AC tank with armor?

[The Mages Corner]

Is there such a thing? Because armor gets capped at 8 or 9 ac, no matter if it's light or heavy (because of max dex bonus), so I see a lot of builds with monk dip or sword saint for wis or int bonus to armor and using no armor but having more ac due to unlimited stat growth.

And even if say tower shield specialist is a thing, are there any other classes that can tank well with armor? I particularly would like to try a crusader or paladin tank. I thought about druid tank but I already read the animal forms are too squishy.

Thanks.

[Kommissar K]

Armor bonuses to AC indeed do cap out, but there are other sources.

Commonly, Deflection bonuses (Ring of Deflection +x), Natural Armor (Amulet of Natural Armor +X / Barkskin).

Dodge bonuses to AC also add in.

Yes, you have some class features that give a bonus if not wearing armor, but often it isn't in excess of what you can pull off with a set of mithril full plate on a fighter with good dex and Armor Training.

Tower Shield Specialist is kind of a trap, a standard fighter tends to just be better at it.

[Andante]

late game you get mithril heavy armor with +3 max dex and if you are a fighter alot of extra +max dex from fighter training.

Best tanks in Pathfinder are dex based. Either dex based + armor/shield or dex+char with monk dip and no armor or some kind of sword saint variant.

I really can't think of a good divine caster tank, a well optimized divine caster tank will at best be an ok offtank.

Arcane caster tanks though especially magus and their subclasses... you can make some really good tank builds with them.

[Dynellen]

Fighter gets armor training which allows you to utilize a higher dex bonus even while wearing full plate. Some min/maxed monk and/or duelist builds are probably the highest AC you can get but a standard full plate and shield user can work just fine. Though one level of monk for improved crane style is still not a bad idea.

Remember to get dodge/armor focus/shield focus, use defensive fighting etc.

[GreenBob]

you can find adamantine armor that gives you flat dr in addition to your ac. its pretty sweet.

[Kyutaru]

Dwarf Tower Shield Specialist will get you a stupidly high AC. Other classes can certainly get a high AC, just not as high. You need the dwarf racial feats, mithral full plate, a high enhancement tower shield, a deflection ring, a natural armor boost, combat expertise, dodge, shield focus feats, and all the extra natural armor stacking you can muster. A defender weapon helps too but it'll hurt your offense.

Originally posted by Andante:

Best tanks in Pathfinder are dex based.

Find me a better Pathfinder tank.

75 AC

Race Dwarf/Class Fighter Tower Shield Specialist

*base* +10

*armor* = +21
+9 full plate
+1 regular Dex
+2 mithral
+4 armor training
+5 enhancement bonus

*shield* = +9
+4 Tower Shield
+5 enhancement bonus

*other gear* = +16
+5 deflection ring
+5 enhancement to natural armor amulet
+1 insight ioun stone
+5 defending weapon

*feats* = +19
+1 Natural Armor from Ironhide
+9 Improved Natural Armor x 9 (3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17,19)
+1 Dodge
+2 (Greater) Shield Focus
+6 Combat Expertise

[DocNessuno]

Fighter:
10 (base) +9 (plate) +5 (armor enhancement) +2 (shield) +5 (shield enchancement) +5 (defelection) +5 (natural armor) +4 (dex thanks to fighter armor training, assuming 12 starting and +6 item) +1 (armor focus) +1 (shield focus) +1 (dodge) = 48 AC

Monk:
10 (base) +8 (bracers of armor) +5 (defelection) +5 (natural armor) +9 (dex assumng 18 starting after racial, +6 item and 4 advances) +6 (wis, assumng 16 starting after racial and +6 item) +1 (dodge) +4 (shield) = 48 AC

[RJM]

There was some theorycrafting done in another thread and the difference between the two was negligible. I haven't seen any in-game screenshots provingthat either of them actually attain the AC's that are supposed to be possible. Unarmoured AC characters certainly do well in this game because it routinely hands out +6 stat items.

