fighting style choice istead) +3 shield (27 total AC) Ring of protection (28 AC) Defender sword can be any sword type according to the DMG, so have it be a rapier for finesse quality (31 AC) Shield of faith spell (33 AC) Defensive duelist feat allows you to add proficiency to AC on reaction against 1 attack (39 AC total) And to top it off, instead of a cloak of protection, go with cloak of displacement, because statistically, against the highest attack bonus in the game (Tarrasque at +20) rolling a 19 or 20 with disadvantage is less likely than rolling a 20 on a standard roll, with the added bonus of preventing enemies from having advantage for whatever reason in most situations. This is also accomplished solo, allowing other party members to prioritize other things.
I've a similar build with a warforged conquest paladin with one level of sorcerer. - base AC: 22 - Shield+3: 27 - Shield of faith: 29 - Ring&cloak of protection: 31 - Defender: 34 - Incidental shield: 39 Fear gives enemies disadvantage to hit you, and because you are a Conqueror, you want to max charisma first. This build leaves you with a 34 AC and +7 to all saves. before you get any support from your allies. With allies: - Haste: 41 - Warding Bond: 42 , +8 to all saves Without magic items or support: Base + shield + SoF + Shield spell: 22+2+2+5 = 26/31 with most enemies on melee having disadvantage to hit you With support, no magic items: Base + Shield+ SoF + Haste + Warding Bond + Shield Spell: 22+2+2+2+1+5 = 29/34 with their disadvantage
I have a level one mountain dwarf sorcerer with the shield spell and spiked armor (he made himself) for a AC of 21. (Mountain dwarfs have natural proficiency in light and medium armor. Also l plan on multiclassing into forge cleric for rollplay and heavy armor.) I look forward to useing this character. ( And getting better armor and AC boosting magic items like the ring and bracers of protection,and maybe shields.) The best part about this character is it was made completely for free on dndbeyond.
A solo hunter7/kensei3/war wizard10 can get you to 29 on a reaction while concentrating on haste and 31 on all subsequent attacks. Using no magic items. Also +6 to saving throws
My best with the College of Swords Bard: Max Dex + Studded Leather Armor (17) + Defensive Duelist Feat (22) + Defensive Flourish (either get an automatic 28 and if you're risky, at most 34) + Cloak of Protection. At LvL 14 you get a 35 AC. If you get proficiency in a shield and a +3 magic sheild, you can get to a 40 AC. Don't be sleeping on muh boi.
1lv barbarian, 3lv fighter (battle master) and the feat defensive Duelist. We have 20 AC with unarmoured defense + 6 AC from the feat + 1d12 AC (if u're lv 20) + a shield just for +2 AC 40 AC if you get the D12 on max, so not even if the tarrasque gets a nat 20 it can't hit you
I have a build. First pick a raise that gives a +2 to dex, then pick fighter(eldritch knight) for shield spell, choose the defense fighting style, max out dex, choose studded leather armor, get a shield (item), get defensive duelist feat, boom you now have a 25-30+prof ac
Power Up Your Game with D&D Beyond- goo.gl/ukSTKo
ua-cam.com/video/eGO40gt5lmI/v-deo.html
This guy claims you can get above 100AC!
@@codesimpson6010 DawnforgedCast stacks *SEVEN* Shield Guardians that Nerdarchy decided *not* to do in their build. ua-cam.com/video/eGO40gt5lmI/v-deo.html
You've done most Armor.
Now can you do the most Hit Points?
I noticed the barbarian can get 10 + con. + DeX not natural armor + con + dex so that could be dictated by DM
@@MikeStJacques fvhgyydududuudueuudusysggsydyrirryeurydteyeyryryrrryyr Chad wild clay eueueiwa111qqqqqqqqqwueueydydi
Best AC? Take 20 levels in Necromancer Wizard. Send your army in and you stay at home.
They can't hit what they can't find!
Spoken like a true Necromancer lol
Best hope they don't.
5 sessions in: F.B.I., open up!
up there with bathroom psychic.
Get hit by meteor swarm...
I played these kinds of shenanigans in a pathfinder game. My arcanist had the worst AC in the party, but he kept himself surrounded by enough skeletons and zombies to be untouchable by anything but ranged attacks (which were rare, for us) and hostile spell casters (even more rare). The trick I found that kept me from being obnoxious was I only ordered my minions to defend, so they would only ever attack if enemies came to them.
High ac player:exist
Gas based traps intensify
That's why they also made sure to add to saving throws. To delay the wrath of the DM
I can see the dm trapping the party in a force cage and casting cloudkill on them already
But this build uses a Warforged. The magic robot.
They don't need to eat, drink, or breathe, and even if they choose to, they have advantage on poison saving throws and resistance to poison damage. And are immune to disease.
Warforged don't need to breath
Laughs in Warforged
Maybe it's just me and my weak memory, but ...
I love Nerdarchy's "crazy build series" but it would help so much to have text on the screen outlining the features of the build, rather than having to take notes as I watch. I'm considering taking this to my game tonight and chatting about it with our AC-obsessed fighter, but not sure I want to watch it all again.
Perhaps this will help. It's our worksheet notes - docs.google.com/document/d/1FN5yJz-1p3YKO5nVD7LLVB2eG8vDLkAuGEumXDiqyK8/edit?usp=drivesdk
Nerdarchist Dave
Still, some graphics on screen would be immensely beneficial to the viewers. Even reading through these comments, I have no idea what class or classes you used to make this build. I'm completely lost even with your notes
@@Nerdarchy wow thanks , thats a sub from me
Also constant viewer now
In a dnd group discord, we had this player get to like 27 consistent AC by lvl 3. However, the dms figured out he deals next to no damage and nothing that messes up attacks on allies, so the end started just murdering his teammates till it was the bbeg v him. The bbeg turned around and finished his goal while the AC macho beat uselessly on the bbeg armor.
Moral of the story, you gotta be a threat for AC to matter.
And if you are, please do something to support your wisdom saves.
Put yourself infront of the bad guy so the others can hit the bad guy while you protect them, You're called the ultimate shield for a reason you aren't used for attacks.
@@deathlizard3047 And then the bad guy simply walks around the "ultimate shield" to attack the people who are actually threats. The usefulness of pure meatshields is directly related to the intelligence of the enemies they're fighting.
