the obvious answer is 20 (plate armor + Shield) ... but i'm sure there are interesting abilities that can increase AC above 20 without using home brew content or magic items.
I was thinking Dragon Sorcerer and Monk?
Dragon Sorcerer gets an ability Dragon Resilience ... this gives you a Base AC for 13 + Dex ... could this ability be stacked with unarmored defense from the monk or barbarian ... if this is possible it would make your theoretical AC (assuming skills are maxed) would be 23. i know you cant stack unarmored defense with unarmored defense (monk/barbarian) but Dragon Resilience is technically a different skill ... ?
what are peoples ideas ?
I actually recently learned a way to get your AC to about 31.
What I did was my race was warforged and my class was monk. Warforged get an extra +1 AC, and the monks 'unarmoured defence' ability allows for extra AC equal to 10 + Wisdom modifier + Dexterity modifier, but only while no armour or shield is worn. So the higher your level and the more Wisdom and Dexterity you gain, the higher your AC will go, get them both to 30 with +10 modifier and your looking at 31 AC. Of course there is another method I found. If you have the tortle race, do the same thing with the class but instead of having +1 AC, you can get +7 AC while inside the shell. the only downside is your speed and the debuffs while in the shell.
The last option I have for you is slightly leaning towards homebrew. Not sure how you feel about this but... If you turn off the prerequisites for feats in the creation menu, you can use other feats to increase your AC. A specific feat I would use is the defensive duellist feat which allows you to add your proficiency bonus to your AC as a reaction when being attacked. Though as I said before, this is technically cheating/going against what you want to do.
Hope this info was helpful, and please... anyone else who sees this and thinks I have said something wrong or they have any other general feedback, please share it, I would like to hear it.
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"Know your enemy, know your self" Click here to read my Homebrew thread! "Veni, vidi, vici...
Status update: I am going to be afk very frequently for a currently un predictable amount of time, for more information/details on this, check my homebrew thread which can be found easier by clicking the 'here' above ^^^
the obvious answer is 20 (plate armor + Shield) ... but i'm sure there are interesting abilities that can increase AC above 20 without using home brew content or magic items.
I was thinking Dragon Sorcerer and Monk?
Dragon Sorcerer gets an ability Dragon Resilience ... this gives you a Base AC for 13 + Dex ... could this ability be stacked with unarmored defense from the monk or barbarian ... if this is possible it would make your theoretical AC (assuming skills are maxed) would be 23. i know you cant stack unarmored defense with unarmored defense (monk/barbarian) but Dragon Resilience is technically a different skill ... ?
what are peoples ideas ?
I actually recently learned a way to get your AC to about 31.
What I did was my race was warforged and my class was monk. Warforged get an extra +1 AC, and the monks 'unarmoured defence' ability allows for extra AC equal to 10 + Wisdom modifier + Dexterity modifier, but only while no armour or shield is worn. So the higher your level and the more Wisdom and Dexterity you gain, the higher your AC will go, get them both to 30 with +10 modifier and your looking at 31 AC. Of course there is another method I found. If you have the tortle race, do the same thing with the class but instead of having +1 AC, you can get +7 AC while inside the shell. the only downside is your speed and the debuffs while in the shell.
The last option I have for you is slightly leaning towards homebrew. Not sure how you feel about this but... If you turn off the prerequisites for feats in the creation menu, you can use other feats to increase your AC. A specific feat I would use is the defensive duellist feat which allows you to add your proficiency bonus to your AC as a reaction when being attacked. Though as I said before, this is technically cheating/going against what you want to do.
Hope this info was helpful, and please... anyone else who sees this and thinks I have said something wrong or they have any other general feedback, please share it, I would like to hear it.
Well what about 33?
Do the same thing you did with the monk but a 30-con barb that uses a shield and you gained 2 ac!
Also requires only 8 post-20 asi instead of 10.
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Royalty among the charge kingdom. All will fall before our glorious assault!
the obvious answer is 20 (plate armor + Shield) ... but i'm sure there are interesting abilities that can increase AC above 20 without using home brew content or magic items.
I was thinking Dragon Sorcerer and Monk?
Dragon Sorcerer gets an ability Dragon Resilience ... this gives you a Base AC for 13 + Dex ... could this ability be stacked with unarmored defense from the monk or barbarian ... if this is possible it would make your theoretical AC (assuming skills are maxed) would be 23. i know you cant stack unarmored defense with unarmored defense (monk/barbarian) but Dragon Resilience is technically a different skill ... ?
what are peoples ideas ?
I actually recently learned a way to get your AC to about 31.
