High AC past Chapter 3, how do you deal with it?

[Ikusame]

Was enjoying normal difficulty up until chapter 4 when things... spiked. How am I supposed to deal with enemies who suddenlly have 45+ AC? I dont seem to have options for lowering the AC for many of them, at least options that work against enemies with high AC. I took combat manuevers to help but they aren't really doing near enough as I sit there still only hitting on crits.

Am I missing something?

[Sister of Silence]

I believe (ranged) touch attacks help against AC. I'm using ray spells on my arcane tricksters.

[Sador]

Buffs, spells, touch attacks, debuffs, etc. help a lot.

[Naked Granny]

Well, it is a team-based tactics game.

Having someone on your team who can debuff is kind of a central, fundamental assumption that the game makes. Ember is the obvious pick, but she's not especially optimized.

Teamwork feats like Outflank are not bad though they take up feat slots on multiple team members. Weapon Focus might feel underwhelming if you look at it and think "it's just +1" but well... here you are wishing you had better accuracy. Turn off feats like Power Attack and Combat Expertise and Rapid Shot - they exchange accuracy for damage. Sometimes you want that damage. Sometimes you want accuracy.

Combat Maneuvers are not something to just sort of casually attempt, really. You need a good CMB to have a decent chance of success since monsters are bigger and stronger than you are, usually. The Demoralize basic ability can be suped up with lots of feats like Dazzling Display (requires weapon focus) and Intimidating Prowess and Skill Focus, and inflicting Shaken isn't a bad idea for your combatants to do before your debuffer gets there (your warriors are having a hard time landing hits before the target's AC is dropped, but that doesn't mean they can't do other stuff while waiting).

[Ikusame]

I get that touch attacks still work. But it seems every boss now has super high AC. So is it like, I now have members whose only job is to get me to the boss where I just have my others unload touch attacks?

I'm also not seeing what debuffs I can use for hitting AC. Ember has like, one that lowers by 2. Which I do use, alongside the teamwork (I'm azata, so everyone has them too). And attempts at sundering armor, and still I spend half a minute just waiting for one attack to go through.

Unfortunatly I dont have Nenio either and from what I can gather they're essentially your touch attack boss killer, or meant to be. But it feels weird that the game seems to be funneling you into a specific team setup even outside of core.

[Naked Granny]

Originally posted by Ikusame:

I get that touch attacks still work. But it seems every boss now has super high AC. So is it like, I now have members whose only job is to get me to the boss where I just have my others unload touch attacks?

I'm also not seeing what debuffs I can use for hitting AC. Ember has like, one that lowers by 2. Which I do use, alongside the teamwork (I'm azata, so everyone has them too). And attempts at sundering armor, and still I spend half a minute just waiting for one attack to go through.

Unfortunatly I dont have Nenio either and from what I can gather they're essentially your touch attack boss killer, or meant to be. But it feels weird that the game seems to be funneling you into a specific team setup even outside of core.

Evil Eye lowers AC by 4 when she hits a certain level, so it improves slightly. She can also put Fortune on allies, which allows them to roll twice and take the better result. Sunder Armor is definitely a must for some fights, but keep in mind that demons sometimes don't wear armor that can be sundered.

There's also the True Strike spell which gives you +20 on your next attack... If your fighters have a decent UMD skill check they can use scrolls / wands of it. Maguses and Eldritch Scoundrels and others can cast it for themselves.

Bless won't stack with Heroism which is +2 morale bonus to most of your rolls including accuracy. Prayer gives you +1 luck on your attack rolls.

I think you're getting a bad impression of how relevant or useful touch attacks are. They're useful gimmicks for bypassing some amount of a target's armor, but they are not really a main attack mode for anyone but Arcane Tricksters. Use them to deliver Ray Of Exhaustion / Enervation, sure, but those builds are not gonna be able to get through most content on their own.

Fatigue and Exhaustion can lower AC by lowering Dex. There's multiple spells that inflict them in various ways. Prone targets have a -4 to AC against melee attacks (+4 against ranged).

[Sador]

Originally posted by Ikusame:

I get that touch attacks still work. But it seems every boss now has super high AC. So is it like, I now have members whose only job is to get me to the boss where I just have my others unload touch attacks?

I'm also not seeing what debuffs I can use for hitting AC. Ember has like, one that lowers by 2. Which I do use, alongside the teamwork (I'm azata, so everyone has them too). And attempts at sundering armor, and still I spend half a minute just waiting for one attack to go through.

Unfortunatly I dont have Nenio either and from what I can gather they're essentially your touch attack boss killer, or meant to be. But it feels weird that the game seems to be funneling you into a specific team setup even outside of core.

Evil eye lowers their AC by 4 at higher levels. Slumber makes them helpless. Anything that takes away their dex bonus is helpful too. Meanwhile you can buff your own characters to be more likely to hit (like with bless, prayer, fortune, etc.).

[Sister of Silence]

Originally posted by Ikusame:

I get that touch attacks still work. But it seems every boss now has super high AC. So is it like, I now have members whose only job is to get me to the boss where I just have my others unload touch attacks?

I'm also not seeing what debuffs I can use for hitting AC. Ember has like, one that lowers by 2. Which I do use, alongside the teamwork (I'm azata, so everyone has them too). And attempts at sundering armor, and still I spend half a minute just waiting for one attack to go through.

Unfortunatly I dont have Nenio either and from what I can gather they're essentially your touch attack boss killer, or meant to be. But it feels weird that the game seems to be funneling you into a specific team setup even outside of core.

If it works, don't knock it. In my party Seelah or Regill tank and keep the enemy flanked. I turned woljiff and my mc into arcane tricksters so the flanking gives me free sneak attacks. Also I gave ember the cold spells ring and evocation ray spells, this seems to work fine if you give them all the ascendant element mythic skills that bypasses immunities and resistances.

[Aldon]

Debugging only works, if you can hit the spell resistance and/or saves, which are also insanely high.

[Sador]

Originally posted by Aldon:

Debugging only works, if you can hit the spell resistance and/or saves, which are also insanely high.

Spell penetration feats (and mythic feat, and potentially items) are your friends.

[Fluff]

Honestly, i'm probably doing it wrong, but it works for me.

I just kill everything with high AC with my Sorcerer Azata MC with Spell Penetration Modifier >100 buffed, >70 unbuffed, now lvl 19, but it was always enough from like lvl 6-8. Usually everything dies in 1 round, 2 rounds max, including bosses.

Phys dmg goes only with crits for the most part, coz some enemies have AC > 60 and i literally have no idea how many rounds do i need to spend to CC them or lower it and why would i do that when i can just burst them with magic in a round. Weird game design.

[Star Paladin]

It really ticks me off that the balance in this game is worse than Kingmaker. I was playing on core level. It was difficult; lots of reloads; lots of tactic rethinks; and turn based combat most the time; but I was able to do it. Then BOOM, AC 40+ enemies and my tanks downed in 2 hits.

So after untold hours of trying, I finally lowered to Normal diff, and took sunder armor for my 2-h fighter. But, am I seeing this correctly??? Sunder armor only hits if you roll above the enemies AC? So you can't lower AC to make it easier to hit the target, unless you can hit the target??? Cause my sunder armor has yet to hit even once.