Like a Barbarian Paladin, with a passive AC of 23-27 depending on stats and gear, my personal one was an eldritch abomination after a wish, giving him a 30 Con, and he was originally a dex paladin, so his AC before items was 24, he had a +1 shield and defender scimitar so his neutral AC was 30, and could still smite and deal rage damage after he found a Belt of Cloud Giant Strength. But a normal Barbalidin with a +2 Dex score and a +5 Con, paired with a pair of Bracers of Defense and a Cloak of Protection gives them an AC of 20, can still use a two handed-weapon with smites while raging, get rage damage or if you want the AC higher and your damage to suffer *slightly* you can drop the bracers for a +1 Shield and get that AC to 21 and thats using only uncommon items on a “relatively” low level, maybe level 9 or so?
@@quasimofo6811 sentinel feat. Bbeg ain't walking nowhere lol
The characters level is 17 right? Last 3 levels in bard college of swords and use defensive flourish. Extra 1d6 to AC
Sounds like a temp. It sounds like a temp... with rolling. Double oof.
EDIT: I'm sure a bunch of Henries will still get some good usage out of it with luck on their side, combined with sheer ignorance of their plan's impermanence.
Warforged isnt 5e legal though
@@TheToasterbox Ebberon?
@@weirdowszx1168 which is only legal in ebberron based games
@@TheToasterbox One stipulation in the video was "Your DM has to be allowing non-standard races". I cant claim to have played DnD under a huge number of DMs, but the few I have were generally not sticklers about what content your race or archetype came from unless it was a specific themed game.
Realistically, unless you're in a situation where the Ancient Gold Dragon wields a +3 holy avenger and has a priest casting bless and a bard giving it inspiration; AC 39 is enough to prevent everything except critical hits.
adamantine armor works for that. IMO going the elf route is better because you can't get that on Warforged. AC 38-39 + crit immunity is SO much better than 45+AC
don't forget the auto hit or save spells, they can still get ya
@@easycheese6409 pick up the mage Slayer feat for advantage vs those spells
Cody Sams good point
@@Killo464 or a Grave domain cleric.
very hard to follow with no visual representation of what is happening. Just suggestion to improve this kind of content.
They linked the script in another comment, would be good in future. docs.google.com/document/d/1FN5yJz-1p3YKO5nVD7LLVB2eG8vDLkAuGEumXDiqyK8/edit
What do you mean.
They discuss stuff.
@@trollzynisaacjohan1793 Some people like pictures to go with audio, to understand better, not that hard to grasp...
WhiskeyHound
Actually, it *sounds* like they mentioned everything of relevance.
So much for those random visuals to keep viewers listening from those clickbait normie theory vids pointing to Purple Man’s chin...
Still, they could have at least recorded the data as they continued, like using a table to summarize, and maybe have improved organization? I didn’t have a problem with the order of items...
@@thejohnrahm I don't think anyone was saying anything about the order of items or the info being incomplete, just that having something on screen that shows what they've done for the character would be useful at the end of the video if someone wanted to use the video as a reference later and didn't want to watch the entire video again.
R.I.P. old warforged, now we got a +1
Going with the level ranges for acquiring magic items found in DMG, you can achieve the same AC 4, 2, and 0 levels earlier than before with plate armor +1, +2, and +3 respectively. Of course this means you need to get the magic armor. Except if you play an artificer you can make your own armor +1 at level 2, giving you 20 AC when before you could only achieve that at level 9, and armor +2 at level 10 giving you 21 AC when you used to need level 13. Note that that is only 1 AC less than the maximum was both then and now, without relying on your DM to give you anything.
@@Sibula Or 21 ac with plate and +1 shield.
21 ac at lvl 2 with warforged forge cleric and the defense fighting style
Ooohhh okay. Yeah.. They should delete or re-do this video lol or at least add a note now to clarify it's obsolete.
I couldn't understand what the heck they were talking about "adding Prof to AC". I was like 0o?? I see now. I never read that U.A. when it came out. Only saw the final version before.
Ac 50+, time for saving throw attacks.
I made a variation of this with Monk 11 for diamond body saving throw profs
I countered that with the mage slayer feat too
If you dipped 6 levels of paladin and have decent charisma, you'll scoff at said saving throws.
@@zanthe_ time for no save flat damage attacks. Granted, they're usually not that strong.
PhuckKnuckles mask of the dragon queen gives you resistance to all elements and stacks so resistant becomes immune
DM: Uses Marut's automatic hit on all attacks
"Your high AC won't stop this!"
Alternatively:
Level 17 Character (like in video)
“New” Warforged
10 War Wizard, 5 College of Swords Bard, 2 Artificer
Feats: Martial Adept, Medium Armor Master
Magic Items: +3 Half Plate, +3 Shield, Defender Rapier, Cloak and Ring of Protection
AC with only armor and racial/class features: 23 (21 from plate, +1 Warforged, +1 Artificer infusion)
AC before abilities and spells: 31
Cast Haste and Shield yourself: 40
Use Martial Adepts “Evasive Footwork”: 46
Use Defensive Flourish: 54
Get Help from other cleric (Shield of Faith, Ceremony, and Warding Bond): 59
Not that any of this matters considering the highest bonus to hit is +19 capping the maximum to hit at 39, meaning you only need Haste and Shield to survive any attack!
Go one more artificer and go battle smith. Have your pet give disadvantage when actually hit
How are you wearing plate mail if you have no heavy armor proficiency? None of those classes wear heavy armor so you'd either need it as a feat or have to multiclass into fighter, cleric or paladin.
The Raven sorry, originally I had Cleric but changed it, now its fixed
Nat 20 always hits
Szymon Sokoliński not true, depends on the game and your DM
What i think about 40+ ac?
I think the mindflayer found lunch.
Hard candy.
If you're going with Cleric, don't forget that the Forge domain gives you an additional +1 while wearing heavy armor ;)
+2 if fighter. then do the magic armour from forge cleric
@@freyjaseren6915 precisely my current build :D 22 AC without magic armor (at level 9)
Well, at lvl 1 forge clerics get the ability to do MaGiC armour or weapons. So, you get to go with
Plate for 18.
Plus two from shield
add 1 from defense fighter
Add 1 from forge cleric
22 ac
My best build is 20 at lvl 1, fighter has chain mail for a base of 16, +2 for a shield, +1 for defensive fighting style, +1 for warforged
You can get a +2 ac from the wedding mode of the ceremony spell for a week.
@James Jones you can only benefit for that once unless your spouse dies, so unless you are getting remarried every week, that isn't reliable
@@coopercummings8370I think we found our new cult. Marry the spouse kill the spouse repeat
@@coopercummings8370 just marry a hamster
@@coopercummings8370 marry the zealot barbarian, once the week is up they kill themselves and the cleric revivifies them for free, repeat the process until your dm cries in the corner out of both pride and despair.
