Dealing with high enemy ac

[Pec]

Need some tips as some enemy's like the 50ac + tend to be nigh invincible to anything but a few attacks which are not enough to bring it down in time. Looking for tips as they seem to keep showing up eg the fight with areshkagal was dirty as hell so i need advice

[Immortal Reaver]

Ray/Ranged Touch attacks. Most enemies have really low touch AC.
TIP : Max out your SR penetration.

[wise]

Ember: evil eye AC + spam cackle, helps with the not absurd but still very high AC.
Touch attacks in general (Kineticist is your best friend).
Save spells without attack roll.
I assume their flat-footed AC is also high otherwise just throw enough people at it

[Immortal Reaver]

And Snowball and Acid Ray are not affected by SR, so you can use them on enemies with high SR you cannot bypass.

[Winger]

Apart from what's already been suggested, magus can target touch AC as well with dimensional strike.

[Orfin]

Greater heroism
Bard's song
Skald rage song+inspire ferocity
Incence alchemist
Rogue's -AC debuff
Outflank(from talent, inquisior buff or azata "friendship" power)
The srongest option is skald's rage song but it comes with the -AC on your crew members
and so on
Only problem is, you have to build a merc for that or be that class yourself
Also there are quite a lot of items that reduce enemy's armor class, like monk's belt that gives you appropriate chi power(-2 AC on use)

[revan1229]

Originally posted by Orfin:

The srongest option is skald's rage song but it comes with the -AC on your crew members
and so on
Only problem is, you have to build a merc for that or be that class yourself

Seelah makes a strong Skald.

[Shadowmail]

So my question is I started using thundering blows this playthrough. It reads whenever you miss an attack each round smash with sonic damage. I feel like this is an answer as well because it should be guarenteed damage each round. Granted it doesn't seem to proc every round even with misses, still testing.

[Draken]

Originally posted by Shadowmail:

So my question is I started using thundering blows this playthrough. It reads whenever you miss an attack each round smash with sonic damage. I feel like this is an answer as well because it should be guarenteed damage each round. Granted it doesn't seem to proc every round even with misses, still testing.

Strange. I got if for all my melee fighters and it does seem to proc on every miss.

[Shadowmail]

That's good, Seems like this could be an answer for things like the blackwater demons if you don't have spell pen ready.

[Denomar]

My suggestion would be to diversify a bit. Running with a melee hero and two archers feels great when things are hitting and awful when things aren't. This can be difficult when (as I discovered) you realize that all your npc companions aren't really doing anything different from each other.

So make one person a really reliable facebeater that just Does The Damages who is great for clearing through chaff without much expenditure of resources.

One person focused on touch attacks (as has been mentioned kineticists can be great) and someone to deal with saves (Take an Elven Overwhelming Sorcerer with heighten spell and spell resistance will be less of an issue) to deal with specific saves. Demons tend to be big bricks with high fortitude.

One character focused whole hog on buff spells will usually make everyone else better.

One character focused on summoning chaff to distract and give more up time for stronger characters is not a bad idea.

A Paladin. No really, mark of justice is great, Even if your entire party doesn't have positive charisma modifiers it will turn off damage reduction for a fight.

There's still some fights like Playful Darkness that are just going to be hard and you'll find yourself trying to lay on hands the monsters.

[Pec]

It seems to be a level issue upon closer inspection enemys are level 30 while im level 20 which i dont know why that is but its making it so that im depleting myself each fight and i need advice as this is just unfair. I have done almost all quests available and im not even close to the level of my enemy's

[Mysta67]

Originally posted by Shadowmail:

So my question is I started using thundering blows this playthrough. It reads whenever you miss an attack each round smash with sonic damage. I feel like this is an answer as well because it should be guarenteed damage each round. Granted it doesn't seem to proc every round even with misses, still testing.

I'm not sure if thundering blows is bugged or it only is supposed to proc once per combat round. I thought it would be good on a dual wield, which purposefully misses alot, and it only seems to proc once per round (once in 6 secs). if it procced every attack, i'd purposefully add the mythic ab to a slayer or rogue dual wielding and not add feats to boost chance to hit.

[Blue]

Some ways I haven't seen mentioned:

If you kept Seelah as a paladin to lvl 11, she gets to add her CHA bonus to an AC penalty to any evil mob (which is basically all tough encounters in the game). So if Seelah has +7 CHA bonus, she can Mark of Justice any evil mob for instant -7AC (for the whole group).

There are some gloves in the game that allow Arue's Quarry to give -2 AC to a mob.

Those are my main sources of -AC, aside from the buffs mentioned earlier. One other that I use from time to time (probably only good for crit builds and trickster group) is the +3 longbow that gives stacking -1AC penalty every time it crits. I gave this to Arue and with buffs and feats she crits on a 14, so with 6 attacks per turn it doesn't take long to plink AC to nothing. Works against everything too.

Also, having a Dazzling Display user in your party allows you to apply Shaken to mobs when using Power Attacks, which then leaves them flat-footed if you have the Shatter Defense feat. That typically removes a lot of AC as well.

[revan1229]

Originally posted by Mysta67:

Originally posted by Shadowmail:

So my question is I started using thundering blows this playthrough. It reads whenever you miss an attack each round smash with sonic damage. I feel like this is an answer as well because it should be guarenteed damage each round. Granted it doesn't seem to proc every round even with misses, still testing.

I'm not sure if thundering blows is bugged or it only is supposed to proc once per combat round. I thought it would be good on a dual wield, which purposefully misses alot, and it only seems to proc once per round (once in 6 secs). if it procced every attack, i'd purposefully add the mythic ab to a slayer or rogue dual wielding and not add feats to boost chance to hit.

The description says once per round, so it's working correctly.

[Red Phantom]

Originally posted by Shadowmail:

So my question is I started using thundering blows this playthrough. It reads whenever you miss an attack each round smash with sonic damage. I feel like this is an answer as well because it should be guarenteed damage each round. Granted it doesn't seem to proc every round even with misses, still testing.

Thundering blows is pretty much a waste even when it works as intended. It only does a small amount of damage that doesn't even overcome the damage reduction of many enemies.