How much AC is enough AC for this game?

[Rex is back, baby!]

Im not a min maxer, I tend to go the roleplayer's route, whatever fits the narrative, but wanted to pick the minds of the minmax players.

In BG3, what is the optimal AC required in this game, ya think?

[Moffin Bovin]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από alex_diste:

in bg3 seems they stack, like also ring and cloak of protection

they wouldn't stack for me no matter what way i made the multiclass. Monk first or barbarian first they both just went with whatever was highest.

[Bloodwest]

20+ seems like nice soft cap. The best defense is a good offense though.

[parent child bowl]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Moffin Bovin:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από alex_diste:

in bg3 seems they stack, like also ring and cloak of protection

they wouldn't stack for me no matter what way i made the multiclass. Monk first or barbarian first they both just went with whatever was highest.

Yes, they don't stack. Same goes for Mage Armor and Draconic Resilience.

[Vλgaβoηđ]

Without spoilers.

Legendary Helmet +1
Cloak Of Protection +1
Ring of Protection +1
Boots that give AC +1
Warding Bond Spell +1
Shield of Faith +2
Legendary Viconia Shield +3
Bard Gloves that give AC +1
Very Rare/Legendary Armor (Medium and Heavy) which put your AC in the base 17-21 range.
20 Dex +5 AC, which one Very Rare Medium armor allows to stack.

So in total 11+17+5 for Medium Armor. or 11+21 for Heavy Armor. Both give 33. And this does not include Weapons that give AC, buffs from niche class specific skills/spells etc, buffs from potions, which can bump it further.

On Balanced, 25 AC was enough for my Paladin to solo tank Moonrise Tower Assault.
With Tactician, that is harder, because of the +2 to Attack Rolls (which is a 10% increase to hit). So 27 AC for tactician is more than enough for 90% of Act 2-3 fights, except boss fights, where small arenas force the AI to hit your weakest char, so CC spells to block enemy routes is important, unless they have misty step/fly. Otherwise, space out your companions, toss your tank into the fray, and let your glass cannon wizard and/or rogue ditch out damage from afar with AOE spells. Evocation Gale is OP in this case, with Life Domain Shadowheart nearby to heal, just in case.

[Ranpo]

20+ is enough to make you nigh untouchable. Of course there are other ways to almost never get hit other than AC. My rogue just drops fog and have blindness immunity, they can't hit him if they can't LOS him, my sorcerer just fires from max distance, flies and use invincibility shield, my cleric and fighter have pretty high AC naturally from armor.

[Knavenformed]

For a frontline attacker 20 is good and can dodge quite frequently even in Act 3, maybe 19 if you can give it for offensive power.

A backline support could live with less, 16 could be a problem if you let opponents get to you, and there are some hazardous on hit effects in Act 3

Though it is very easy to just slap a shield on casters since staves are versatile for some reason, and with a layer of dex 14 you can already be good on human casters with light armor + shield

[Popsicles]

My level 12 rogue with a shields has 22 AC. SH as 20 and Laezel 21. Gale comes in at a 16! Plenty enough AC for me. Add in shield of faith and I'm doing just fine.

[Iso Koala]

On hardest difficulty, AC doesnt seem to matter that much. The offence is the best defense. I have around 22AC in chapter 2, and against stronger enemies, the strongest AC guys would get nailed down in 1 turn no matter what. Using summons to tank enemies and special attacks to weaken them, matters more than just taking with max AC, as nobody doenst get that high anyway.
But I have understood, that on tacticians, enemies get bonus to their attacks, so on normal, around 20 prolly is working better.

[dbond1]

Yeah, I too think 20 is the target across your party. Not hard to get there, and you'll probably have one or two with higher AC. 20 though is a good target.

[Zaris]

On tactician 20-25 was enough and you could get easily these values:
- mage: 18 dex (4) + mage armor (3) + AC bracer (2) + any AC ring/boot/glove/cloak (1) = 20+
- cleric: heavy armor (20) + shield (4?) + ac accessoire (1) = 25

And so on. In general it's more important to kill enemies faster. For example Larian included a few strong / overpowered items like ring with advantage on melee or improved bless staff with up to 40% hit chance bonus (2h fighters with great weapon master +10 dmg -5 hit can still hit with easily 90%+ hit chance).

For mages there are broken items like a robe which adds the main attribute to every single hit (Eldritch Blast every single hit gets anothert +6 dmg).

I read often enough on this board that people really suggest to use dual wield or other crap which doesn't come near to these listed things and then are complaining that the normal difficulty would be to hard already.

[wendigo211]

Depends on the act, but late game I had two characters with 30+ ACs, only one of them used a shield. That includes bonuses from Warding Bond, Haste, Defensive Flourish and if necessary the Shield spell.

It really helped against the steel watchers, where I could AC tank them. On tactician, I think a 37 is good enough that most enemies, including bosses, need to roll a 20 to hit you. It's not necessary, but it's possible and there are a couple of fights where it helps a lot.

[Edstyles]

In theory u need 0 ac

[Iso Koala]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Zaris:

For mages there are broken items like a robe which adds the main attribute to every single hit (Eldritch Blast every single hit gets anothert +6 dmg).

I read often enough on this board that people really suggest to use dual wield or other crap which doesn't come near to these listed things and then are complaining that the normal difficulty would be to hard already.

Nah, Paladin nukes with big swords, but dual wielders are just fine. Ranger/thief for example can dual handscossbows, with he can have 5 attacks per round every single round. And if people are tanking, he make make some of those sneak attacks. Where the chaming part of having many weak attacks, is just those items, and some spells.
My guys attacks are now 6-11 from the bow and dex itself, but gloves give +2, acid ring +2, ring of consentration 1-4, and jewlery of poisoning 1-6 extra damage. So total its base 12-25 ranged dmg attacks + even more with sneak attacks and criticals, 5 times a round without any rare tricks that require long rest. Paladin crits are about equally good, but not as versatile imho, because you need to "waste" an attack to low hp enemy sometimes.

[talemore]

Enough to make any melee redundant.

It means little since there's magic and AC only matter early and midgame.

Baldurs gate 3 doesn't go all up to 20
At late game 17-20 level AC has no effect.

Natural 20 is hit. 19 AC If attacker has 0 bonus.

[Mojojoe]

I would aim for minimum 20 on all characters, anything lower and you're getting hit every single attack. 25 seems to be about when you stop getting hit a lot.