Remember to grab the cloak of displacement to negate those critical hits. Also remember to pack absorb elements for when your DM decides to nuke you with elemental damage.
The highest attack bonuses are Legendary creatures like Tiamat which have a +19 to Hit. Which means, if a DM rolls a 19 with Tiamat, that attack roll is only 38 to hit. So an AC of 39 is practically invincible and you don't need an AC any higher than that because a Nat 20 will always hit.
Ha, a meager 52? The great wizard Acumen has taught us how to to achieve an AC of over 100! Mostly with shield golems and it only lasts one turn, but still!
Very True!
I was wondering if someone else had already brought this up. Their 30s and 40s are child's play compared to Acumen
Yeah but who has shield golems
Bladesinger is a bonus to AC, not a replacement for the calculation: if you get Dex, Int, and either Con or Wis (Barbarian or Monk multiclass respectively), all to 20, that's an AC of 35. Before magic items.
would love to see this revisted now that tasha's cauldron of everything is out and has the armorsmith artificer
I play a warforged paladin. My dm has to build encounters around me
saaaammee
Rip your party members
The one time I failed a save against a succubus mind control, I almost killed the whole party
Your DM should just grapple you into prone and laugh as your high a.c. does nothing.
Heck just multiple enemies spamming help actions for advantage.
High a.c. is meh if you aren't a threat.
He can't, I have an obnoxious athletics and strength. Grapplers end up being grappled by me.
From the Monster Manual, the highest attack bonus is +19 (Tarrasque), which means that, excluding crits, the highest attack roll from the book is 38, so an AC of 39 covers mostly everything in the core books.
But the DM can still push it by making an epic level enemy, with a +10 modifier, +7 proficiency bonus, some fighting archetypes and +3 weapons... which means they REALLY want the party dead.
At this point I'd just go for saving throws instead.
You can get the +2 to ac with the Eldridge Cannon from the artificer at 15th level as a party member.
And have another artificer with the metal beast companion that can use its reaction to give disadvantage to attacks
My Warforged is an Artificer too. I went Alchemist, and with infusions, I drop a +1 or +2 AC on shields and armor. Warforged and Artificer is a good combination. (my dude is like Baymax)
This is interesting as a Forge Cleric I try and help my Meat Shield I mean Dwarf Warrior Tank out as much as possible, This has given me a few ideas that I may start implementing.
The cute AC's of 5e xD my 3.5 135AC Fighter laughs at that!
@Sean Fisher Psionics.
@Sean Fisher
Be an Erudite and buy alot of Scrolls with the Spell to Power ability and make use of one of the many unlimited power point tricks of your choice.
Size +8(Rod of Wonder used by a small creature)
Natural +40(Polymorph and a +5 Item)
Shield +16(Magic Shield and Abjurant Champion and agent savant plus a magic shield +5)
Armour +18(Greater Mage Armour and Abjurant Champion and agent savant plus a magic armour +5)
Deflection +5(Magic Item)
Improved Cover +4(From an ectoplasmic field around you)
Dexterity +20(By being a kobold and putting all your stats to 40 with a creatures ability from serpent kingdom)
Dodge +2(Fighting Defencifely)
Gives you an AC of 135 without even spending 1 feat which can make it go up by another 20 points atleast.
Edit: Or just be Pun-Pun Godhood at lvl 1.
*laughs in THAC0*
Its not fun when you are overpowerred.
If someone is running a character designed to maximize AC, just start having enemies that go after saves. Breath weapons, wizards, gas attacks, and the like. That way, the player can continue enjoying his utterly impenetrable AC, but is also being challenged, without utterly decimating the rest of the party.
If you take the defender rapier instead of the Longsword, you can pick up the defensive duelist feat which will allow you to use a reaction to add your proficiency bonus to your AC, that way, when you run out of spell slots for your shield spell, you can still get even a +6 to your AC. Granted, its not till your next turn, but its better than nothing
But with warding bond now they just have to hit the cleric
I had built the warforged Super AC Tank a while back, this was without spells or magic items. But this just proves that the warforged are this best race for front line characters.
Ok this is impressive! I may have to make one of these for the Tomb of Annihilation game that I am currently in.
Instead of shield spell you can have defensive duelist feat. If you are holding a finesse weapon, you can add your proficiency bonus to AC as a reaction, so you're essentially add this bonus twice (first as a racial trait, then as a duelist feat). Which is more than shield spell (another way to spend your reaction) can give you.
Besides, it is a very funny mental picture to imagine a heavy armored robot with a rapier. SILVER CHARIOT, GOOOO!
Love the jojo reference
Paladins get shield of faith too.
And haste
@@kaemonbonet4931 only for some oaths.
But in 5e you can only have one concentration spell active at one time. Both haste and shield of faith are concentration. 👍
Another potential: Defensive Duelist feat. If wielding a finesse weapon you are proficient with (such as a rapier, which has a Defender version, so that still works) you can add your proficiency bonus to your AC against 1 melee attack as a reaction. This is less useful than Shield, since Shield lasts an entire round and works on ranged attacks and spells, but technically your +6 proficiency bonus would be higher than the +5 for Shield, so if you're looking for the highest single number, this would be better.
Go Warforged and take 2 levels in paladin to gain defensive fighting style, Heavy armour proficiency and smites. Take 15 levels of college of lore bard to be able to add a D12 to AC. Grab a +3 shield, a Ring and a Cloak of Protection, a Shield Guardian amulet and the Defender (rapier or shortsword form). Take the defensive duelist feat adding +6 to AC as a reaction at level 17. Have a cleric cast warding bond and shield of faith on you. Learn haste from magical secrets adding a +2 to AC. Per round this should provide an AC of between 47 and 58.
I don't think Smite was the plan, but that's just me. Given the presence of time, any form of inconsistencies, such as temps/rolling shouldn't be given too much credit for any character, including a defensive one.
I also hate when people feel the need to mention Magic Items (no offense to anyone); they aren't part of the build!
Anyone can add Magic Items freely, so it should be assumed that, ideally, everyone has *all* the relevant Magic Items by default.
Sadly, people still waste their time including such, since some people just don't get how meaningless their inclusion becomes.
It's like saying, "And, you'll be able to add xyz!" Everyone gets to do that! It's not part of the build, given it's not a choice.