[Andante]

str based armor ac builds are extremely gear dependant and will be weak for most of the game. This game hands out lots of + stat items so builds that rely on stats to gain AC like dex/char or dex/int (sword saint) can get alot more AC much earlier in the game.

[The Mages Corner]

Originally posted by Kyutaru:

Dwarf Tower Shield Specialist will get you a stupidly high AC. Other classes can certainly get a high AC, just not as high. You need the dwarf racial feats, mithral full plate, a high enhancement tower shield, a deflection ring, a natural armor boost, combat expertise, dodge, shield focus feats, and all the extra natural armor stacking you can muster. A defender weapon helps too but it'll hurt your offense.

Originally posted by Andante:

Best tanks in Pathfinder are dex based.

Find me a better Pathfinder tank.

75 AC

Race Dwarf/Class Fighter Tower Shield Specialist

*base* +10

*armor* = +21
+9 full plate
+1 regular Dex
+2 mithral
+4 armor training
+5 enhancement bonus

*shield* = +9
+4 Tower Shield
+5 enhancement bonus

*other gear* = +16
+5 deflection ring
+5 enhancement to natural armor amulet
+1 insight ioun stone
+5 defending weapon

*feats* = +19
+1 Natural Armor from Ironhide
+9 Improved Natural Armor x 9 (3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17,19)
+1 Dodge
+2 (Greater) Shield Focus
+6 Combat Expertise

Can you send me the build for this please? Or starting stats.

[CHAO$$$]

Originally posted by manukosta:

Is there such a thing? Because armor gets capped at 8 or 9 ac, no matter if it's light or heavy (because of max dex bonus), so I see a lot of builds with monk dip or sword saint for wis or int bonus to armor and using no armor but having more ac due to unlimited stat growth.

And even if say tower shield specialist is a thing, are there any other classes that can tank well with armor? I particularly would like to try a crusader or paladin tank. I thought about druid tank but I already read the animal forms are too squishy.

Thanks.

buffs are more important than stats. Dex tanks are meh as soon as they get engaged by 2 or more people. Aasimar wings and halfling size bonus + halfling feat (or again the reduce size buff) are best value.

blur and displacement buffs are essential to "tanking" single target hard hitters on hard at all.

Monk dip or Aldori defender are nice for the buffs they give that give flat bonuses (like crane wing and the net thing that aldori defender has).

In general killing stuff fast or CC that is able to actually hit targets is more valuable than pure AC stacking.

[solthusx]

Pretty sure that build is tabletop only. It uses feats and items not available in this game.

[Kommissar K]

Originally posted by manukosta:

Can you send me the build for this please? Or starting stats.

As long as you end up having 24 Dex (including magic items/buffs), that's about all that needs. Its just that its a 20th level character with every feat dedicated to maxing out AC.

Also, I'm a little uncertain if this game contains the Ironhide/Improved Natural Armor feats.

Also, Ioun stones aren't in the game, and Defending weapons are a bit uncommon too.

[Kyutaru]

Originally posted by manukosta:

Can you send me the build for this please? Or starting stats.

That's a Pathfinder build, read the part before it at the beginning of the post. Not all of that is available in the game, only most of it. You can achieve a significant AC total wearing armor in this game and being a dwarf tower shield specialist is the way to go for it.

[DocNessuno]

Originally posted by Kyutaru:

Originally posted by Andante:

Best tanks in Pathfinder are dex based.

Find me a better Pathfinder tank.

I would call 24 dex quite dex based.

[CHAO$$$]

Originally posted by Kyutaru:

Originally posted by manukosta:

Can you send me the build for this please? Or starting stats.

That's a Pathfinder build, read the part before it at the beginning of the post. Not all of that is available in the game, only most of it. You can achieve a significant AC total wearing armor in this game and being a dwarf tower shield specialist is the way to go for it.

why dwarf over halfling tho? I dont think they get the same AC feat?

Also dwarfes are considered medium sized in this game as well.