Making insanely high AC

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I've read about getting insanely high AC in order to be neigh-invincible in the normal game, but is it possible to do so without resting after every skirmish? It seems that it needs short-term buffs that wear off after one or two fights, which means you spend weeks to clear any given map. I like my heros to have some endurance, and try to finish things like storming an enemy stronghold in a single day.

For that matter, is it possible to buff so you are hittable in the Ice Temple? Especially when facing that giant Remoriz queen? I always find that to be a tough fight, as bad as Sherical. Heck, I often find Sherical easier if she's trapped herself on that ledge and I can turn her into a pincushion.

 

Yes, it's very possible, at least for one decoy. Ghost Armor and Spirit Armor last for a long time, and a Druid who's loaded up on Barkskins can cast 6 or more before resting. (Constant Haste from the Golden Heart helps a lot too.)

Also, 72 is more of a planning guideline than a gameplay guideline. There are plenty of monsters with a BAB over +52, and plenty of monsters with a BAB less than +52. It's essential to have an AC which is easily boostable to 55-60, even in Act 1 and Act 2 of HoF, but beyond that it really depends upon who the opposition is and what other spells/summons you are using: Blink (50% miss), Improved Invisiblity (50% miss), complicated movement patterns (fewer attacks), crowd control spells like Greater Command (one foe at a fight), etc. Swapping out Spirit Armor (AC 6) for regular Armor (AC 4) costs you only 2 AC, and gives you more than a full day of duration in exchange.

I hate resting, and I hate short-term buffs. Right now I'm using a Dreadmonk decoy with ranger mixin (for Dwarven Ogre, constant Blur effect) and rogue mixin (for Swing From the Masts). IIRC he can achieve AC 75 maximum using short-term buffs (not counting things like Potions of Invulnerability, which I've never needed) like Shield and Divine Shell, but typically runs around at AC 73 instead. After a second playthrough he'll get another +1 or +2 to AC from the Dreadmaster quest and the various WIS potions, depending on whether or not I decide to have him drink them.

So yes, it's very, very possible to play without relying on short-term buffs. War Song of the Sith helps a lot and so do the Golden Heart and the Avarine Decanter bonus.

-Max

P.S. I didn't realize you were talking about Normal mode. In that case, becoming nigh-invincible is much, much easier. The 4th level Stoneskin spell is almost enough to do the job by itself. Combine that with a good AC, say 40+, and Bob's your uncle. You could get there even with a plain vanilla human fighter. Let's see: AC 10 (base) + 10 (various magic armors) + 2 (War Song of the Sith) + 3 (Ring of Deflection) + 5 (Expertise feat) + 1 (DEX) + 5 (Brazen Bands) + 4 (magic tower shield) = 40. That's without ANY spell buffs at all. Barkskin and Ghost Armor would add another +7 by themselves; a good Dex score, Spirit Armor, and Cat's Grace would probably add another 2 or 3 on top of that; and all are long-lasting buffs. Using a monk or a wizard/sorcerer, especially a deep gnome, would make this even easier but might be overkill for normal mode, and would sacrifice some melee damage.

 

Pure Monk is the most practical way to get very high AC in Heart of Fury mode. For normal mode, items can be enough to make any character very durable.
Other high-AC builds are tailored for the high-AC purpose. I don't like them, because they're single purpose, and I value versatility and options a lot more. These characters do wear off their protective spells relatively quickly, too.

On a sidenote, Druid Barkskin seems to last a lot shorter than its description states. Mine wears off about the same time as 1round/level buffs.

 

Pure monk is inferior partly because it DOES end up being very single-purpose. A dreadmonk is extremely versatile, both as a decoy and a spellcaster, and even does pretty decently in melee.

You're correct that Barkskin doesn't last for the 10 min/level that the manual says it does. I had my 18th level druid cast Barkskin in a test, and it lasted long enough for a Black Goat Girdle wearer to regenerate 42 HP, which implies a duration of 126 round, or 7 rounds/level. Slightly more than Ghost/Spirit Armor or Bless, but nothing like Cat's Grace/Bull's Strength/Armor. At least it casts quickly, though, so you can let it expire if you want and quickly re-cast it when facing a crowd of tough foes.

-Max

 

What is this Blur effect and Swing from the Masts?