Warforged, Defensive Duelist, Duel Wielder, Fighter 4, Monk 4, Mystic 1, gets 30+ AC naturally, without petty universal bonuses, and temps.
You should note that this is all before reaching 10th level, and sacrifices can be negated with a delay.
It's not as if *my *DM is just gonna give people a bunch of Magic Items for something as basic as gold!
Regardless, AC isn't really as important as offense for 5e, since opponents will soon ignore your 50+ AC with their +999999999 to hit.
The people who write these crazy Creatures clearly have no respect for AC PCs, so it's best to just play their little game.
Pathfinder doesn't treat you any better. Worse actually. It's harder for the DM to create a fair fight, with so much filth available.
Personally, I'm glad there's finally someone, or something, to counter Lord Variant Human. The God King has been Ch-Ch-Ch-Challenged!
Now we have 3 Warforged, and 3 Vars, rather than 6. Yipee! Time to multi-class into Warlock 3 with Darkness spam as 6 Fighters!
Don't need to learn haste if you have boots.
Defensive fighting style only works when wearing armor and Warforged can't wear armor
@@thehealymeister9287
twitter.com/HellcowKeith/status/1103707688821760001?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1103707688821760001&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sageadvice.eu%2F2019%2F04%2F05%2Fdoes-the-blessing-of-the-forge-ability-by-a-forge-cleric-affect-the-integrated-protection-of-a-warforged%2F
Integrated Protection doesn't grant any armor items. It does, however, add armor nonetheless.
EDIT: fixed styling.
@@scottd521
Don't need to have (random number) AC, if you can have (higher number) AC with xyz. Of course, this isn't classified as a "selection" of the build. If someone were to get those Magic Boots, it's most practical to assume everyone will get them, unless you've found some way of forging them unique to your build.
Save yourself the trouble; don't write every 50 or so Magic Items just for the sake of demonstrating power. People should be able to see that for themself, or so I would hope.
Fun fact: You can have multiple Shield Guardians stack their AC buff on you. You could have up to 8 Shield Guardians in the squares around you, or you could have them squeeze tightly in order to fit 16, or you could even use Reduce on them to stack up to 36 in the squares around you. That'd be a +72 to AC.
It's worth noting that in the Princes of the Apocalypse official campaign, there is an opportunity to grab a Shield Guardian and its control amulet straight the official material.
I'd love it if at one point they talked about the Unearthed Arcana Mystic class.
Edit: They actually did a cursory preview of the Mystic but it wasn't as in depth as I would have liked.
The Mystic- Adding Psionics to 5E D&D| Unearthed Arcana Review Part 1
ua-cam.com/video/H83Ut8lhAjs/v-deo.html
Mystic- Psionic Disciplines and Talents for 5E D&D Unearthed Arcana Review Part 2
ua-cam.com/video/6pEqD3cp_84/v-deo.html
This and a sandwich has inspired the concept of Jeff the Warforge Chef.
Mystic class has a discipline that lets you dump psi points into AC as a reaction. When your psi limit hits 7, it's better than the shield spell
It's not a released class so they don't mention it. I'm hoping wotc one day looks at mystic again and releases the class already.
Warforged isn't official either, yet
Surprised haven't seen mention that Protection from Good and Evil is touch based, and can be cast by a familiar using its concentration freeing up your own for Haste, Shield of Faith, or anything else.
Time to use maddening hex. Now I just need a way to keep myself from taking damage while I stay within 30 feet of the high ac monstrosity for the next 24 hours. With a charisma of 5 that's 72,000 damage over the course of 24 hours.
Um
Ceremony, if you have a cleric or paladin in your party they can marry you off to another player and both will get +2 AC when in 30 feet of each other for a week. And if you are kinda crazy, you can kill the spouse, revive them, and perform the ceremony again.
I was going to suggest this as well.
This is hilarious! Casually killing and reviving party members to get extra AC... Don't forget to kill them with enervation, vampiric touch or another necromancy spell, and get me some necromancy wizards in here.
I made a high AC Character
10 without Armour
18 without Dual Wield
19 with Dual Wield
20-31 or 20-25 if an attack hits
25-36 or 20-30 with a reaction (Shield Spell)
Without Magic items
Sword Bard w/ 15 +Dex (Max of 2) armour and the Medium Armour Master & Dual Wielder feats (this makes the armour 15 +Dex (Max of 3) instead)
All he needs now is that armour that makes Crits ineffective and he is a beast
I was playing around and created a tortle monk with way of the kensai; at level 8 I managed get up to AC 25 without any magic items or help from other party members. I was pretty proud of that.
3:45 I was just going to do a long monologue about bladesinger, but you can still overcome the restriction.
Lv1 dip into Fighter then lv19 in Bladesinger...
Maybe through that lv19 into another class if lv19 doesn't add anything to the build. Preferably Dex requirement Classes...
If your dm doesnt allow the defender the staff of power gives a plus 2 to ac and saving throws while having a plethora of spells attached to it, but it requires attunment it. It can be used as a one handed weapon as well
Honestly, that's the Impenetrable Bastion character that I have ALWAYS wanted my Paladins to be
You can get 45 on your own by taking only 2 feats along the way and a plus 3 shield and half plate armour, you don’t even need to multi class for it (though it’s not certain cos two of the abilities need to role dice so you could end up with less but it’s 45 max)
Another benefit of the blade singer is if you choose shield as one of your spell mastery spells, you can effectively get +5 ac permanently at the cost of your reaction each round.
If putting levels into mage, add in mirror image. Doesn't increase the armor class directly, but it makes a hit a likely miss, so even if the bugger manages to hit you (probably only through rolling a 20) it still might miss!
Unless they have truesight or blindsight
Your base AC, before applying anything else (Spells/Class/etc), is 22 with Heavy Plating.
+3 Shield Simic Hybrid Dex Barbarian comes in at 10 base, +5 Dexterity, +5 Con, +1 Carapace, for 21 base, only 1 point shy of the Warforged, until level 20. At 20, it pulls into 23 base, 25 with mundane shield, 28 with a +3. Now we add a Skold Rune for +1, Ring of Protection for +1, and Ioun of Protection for +1, for 31 AC. All of them not too hard to get. At this point, its already hard enough to be hit, without accounting for anything else. Can still be SoF by the cleric for +2 for 33. Sure, its not 46.. but requires nothing from anyone else, to hit that 31 ;p
a warforged forge cleric 6 warwizard 10 with 2 classes of fighting style (fighter/ranger/paladin) hits 34 with no friends and no magic items required
The best single character AC I've come up with is a bit cheesy and technically could be almost as high as the 40's.