What I did was my race was warforged and my class was monk. Warforged get an extra +1 AC, and the monks 'unarmoured defence' ability allows for extra AC equal to 10 + Wisdom modifier + Dexterity modifier, but only while no armour or shield is worn. So the higher your level and the more Wisdom and Dexterity you gain, the higher your AC will go, get them both to 30 with +10 modifier and your looking at 31 AC. Of course there is another method I found. If you have the tortle race, do the same thing with the class but instead of having +1 AC, you can get +7 AC while inside the shell. the only downside is your speed and the debuffs while in the shell.
The last option I have for you is slightly leaning towards homebrew. Not sure how you feel about this but... If you turn off the prerequisites for feats in the creation menu, you can use other feats to increase your AC. A specific feat I would use is the defensive duellist feat which allows you to add your proficiency bonus to your AC as a reaction when being attacked. Though as I said before, this is technically cheating/going against what you want to do.
Hope this info was helpful, and please... anyone else who sees this and thinks I have said something wrong or they have any other general feedback, please share it, I would like to hear it.
You can't get a stat to 30. A belt of Storm Giant Strength only get you to a 29 and nothing like that exist for Dexterity or Wisdom.
the obvious answer is 20 (plate armor + Shield) ... but i'm sure there are interesting abilities that can increase AC above 20 without using home brew content or magic items.
I was thinking Dragon Sorcerer and Monk?
Dragon Sorcerer gets an ability Dragon Resilience ... this gives you a Base AC for 13 + Dex ... could this ability be stacked with unarmored defense from the monk or barbarian ... if this is possible it would make your theoretical AC (assuming skills are maxed) would be 23. i know you cant stack unarmored defense with unarmored defense (monk/barbarian) but Dragon Resilience is technically a different skill ... ?
what are peoples ideas ?
I actually recently learned a way to get your AC to about 31.
What I did was my race was warforged and my class was monk. Warforged get an extra +1 AC, and the monks 'unarmoured defence' ability allows for extra AC equal to 10 + Wisdom modifier + Dexterity modifier, but only while no armour or shield is worn. So the higher your level and the more Wisdom and Dexterity you gain, the higher your AC will go, get them both to 30 with +10 modifier and your looking at 31 AC. Of course there is another method I found. If you have the tortle race, do the same thing with the class but instead of having +1 AC, you can get +7 AC while inside the shell. the only downside is your speed and the debuffs while in the shell.
The last option I have for you is slightly leaning towards homebrew. Not sure how you feel about this but... If you turn off the prerequisites for feats in the creation menu, you can use other feats to increase your AC. A specific feat I would use is the defensive duellist feat which allows you to add your proficiency bonus to your AC as a reaction when being attacked. Though as I said before, this is technically cheating/going against what you want to do.
Hope this info was helpful, and please... anyone else who sees this and thinks I have said something wrong or they have any other general feedback, please share it, I would like to hear it.
You can't get a stat to 30. A belt of Storm Giant Strength only get you to a 29 and nothing like that exist for Dexterity or Wisdom.
There is an optional rule in the dmg for ability score increases after level 20, and those can reach 30. But it’s still an optional rule and not everyone will consider it valid.
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Royalty among the charge kingdom. All will fall before our glorious assault!
"Know your enemy, know your self" Click here to read my Homebrew thread! "Veni, vidi, vici...
Status update: I am going to be afk very frequently for a currently un predictable amount of time, for more information/details on this, check my homebrew thread which can be found easier by clicking the 'here' above ^^^
If you choose a warforged barbarian and the con and dex are 20 and if you add a shield, you would have an ac of 22.
A normal barb with 24 con (barbarian level 20 feature), 20 dex, and no shield, any race, will also have 22. Add a shield to that and you get 24. There are builds far more optimized for this than what you suggested, and builds more optimized than what I said here.
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If you are multiclassing, you can choose all of the fighting styles to be defense which will add +1 each. I used barbarian, fighter, paladin and ranger to get the +1 ac for each class.
If you are multiclassing, you can choose all of the fighting styles to be defense which will add +1 each. I used barbarian, fighter, paladin and ranger to get the +1 ac for each class.
If you are multiclassing, you can choose all of the fighting styles to be defense which will add +1 each. I used barbarian, fighter, paladin and ranger to get the +1 ac for each class.
Fighting Styles do not stack.
Correct. While the fighting style can still add 1 ac to a build that won’t sacrifice anything important to get it, it doesn’t stack with itself in multiclass builds and is not 4 ac (and barbarian doesn’t even have fighting styles in 5e)
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Why are people posting using multiple magic items when the OP specifically said no magic items
They either didn't pay attention or they are using class features like Artificer to get them.
