Max AC

[-{AU}-Piracy]

I am playing as a tank fighter and I am wondering what the maximum AC is and if there are any diminishing returns? I am using heavy armour with the Heavy Armour Master feat. So far, I have reached an AC of 26 with armour and buffs. It's great because I just soloed a pack of Meenlocks after my party was wiped. Almost every strike was a miss. I am basically invincible to physical attacks. When a party member targets my character, I am only getting a 0% to 10% chance of being hit, so I am thinking I likely won't get much more protection after 26 AC.

[KRON]

Well, Armor of Agility (17 AC) + Gloves of Dexterity(4AC from Dexterity modifier) + Shield +1(3AC) + Ring of Protection(1AC) + Evasive Shoes(1AC) + Cloak of Protection(1AC) = 27 AC. With bonuses from class or spells you could probably get to 30+AC
And with Grymskull Helm nobody can land a critical hit either.

[A Disembodied Intelligence]

Originally posted by KRON:

Well, Armor of Agility (17 AC) + Gloves of Dexterity(4AC from Dexterity modifier) + Shield +1(3AC) + Ring of Protection(1AC) + Evasive Shoes(1AC) + Cloak of Protection(1AC) = 27 AC. With bonuses from class or spells you could probably get to 30+AC

Nice to see what one of the 30+ combos are, I've never actually seen them listed.
Would taking that one to its max be this?:

17 + 6 (22 Dex from 20 and Mirror of Loss +2) + 3 (shield) + 1 (ring) + 1 (shoes) + 1 (cloak) + 1 Defensive Fighting Style + 2 Cleric Level 1 Spell equals... *counts on fingers* 32 AC !

I've never had higher than 24 personally, and that always feels pretty high, I can't imagine what 32 would be like lol.

[Henry-NYC]

There is no such things as Max AC. AC 26 is more than good enough in this game.

However, for a party tank, having AC higher than necessary is not a good thing.

Don't know if you play on Tactician or higher difficulty settings. If you do, you will notice that many enemies will ignore your party tank if this tank has very high AC. Because of that, I only allow my party tank to have slightly over 20 AC, such as 21 or 22. Otherwise, they won't be able to draw most of enemy attacks to themselves. If enemies don't attack the party tank, you put your support companions, like Cleric Shadowheart or Rouge Astarion or Wizard Gale, in grave danger. In my first playthrough, the 2nd Gith ambush party (all were mighty warriors at higher level) completely ignored my party tank. It was not cool to my party as a whole.


PS -
You can get AC >= 30 even without armor. However, again, very high AC is not necessary in this game. Karlach in my first playthrough (to me, only the very first playthrough matters) has AC = ~17 from the start to the end of the game. Guess how many enemies like to attack her? I haven't noticed any! Most enemies either completely ignore Karlach or noticeably prefer to attack someone else.

[KRON]

Originally posted by Henry-NYC:

There is no such things as Max AC. AC 26 is more than good enough in this game.

However, for a party tank, having AC higher than necessary is not a good thing.

Don't know if you play on Tactician or higher difficulty settings. If you do, you will notice that many enemies will ignore your party tank if this tank has very high AC. Because of that, I only allow my party tank to have slightly over 20 AC, such as 21 or 22. Otherwise, they won't be able to draw most of enemy attacks to themselves. If enemies don't attack the party tank, you put your support companions, like Cleric Shadowheart or Rouge Astarion or Wizard Gale, in grave danger. In my first playthrough, the 2nd Gith ambush party (all were mighty warriors at higher level) completely ignored my party tank. It was not cool to my party as a whole.

I like to have a balanced AC throughout the whole party. I usually have 22-23 AC for every member.

[Chroniver]

There is no real max, some classes and builds can get 30+

But yeah, as others have said, it's usually best to get about 22-23 for your frontliners and focus on a good offensive. Taking out enemies is always going to mitigate more damage or effects.

Usually there are ways to get a reaction spell like shield on top of that so that you can bump up the AC when needed.

[Kuro]

From Item :

Armor 17 Ac + 6 with 22 dex => 23
Glove+Helm+Cloak+Boot+ 2 ring + weapon = + 7 => 30
Shield => 33

+1 Defensive fighting style => 34

Situational/spell :

+2 Haste => 36
+1 Warding bond => 37
+2 Shield of fate => 39
+1 Wild barbarian protective light => 40
+4 Defensive flourish ( bard) => 44

+ 9 Mirror Image => 53

Did I miss something ?

Edit : Achievable wihout the 17 medium armor with a barbarian (23 con amulet + 22 dex + 2 clothing = 24 same as the 17+6dex + 1 defensive fighting style)

[nightwalker83137]

I had AC 28 on my Durge on my last playthrough.

[EricHVela]

Note that 5e RaW (including 5e 2024 RaW) has, at minimum, a 5% chance of a hit.

Without an ability (granted by feat or equipment), that 5% will also be a critical hit. (Immunity to Critical Hits just makes it a plain 5% minimum to hit.)

An AC of 99+ still has 5% chance to hit with a crit without crit protection and hit normally otherwise.