+3 plate armor
+3 shield
Defender longsword (allows for an additional +3 to AC or to attack)
A cloak of protection
And technically up to 20 rings of protection.
18+3+2+5+3+20=50
With this you have a 50 AC and if you take the defense fighting style it goes to a 51.
An alternate but possibly more powerful option is to take a cloak of displacement instead of the cloak of protection.
So either a 51 AC or a 50 AC with disadvantage on attacks against you.
You would need to be a fighter or paladin for this build.
Except that ring of protection, cloak of protection and defender longsword all need attunement, and a character can only be attuned to a maximum of 3 magic items, 6 if you are a Level 18 Artificer. So you can only wear 1 Ring of Protection in addition, and not 20.
Dunno if anyone else mentioned this but whilst the Manual of Golems doesn't have a way to build a Shield Guardian, the Shield Guardian does give a cost for making the amulet, which I'm sure with a kind enough DM and good rolls or roleplaying on the players' part there'd be some way to find the information to make that, it'd just require the character to then attune said amulet to a Shield Guardian and it'd work properly.
Cavalier can add to your armor if you are standing next to them.
I’ve finished making a character for my next campaign before I saw this video. I went with a Protector Aasimar. The DM is letting us start off 6th level. So I’ve 2 in Paladin to get the Defender fighting style and 4 in Forge Domain Cleric. I chose that specifically because it gets a +1 AC at 6th level and I can give an armor I wear +1 AC through Channel Divinity.
you dont give armor +1 through channel divinity, you give armor a +1 enchantment through your first level feature, the defense fighting style is only +1 AC, so you might as well go for Forge Cleric 6, and get your AC there, plus reistance to fire damage, and you'll retain build purity for getting the cleric 20th level guaranteed intervention, plus you'll get more spell slots you can spend on defensive measures
So with 8 more shield guardians forking a ring around you you can have an AC of 68 if I did my math correctly. I think this IS impossible to hit unless the opponent gets a nat 20...
Fourth level fighter human, two feats, medium armor master, sheild master, dex 16, fighting style defense, half plate and sheild ac 21 for a low level yay!!! Was making that character as a Spartan warrior eventually 12 fighter champion 8 theif assassin. But that's a different story. Less damage all around and high ac. What cha guys think?
Justin Harris bladesinger makes AC easy, especially with a dip into paladin for fighting style and shield of faith. Bladesong and shield gives you +10 alone.
12 + dex + int + 5 + 2 + 1
@@jackbarman7063 oh ya true that. The fighter I mentioned earlier can have a 21 armor class at level 1 if the DM allows him to find half plate that early. Which is a medium armor. That's an all the time ac no spells or abilities needed. But your right the bladesinger is pretty cool. How often can you do bladesong? Or Is that an all the time thing?
@@justinharris7181
You hate using Warforged that much? They're so boring... I'll make a human character... instead. I hate them too.
@@thejohnrahm I have no problem with warforge my good sir. I just had my own characters in mind lol.
@@justinharris7181
Just for flavor then. I still regard Variant Human to be one of the best, but the Warforged is just too strong. Now that they're the new staple, I'm happy to see anything else.
As one for combat, I always use Defensive Duelist as a Variant Human.
18th level elf druid, using the Manual of Quickness of Action every time possible, starting with a 10 dexterity. Near the end of the character's life, you will have a dex of 150, as well as a naked AC of 85, add +3 studded leather, wooden +2 shield, and a shield spell gets an AC of 97. If you add haste, AC is 99, add shield of faith, AC 101.
So happy to see how far you guys have come. Congrats you guys deserve it
No mention of Defensive Duelist feat? It's a bonus to AC that equals your Proficiency, and Proficiency scales great starting at +2 and going up by 1 every 4 levels for a +6 at level 17. It only requires you to wield a finess weapon you're proficient with, which is very common and never really hurts a character - anyone can wield a Dagger and most a Shortsword or Rapier. And it stacks with any other bonus you can add to your AC. I think it's a golden feat for anyone who wants good AC. Note that you can use Finess weapons with strength too, so both the Barbarian and the Wizard and everyone in between can benefit from this feat. And it's just there, every turn, every day, for as long as you have a Dagger on you.
1 attack and your reaction.
Nerdarchist Dave
True, you can only use it once a round, so perhaps not great for dedicated tanks who expect to take multiple hits every round, but probably would still be useful.
I mean since the video didn't mention feats *at all* it's not like it actually takes anything away from your AC to have it. You may as well take it.
I may be a little late to this train, but here goes -
I came up with a Yuan-Ti Paladin 8/Wizard 12 who, all by himself, has an AC anywhere between 21 and 32, a bonus to saving throws of between +5 and +11, before considering ability scores, magic resistance, and resistance to damage dealt by spells.
As a Paladin, you get the typical 21 AC from plate + shield + fighting style. You also get Shield of Faith, bringing you to 23 AC. This is where the Wizard levels come in. As a 10th level School of War Magic Wizard, you gain +2 AC while concentrating on spells (not just wizard spells), which brings your AC to 25. If hit, you can use Arcane Deflection to get AC 27 or Shield to get AC 30. However, if you make this a Dex build rather than Str, you can fight with a Rapier and take the Defensive Duelist feat, which can be used to bring your AC to 31 at high levels (+proficiency to AC with your reaction). As a Wizard, you also have access to Blur, which is approximately equal to a +3 to AC as well as a preventative measure against critical hits. This being your spell of concentration, instead if Shield of Faith, leads to an AC equivalent of 32. And the only resource spent was a single level two spell slot, which lasts for a full minute. This may not be as crazy high AC as discussed in this video, but recall this is a single character and that this defense will last for a very long time.
Next is saving throws! The best tanks can block not only swords but spells, too. Paladin level 6 grants the player Aura of Protection, which grants a +5 bonus to all saving throws with a Cha of 20. The level 10 Wizard feature mentioned earlier also helps out here during concentration, granting a further +2 to saving throws to get you to a +7. If you fail a save, you can use Arcane Deflection to get a further +4. If this still is not enough, you can choose to concentrate on the Bless spell, including yourself as a target, granting you a +1d4 bonus to saving throws. This comes out to a +11+1d4 bonus. Note that these save bonuses also apply to concentration checks, so you will not have to worry about losing concentration any time soon.