 

The Light of Selune mod includes better armors (more armors with +11 armor bonuses, though I think they still average around a +1 max Dex bonus, though I believe one or two might have a +2 Dex bonus allowed), better shields (including +6 shield bonuses), at least one +4 Ring of Protection, and Amulets of Natural Armor +1 through +4 for sale. As well as a cloak that imbues a permanent Blur effect, and Robes of Good Archmagic and Neutral Archmagic (or whatever they are called--in the base game, there is a robe for evil arcane spellcasters but that is it) [both robes have a +5 deflection bonus]. So with this mod, it is relatively easy to have several party members adventuring with ACs in excess of 30 and I would supposed you could get 2 loaded up to have around 40 each, though I haven't put any effort into figuring that out yet. My half-orc fighter/barbarian has a "base" AC of 30 (10 base, +11 armor, +3 deflection, +1 Dex, +1 Dodge, +4 amulet of natural armor [stacks as a generic bonus]), plus a +6 shield he rarely uses since he's a two-handed axe weilder. My dwarf cleric/fighter runs a 36 AC (10 base, +10 armor, +3 deflection, +6 shield, +1 Dodge, +5 Brazen Bands, +1 Dexterity). I think I'm going to fiddle around with the party and switch out items; I think I have an amulet, a ring, a set of armor, maybe some other stuff on the wrong party members.

I'm not certain Blur really works the way it is supposed to. It is supposed to grant a base 20% miss chance (that is, opponents who fight you are supposed to miss 20% of the time) but I'm not sure how the game computes this. I'm completing a HoF game with a ranger who is wearing the cloak and a fighter/rogue/wizard who casts Blur on himself from time to time, and they seem to get hit just as often with Blur as without Blur.

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Blur is a 2nd level arcane spell. I also think there might be a potion or two of Blur, and at least in the LoS mod, there is a cloak that imbues Blur permanently. Plus the already mentioned belt, which is a HoF item, I think.

Swing from the Masts is a headband (head slot item) that can only be worn by rogues. Gives a +1 generic bonus, I think, to AC. Is in the Underdark; I think one of the drow hanging out with Malavon sells it. There is a HoF "upgrade."

 

Spoiler

Blur is a wizard spell which gives the enemy IIRC a 20% chance to miss you outright (negated by Blindfighting). It's not really worth casting, but it is certainly worth wearing on an item, since AC by itself can't decrease enemy success to less than 5% because of natural 20s. Dwarven Ogre can only be worn by a fighter/barbarian/ranger, and gives +6 to Strength and a constant Blur effect while you are wearing it.

Swing From the Masts is the Hall of Fury version of the Crow's Nest handband. [Edit: I think I got that backwards.] It gives a +3 to AC and some other bonuses, but can only be worn by a rogue.

-Max

 

Aaaah, item effects. Awesome. Thanks!

 

I was looking for ways to get high AC in the Ice Temple, and I have no idea where to find those brands or other items early in the game. In fact, I can't figure out how to get my AC above 18-20 without using buffs, although once in a while I can make an AC22 character.
At least in the Ice Temple.

Oh, and I only have the ease-of-use mod installed and maybe a fixpack.

It's kinda moot since the IDE system on the computer IWD2 is installed on went kaput last night. Not sure if it's both hard drives at once, the cable, or the primary controller.

 

I can't help with the computer issues, but as for getting high AC by the Ice Temple:

The easiest way I can think of is to make a Deep Gnome illusionist monk.

STR 8
DEX 20
CON 12
INT 13
WIS 20
CHA 1

Take your first level in Monk. Take the next seven levels in Illusionist. (Beyond that there are different paths you could choose: including 1.) multiclass to Dreadmaster and just accept the 20% XP penalty (or level-squat), or 2.) add a paladin or dreadmaster mixin but otherwise stay pure illusionist. Plan alignment accordingly, and if Illusionist drop STR to 3 instead of 8 and boost INT to 18, and carry very few items unless buffed w/ Bull's Strength. You won't do much melee damage, but presumably you were planning on using him as wizard anyway or you wouldn't have picked Illusionist. And he will still do plenty of damage with a bow when necessary.)

That gives you +5 to AC when unarmored. You have +5 from DEX. You have +4 for being a Deep Gnome. Take Dodge as a feat for an extra +1, and Expertise as your next feat which will give you +1 every two levels, so probably +2 by the time you hit the ice temple. Cast Armor on him for another +4, and when he gets in trouble cast Shield for an extra +3 and/or Mirror Image. You will routinely have AC 31, with AC 34 in important battles. If there's a Druid in the party you will have an extra +4 from Barksin at this point, and if there's a wizard or sorc you could have an extra +5 from Ghost Armor. I think you may find some random rings/amulets of protection before the ice temple, which may give you an extra +1 (not cumulative w/ Ghost Armor).

Edit: duh, an illusionist IS a wizard. The only caveat is that I'm not sure if this DG illusionist/monk would be up to Monk1/Illusionist5 by Ice Temple.