Mostly the artificer
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without magic items: 20-level barbarian with 20 dex and 24 con, ac 22, plus a shield, 24.
with magic items: same as above but shield +3 and ring of protection, ac 28
i am a human being.
Ummmm, how are you getting a con of 24 without magic?
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
By being a level 20 barbarian
Royalty among the charge kingdom. All will fall before our glorious assault!
Quest offer! Enter the deep dungeon here
Ctg’s blood is on the spam filter’s hands
Forge Cleric Warforge with Plate and Shield and taking Fighting Style feat at 4th level: AC 23
Shield of Faith Spell: AC 25
This is before you add Blessings of the Forge as that's technically a magic item.
If you add that it's AC 24 and then AC 26 with shield of faith.
This is at level 6.
https://ddb.ac/characters/77190024/JJBKWd
I actually recently learned a way to get your AC to about 31.
What I did was my race was warforged and my class was monk. Warforged get an extra +1 AC, and the monks 'unarmoured defence' ability allows for extra AC equal to 10 + Wisdom modifier + Dexterity modifier, but only while no armour or shield is worn. So the higher your level and the more Wisdom and Dexterity you gain, the higher your AC will go, get them both to 30 with +10 modifier and your looking at 31 AC. Of course there is another method I found. If you have the tortle race, do the same thing with the class but instead of having +1 AC, you can get +7 AC while inside the shell. the only downside is your speed and the debuffs while in the shell.
The last option I have for you is slightly leaning towards homebrew. Not sure how you feel about this but... If you turn off the prerequisites for feats in the creation menu, you can use other feats to increase your AC. A specific feat I would use is the defensive duellist feat which allows you to add your proficiency bonus to your AC as a reaction when being attacked. Though as I said before, this is technically cheating/going against what you want to do.
Hope this info was helpful, and please... anyone else who sees this and thinks I have said something wrong or they have any other general feedback, please share it, I would like to hear it.
"Know your enemy, know your self"
Click here to read my Homebrew thread!
"Veni, vidi, vici...
Status update:
I am going to be afk very frequently for a currently un predictable amount of time, for more information/details on this, check my homebrew thread which can be found easier by clicking the 'here' above ^^^
Well what about 33?
Do the same thing you did with the monk but a 30-con barb that uses a shield and you gained 2 ac!
Also requires only 8 post-20 asi instead of 10.
Royalty among the charge kingdom. All will fall before our glorious assault!
Quest offer! Enter the deep dungeon here
Ctg’s blood is on the spam filter’s hands
You can't get a stat to 30. A belt of Storm Giant Strength only get you to a 29 and nothing like that exist for Dexterity or Wisdom.
There is an optional rule in the dmg for ability score increases after level 20, and those can reach 30. But it’s still an optional rule and not everyone will consider it valid.
Royalty among the charge kingdom. All will fall before our glorious assault!
Quest offer! Enter the deep dungeon here
Ctg’s blood is on the spam filter’s hands
You make a valid point.
Thanks for the feedback on my suggestion!
"Know your enemy, know your self"
Click here to read my Homebrew thread!
"Veni, vidi, vici...
Status update:
I am going to be afk very frequently for a currently un predictable amount of time, for more information/details on this, check my homebrew thread which can be found easier by clicking the 'here' above ^^^
If you choose a warforged barbarian and the con and dex are 20 and if you add a shield, you would have an ac of 22.
A normal barb with 24 con (barbarian level 20 feature), 20 dex, and no shield, any race, will also have 22. Add a shield to that and you get 24. There are builds far more optimized for this than what you suggested, and builds more optimized than what I said here.
Royalty among the charge kingdom. All will fall before our glorious assault!
Quest offer! Enter the deep dungeon here
Ctg’s blood is on the spam filter’s hands
If you are multiclassing, you can choose all of the fighting styles to be defense which will add +1 each. I used barbarian, fighter, paladin and ranger to get the +1 ac for each class.
Fighting Styles do not stack.
fighting styles do stack, i just tried it.
Correct. While the fighting style can still add 1 ac to a build that won’t sacrifice anything important to get it, it doesn’t stack with itself in multiclass builds and is not 4 ac (and barbarian doesn’t even have fighting styles in 5e)
Royalty among the charge kingdom. All will fall before our glorious assault!
Quest offer! Enter the deep dungeon here
Ctg’s blood is on the spam filter’s hands
you are right, barbarian does not have a fighting style. Here is the character. https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/91524058
nvm
you are right
but it still has 23 ac instead of 22