And of course, do not forget the race selection. Yuan-Ti have magic resistance, giving them advantage on saving throws against magical effects. This combined with the level 7 Oath of the Ancients feature, which halves all damage dealt by a magical attack, makes this character nearly immune to magic. But if you want to be functionally immune to nearly everything, just stand in place and cast Blade Ward every turn. The only things that can have any hope of killing you now are magical weapons!
This build does not have a crazy amount of hp at high level (~110) but then again, he will never be damaged in the first place. He is also not particularly aggressive, unless you use Divine Smite for damage. He can draw attention with Compelled Duel, though, so he is not quite ignorable. I am currently debating between favoring Dex for weapon attacks (and Mirror Image, which may further add to your defenses) or Int for wizard spells. The Wizard spells for this build would primarily be selected for field control, which is why I am reluctant to sacrifice Int, as anybody can do damage.
Ability score array (at lvl 20):
Str 8
Dex 14
Con 12
Int 15+1+2+2
Wis 8
Cha 14+2+2+2
Final ASI is dedicated to Defensive Duelist
I used to frustrate my DM with my Bard and his AC. We played Lost Mines of Phandelver and I got the Staff of defense.
After LOMP we played homebrew campaign up to lvl 17.
As Bard I also multiclassed to get shield and medium armor.
Half plate +1, Staff of Defense, shield +1, 14 Dex, Shield spell = 15+1+1+2+2+5 = 26 AC all by myself.
Not to mention Mirror Image cast on myself and Cutting Words :)
Cleric of the forge. Plate armor and a shield = 20 AC + shield of faith & the domain ability to give any armor or weapon a +1. That is 23 AC by lvl 2. +2 from dex mod if you have dex high enough. I did not have mine high enough on this character tho so possible to have 25 AC at lvl 2 on a forge cleric. I went Gnome as the race because one of the ways DM's mess with high AC characters is to force a lot of saving throws and gnomish cunning gives you advantage on Int, Cha & Wis saving throws vs spells & shield master gives you Advantage on Dex saving throws. Very difficult character to mess with by lvl 4 already and thats without magic items, potions or help from any other players. Also as a cleric you have healing spells so if you do manage to take damage you can heal it.
I came up with this build initially trying to create a Tinkerer. Figured gnome tinkerer cleric of the forge was a thematically good concept that was not very meta but i was oh so wrong about that.
To top it of i use tinkering and smithing to outfit my armor with all sorts of hidden compartments and items. Like D&D Ironman. I dont even use weapons unless i have to. I just sling cantrips and spells running around behind my armor and my shield like the main character from the rise of the shield hero anime.
Plate armor doesn't benefit from dex though, so you would be capped at 23, which is still insane for a level 2
@@KingKevin108 Oh ive only got a few games under my belt so i wasnt aware that plate didnt benefit, good thing you mentioned this before i invested in dex like i was just about to do lol
I dmed for a warforged paladin that had high 30s ac around level 10. So i designed a questline around how a lich used his body as a phalactery. Every d100 days. During the night, hed roll a wisdom check to see if the liches soul would corrupt him making him lose his paladin powers. This happened the rest before the final boss, against the lich, who thought he could just toss in whatever he wanted at the party and his phalactery would be perfectly fine. Turns out him losing his paladin powers gave him a bunch of boosts i didnt quite notice i guess and he got murdered straight off by a stray spell from a necromancer. Gg necrodude you saved the world from the lich
i've got a character that's basically this - its a juggernaut warforged thats a hexbalde warlock. at level 4 i took the feat for heavy armor, and between all the warlock's debuffs and shield spells ive effectively got an AC of about 50 by level 9
Memnun welllllll by rules and my dm pulled it on me warforged juggernaut can’t benefit from armor
Don't know if it counts but there are legendary dragon masks that lets you add your charisma to your AC.
The staff of power is also a good choice. +2 to ac, saving throws, and spell attacks. It also acts as a +2 quarter staff.
Wouldn't that be inferior to the +3 from the Defender, and the +5 from the shield?
Although it could be a solid replacement if you can't get the defender. :)
Villain Voice quarter staves can be used in one hand. Technically not as high of a boost to ac, but there isn’t any trade off from the to hit bonus.
Forge Cleric can add +1 to a weapon or shield/armor each day.
That only works if you can't get a plus 3 Magic Shield from your DM. I don't think that it will work on your integrated armor seems how that's a race feature and not actual armor
@@lilfox378 I know it doesn't work on the integrated armor. But maybe it stacks with +3 shield
@@ToadimusPrime
It only works on a non magical item. good idea though
@@ToadimusPrime it still counts a armor you thats why you still need proficiency in armor to use its forms if it was natural armor you wouldnt need proficiency.
If you are allowing UA Mystic is very helpful. You can use Bestial Form: Tough Hide to gain an additional +2 (no concentration) and you can set your psychic focus to Iron Durability for another +1. That only takes one level. If you want to take 9 levels you can use your reaction (with Iron durability) to get +7 to AC instead of shield's +5. (You can also take diminution with the ability sudden shift to make attacks automatically miss, or Precognition to give disadvantage on attacks that would hit with all around sight)
If you take forge cleric you get a plus one while wearing heavy armor, if you take some level in fighter you take the defensive fighting style and get another plus one and forge clerics can enchant a piece of non magical into plus 1 armor once per day so you could enchant some basic gauntlets or something while wearing enchanted plate mail
None of my campaigns have ever made it past lvl 4, so my recent brain child is a lvl two warforged with one lvl in fighter and one lvl in forge cleric. Where I can add +2 AC by using a shield. It counts as armor for the defensive style, and I can add +1 from being a forge cleric. So, at lvl 2,
16+ 2 prof+ 4 shield=22
Doesn’t the Cleric require an Armor Item, and not a class feature? If it does, then Cleric is a complete dump, and is outclassed by the Artificer (UA) entirety. Of course, even without the UA, Fighter would give you something, and Warlock covers temps (Spell-caster), if you’re into that sort of thing.
@@thejohnrahm For forge Cleric. Yes and No. it's second level effect I think it is requires a non-magical item and gives a +1. Less useful at higher levels. But at level 6 it gets a class feature for heavy armor that is basically the same that fighters get at level 1.
Quandry1
You do know that adding +1 to a +3 Plate, granting the same as the Warforged is a dump of 6 levels, and it’s nearly impossible to find such a good Magic Item without an extra-relaxed DM.
@@thejohnrahm for soul of the forge it is 6 levels and is restricted to heavy armor. However, at level 1 or 2 forge domain clerics can temporarily enchant a non-magical armor or weapon with a +1 bonus and count as magical until next long rest. Fighters and paladin get the equivalent to just wearing any armor at level 1 and level 2 respectively.