So if you plan for it, you could easily have AC 44 by Ice Temple.

-Max

 

A non-DG monk in itself should have no problem exceeding AC 20. Hell, at character creation for a human, 18 Dex and 18 Wis starts you at AC18. Dodge raises it to 19. By Level 8, which is attainable by time you reach the Ice Temple, you will have 2 stat increases, so your Dex or Wis could be 19, moving to a minimum of AC 20 with dodge chosen. You haven't found ANY items that improve AC prior to the Ice Temple?

Moon or Wild Elf Warrior types also allow for easy AC boosts. 20 Dex, Studded Leather Armor and Large shield = AC20. Dex increases should raise you to 21. There are tons of options to raise above AC20 by the time you reach the Ice Temple.

 

Negative on the 21. Studded Leather armor maxes out at +5 DEX, so stat increases won't help you. However, Armor spell and Cat's Grace would get this moon elf to 23 or 24, depending on the Cat's Grace roll.

-Max

 

I hadn't played much with the monk, to be honest. I thought he was weak at low to mid levels. Perhaps I underestimated him.
Good news is that I've scavenged parts from some dead computers at work they were throwing out due to blown capacitors (I'm working at a "data terminal repair (DTR) facility and just moved from cleaning phones to repairing receipt printers) that I should be able to repair my old computer unless the primary IDE controller is shot, in which case I'll need to find a PCI IDE card or just throw out the computer (what I'd tell anyone else) and install the games on my modern Windows 7 system.
Honestly, the latter is most likely, since I haven't seen an IDE card since 16-bit ISA.

 

I wouldn't put a lot of levels into a monk, but 1 level of monk gives you WIS bonus to AC and also Evasion, both excellent defensive abilities. It takes 12 or 19 more levels to get anything else worthwhile (Spell Resistance, DR 20/+1). There are a lot of other things you could do with 19 levels of investment that are worth more than 20/+1 DR, at least in HoF.

Hope you get your computer working. If it matter, I play IWD2 on a Win7 system (GOG version) and it works fine.

-Max

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One more thought: the best way to be unhittable is to be out of range. Even AC 1000 would still get you hit 1 in 100 times. When someone ignores my decoy and goes for a fragile, low-AC character, I sometimes have everybody else hit the attacker with ranged weapons while the target just runs away. It doesn't prevent all hits, but it reduces them by maybe 75% and gives everyone else time to kill the attacker. (Other times I use Holy Word or Otiluke's Resilient Sphere or Invisibility or something.)

Anyway, if you have trouble with the Remorhaz Queen, it might be a good idea to charm her Aurilites (distract her into killing her own allies!) and pelt her with ranged weapons. When she turns to face someone, run away until she starts chasing someone else. Maybe you are already doing this though. I admit, having a high-AC character does reduce hassle a lot in this fight.

-Max

 

My experience with charm in IWD2 is that the charmed character will stand there and do nothing, while the enemies will continue to attack the party. Only previously unseen enemies, or more precisely enemies that had previously not seen the party will attack the charmed monster.

http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=29051

 

It depends on the charm version used. Dire Charm will make them attack former allies, but Charm Person will only make them retaliate when attacked. You need to make the queen switch targets. You'd probably want to Charm someone in front of the Remorhaz queen, and retreat so she bumps into her. Note: the Hide skill is also great for making enemies lose lock, if you can manage to get a screen away first.

-Max

 

But it's still kind of annoying that enemies will only attack once they come into visual range of one of your party. So if you have a summon right at your visual edge, they will still attack you instead of the summon, even if it's right in their face.

 

Tactical use of invisibility solves that easy. It's why invisibility is practically a must for an HoF summoning party.

 

Also, the Sanctuary wand is quite good, since it casts instantly unlike the sanctuary spell. It's the Cleric equivalent of Invisibility.

Also, running away and then Hiding works too, although you need a very high movement rate to make it easy.

If combat hasn't started yet, then you'll want a character to Hide or turn invisible and move with the summons until you see an enemy. Summons won't begin to engage an enemy that your characters can't see (they are too stupid). It sounds like this is what is tripping you up.

-Max

 

Worth mentioning here is that some types of monsters are scripted to go after certain types of characters, all the way to the specific class(es) they happen to have. That usually overrides the usual "whoever was seen first" approach to aggro.

Most notable here are the Restless Undead in Chapter 3 who ALWAYS go after a Cleric they can see and target, and Fallen Bladesingers in Fields of Slaughter who are fond of your party's mages. Bladesingers are nigh on impossible to tank with anything else but a mage-based spellsword tank.