Quandry1
Right, non-magic armor, not a +3 Plate. You’re giving up 6 levels for shite as an AC build.
Personally I'd drop warforged for v. Human and try to get adamantine armor. It may lower your ac by 4, 3 if you take the armored fighting style, but critical hits become normal hits. Also remember that the war wizard micro shield can give a +4 to a save as well to help keep you up and not mind controlled.
One of the Dm's I have played with used the homebrew rules for rather high magic vs high tech campaign. The three important notes are that you can attune to a number of items equal to your proficiency bonus, and in his world, he had already confirmed that rings and cloaks of protection could be upgraded to plus 3 , and that the ban on attunning to the same item multiple times was not in place.
I showed him a character concept that was a level 20 artificer, (gets 3 more attunement slots for a total of 9 now)
Grab 8 rings of protection, obviously leaving your middle fingers free to flick off your enemies, and a displacer cloak. Upgrade them all to +3 (standard is considered +1, Money is provided by crafting endless amounts of robes of useful items and selling the content from patches). Take the heavy armored feat in order to get heavy armor access.
Warforged Heavy Plating: 22 AC
8 rings of +3 protection (+3 bonus to saves and AC)= +24 bonus to AC, +24 to saves
Artificer Soul of artifice (+9 to saves for attuned items)
Displacer cloak: Disadvantage to hit (for most enemies) (With an AC things will pretty much only hit on crits, so disadvantage becomes more important. )
Overall 46 AC
+33 to all saves on top of normal proficiency, and stat bonuses.
When I showed it to my DM. He said, technically it can exist in my world, but remember if you can do it, so can my NPC's
Since then I have been looking to make a pact with a beholder to antimagic someone if the need arises. So far we have a spectator friend but no base beholder.
Well and good build, but it relies on a lot of factors: Access to 3 books, specific party composition, and a lot of magic items.
Here’s a build that’s adventures’ league legal.
Half-Elf: Point-buy 16 Dex, 17 Cha
1 Fighter / 1 Hexblade / 18 Sword Bard
Feats: Elvish Accuracy +1 Cha, Med Armor Master, +2 Cha, Shield Master
Use Foresight, Mirror Image, Blink, Haste, Shield.
Let’s tally it up...
Half-Plate+M.A.M: 15+3
Shield: +2..20
Defense FS: +1..21
Haste: +2..23
Shield Spell: +5..28
Inspiration: +12..40
Foresight: Disadvantage
Blink: 50% chance you’re not a target
Mirror Image: 1/4th of a chance for miss to be a hit.
Go forth and Solo a tarrasque! No magic items or teammates. Adv League Legal
Add in teammates and Magic Items:
Defender: +3..43
+3 Shield/Half-Plate: +6..49
Warding Bond and Shield of Faith: +4..53
Shield Guardian: +2..55
It's been a long time since I could handle the production value at work here. Remember the artist
I don't think that any DM would ever let you get all that but its a fun thought
Just out of curiosity... is it possible to see the high AC built on dndbeyond or similar?
I build a half orc Paladin who had 27 AC on lvl 14 once :/ kinda sad they glossed over the Dwarven armor.
That's why Touch AC is a great concept
I think the 4e defense breakdown is the best of the editions.
Still in love with my tanky shield master warcaster wizard with one level in fighter, two shields, and a 21-26 AC. Only melee attack was booming blade with a shield bash shove.
Also my trickery cleric human weapon master defensive duelist who has gone into every combat since level 4 at a 21 ac
There's more to the Shield Guardian: they can store spells - up to 4th level - and cast them on command. So long as it's something the owner can cast, the guardian can cast it too. The stat block doesn't actually specify what happens vis a vis Concentration, so it's up to the DM whether the owner can offload Haste or the like onto it. But if it can, that's one fewer allies that need to be in on the action for the character concept to work. Provided, of course, you don't mind the spell only being cast once before needing to be stored again.
Armorer Artificer Warforged 10th level with infusiton AC is 25+shield (which can be a infused shield) (total with shield 29), and has shield spell, it can also replicate cloak of protection for a +1 bringing it up to 30 (using infused shield) before the regular magic shenanegans begin. Oh and did I mention that you can attune 4 items? (5 at level 14)
we shouldn't forget that fixating on AC means nothing if you're weak to most saving throw based damages. One of the best damaging spells in the game is a dex save in fireball after all
I’m am new to D&D, like just a few months new, my friends told me that a barbarian roll is more than likely what I’ll enjoy so I started looking into how to build characters and how to be somewhat busted, I’m playing as a leonine barbarian and so far I’m level 3 with an armor class of 23, all the other party members are druids and a rogue with armor classes from 13-16, The DM is struggling to give us difficult combat encounters because something that is of average difficulty for my character is a deadly encounter to the rest of the party
What are you guys' thoughts on Sorcadin for survivability? What I've found is that finding a way to impose disadvantage on attacks instead of just straight stacking AC is actually more important. I think a sorcadin is really good for this because you can still get high AC (Plate Armor + Shield + Defense = 21 AC immediately) + (Shield Spell = 26 AC) at like level 3. This is before any other magical items and scaling proficiency mod. Then you couple that with the Blur spell and you are almost impossible to hit...
Think about it like this: let's say you are fighting some monster with a +11 to hit (like an adult green dragon). If you had a Sorcadin with only 21 AC but access to Blur then the probability that this dragon could hit you is 25% with Blur activated. Another class would need a straight AC of 26 to get that same probability if they don't have a way of imposing disadvantage. This doesn't even take into consideration that a sorcadin can still use shield spell while blur is active and get down to a 6% chance of being hit (in this situation)! That is all at like level 5 not to mention it almost entirely removes the possibility of being crit (unless the DM rolls two nat 20s at once). Another class would need an AC of 30 to get to that same ~6% chance of being hit....
Obviously this assumes that the other class doesn't have a way of imposing disadvantage but Blur is unique in my mind because it's only a level 2 spell (and a sorcadin has a ton of level 2 spell slots) and it lasts for so long - it will easily last the whole combat.
I did a Gish 1ftr/7wizard was still getting hit consistently with a stand 24AC(29 with shield) completely destroyed the build cuz the DM didn't like that he couldn't hit him the first few games. Then a few session after he "adjusted" he 1 rounded my tank. I was like well he's dead, Dm was like "what?!", I told he to check the sheet. He only had 50 or so HP, his survivability relied on him not being hit constantly. Was an interesting and fun build. Dm was just a bit sour on it.
Or just be Paladin 2/College of Swords 15+ who gets everything you mentioned excluding the Warforged stuff, all the spells, is almost a full caster and can smite And will get lv 9 spells the last two levels. AC in the mid 30's without friends help and before defensive flourish d12.
Best defense - the guy with a +12 bonus to hit (or higher) keeps rolling ones. They always miss on a one.
I found three I didn't hear mentioned
-Fighting style defense +1
-Forge cleric soul of the Forge +1
-Banner of the Krig Rune Gift of Battle +1 (yes it location based but for the party fortress/town/home)
Rev Shad42 Defense fighting style doesn’t work with the integrated defense of a Warforged
@@Epicmonk117 shield is armor it works just fine.
@@revshad4226 I don't think a shield counts either
EDIT: I just checked and shields don't count as armor
I knew the war forged woulda been here.
8 animated sawbladed multiscourge chain codpiece of skewering impalement
1 lvl forge cleric gives you heavy armor + a +1ac or attack with blessing of the forge and sheild of faith
I got a Bladesinging Wizard-Monk-Cleric to have a base AC of 34 up to a potential AC of 47-52 at level 14, solo. If I had a cleric and Paladin casting Warding Bond and Shield of Faith, that would also be +3 there. Something I haven't considered is the newly "official-ized" Articifer class, and the buffs it provides could up that by a couple more points.
If I wanted to build a completely unhittable character, I'd start with a Warforged Artificer to buff its Adamantine Plate and continue along the same build you outlined in the video.
You could also get the unarmoured defence feature from barbarian because the warforged ability "intergrated armour" counts as natural armour like the lizardfolks scales
I know this is a year old, but there is a way to get 31 AC at level 7 (but is much more plausible at level 9)
You will need 6 levels in Forge Domain Cleric, 1 Level in Fighter while taking the "Defensive" fighting style and somehow getting access to the "Shield" spell. It's much more plausible at level 9 because you would put one more level into Cleric, bringing you to level 7 and gaining access to the "Fabricate" spell. You can gain plate armor fairly easy using this. And then you put a level into one of three classes: Sorcerer, Wizard, or Hexblade Warlock. These classes get the Shield spell at first level that you can use as your reaction to gain +5 AC till the start of your next turn
18 (plate armor)+2 (actual shield)+1 (warforged)+1 (blessing of the forge feature)+1 (soul of the forge feature)+1 (defensive fighting style)+2 (shield of faith spell) for a total of 26, then with a +5 on reaction with the shield spell you'll have 31 AC
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk
Edit: I forgot to mention this does not use any Magic Items, this is using purely mundane items. The Blessing of the Forge makes the armor magic, but everything *is* mundane still
And, this is all done by yourself, you don't need anyone else to cast anything on you
The only problem is the dreaded Crit. You can't stop that with AC.
Caduceus Clay from critical role has an ability to cancel out crits as a reaction, but I honestly don't know what subclass he uses (or if it's homebrew).
You still can't beat a crit with strict AC though.
True
@@kennytheawkwarddonut9137 its the 6th level grave cleric ability "sentinel at death's door"
I've been kicking around a similar build, but it's slightly less AC overall, but substantially more versatile.
Without multiclassing, just go all in on paladin Oath of Ancients, for half damage on all spells
+3 platemail and defensive fighting style (or warforge, same base AC of 22, and allows for dueling fighting style choice istead)
+3 shield (27 total AC)
Ring of protection (28 AC)
Defender sword can be any sword type according to the DMG, so have it be a rapier for finesse quality (31 AC)
Shield of faith spell (33 AC)
Defensive duelist feat allows you to add proficiency to AC on reaction against 1 attack (39 AC total)
And to top it off, instead of a cloak of protection, go with cloak of displacement, because statistically, against the highest attack bonus in the game (Tarrasque at +20) rolling a 19 or 20 with disadvantage is less likely than rolling a 20 on a standard roll, with the added bonus of preventing enemies from having advantage for whatever reason in most situations. This is also accomplished solo, allowing other party members to prioritize other things.
I've a similar build with a warforged conquest paladin with one level of sorcerer.
- base AC: 22
- Shield+3: 27
- Shield of faith: 29
- Ring&cloak of protection: 31
- Defender: 34
- Incidental shield: 39
Fear gives enemies disadvantage to hit you, and because you are a Conqueror, you want to max charisma first. This build leaves you with a 34 AC and +7 to all saves. before you get any support from your allies.
With allies:
- Haste: 41
- Warding Bond: 42 , +8 to all saves
Without magic items or support:
Base + shield + SoF + Shield spell: 22+2+2+5 = 26/31 with most enemies on melee having disadvantage to hit you
With support, no magic items:
Base + Shield+ SoF + Haste + Warding Bond + Shield Spell: 22+2+2+2+1+5 = 29/34 with their disadvantage
I have a level one mountain dwarf sorcerer with the shield spell and spiked armor (he made himself) for a AC of 21. (Mountain dwarfs have natural proficiency in light and medium armor. Also l plan on multiclassing into forge cleric for rollplay and heavy armor.) I look forward to useing this character. ( And getting better armor and AC boosting magic items like the ring and bracers of protection,and maybe shields.) The best part about this character is it was made completely for free on dndbeyond.
A solo hunter7/kensei3/war wizard10 can get you to 29 on a reaction while concentrating on haste and 31 on all subsequent attacks. Using no magic items. Also +6 to saving throws
My best with the College of Swords Bard:
Max Dex + Studded Leather Armor (17) + Defensive Duelist Feat (22) + Defensive Flourish (either get an automatic 28 and if you're risky, at most 34) + Cloak of Protection. At LvL 14 you get a 35 AC. If you get proficiency in a shield and a +3 magic sheild, you can get to a 40 AC.
Don't be sleeping on muh boi.
1lv barbarian, 3lv fighter (battle master) and the feat defensive Duelist. We have 20 AC with unarmoured defense + 6 AC from the feat + 1d12 AC (if u're lv 20) + a shield just for +2 AC
40 AC if you get the D12 on max, so not even if the tarrasque gets a nat 20 it can't hit you
I have a build. First pick a raise that gives a +2 to dex, then pick fighter(eldritch knight) for shield spell, choose the defense fighting style, max out dex, choose studded leather armor, get a shield (item), get defensive duelist feat, boom you now have a 25-30+prof ac