The HIGHEST POSSIBLE AC - 57 AC Without Exploits - BG3 Honour Build Guide

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Hey pals, I'll add anything we can think of that I left out that boosts it even further in this comment: 59 AC: I misremembered how Terazul works! I had remembered the extra action stacking but not the extra AC, but it does (thanks to Skarzaag for pointing this out)! That brings us to 59 in-combat AC very easily. Technically 69 AC (nice): an allied valour bard using combat inspiration can give you +1d10 for one attack - however, this is like Defensive Duellist and it's impossible for it to actually trigger in game.

[@coleyohley71]

I wonder if you could take off enough equipment to proc defensive duelist and then use the extra actions from Terazul and Haste (and Action Surge, if you were to free up a level somewhere) to re-equip all the gear.

[@Etamalgren]

Is it possible to get an ally's attack roll high enough to hit you, the ally ends up mind-controlled/confused, then said ally attacks you to trigger defensive duelist/combat inspiration?

[@demarge1065]

when this opens and you almost get the feeling he's prepping for a jack of all trades honor run

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Check out my Jack of All Trades Honour build guide if you haven't seen it!

[@demarge1065]

@Cephalopocalypse I did just enough of one to get bored of it right before the end (ilithid powers too op). Now it might have been interesting to see max possible ac for each act and how it compares to the most accurate enemy of each act.

[@KungFuHustling]

@@demarge1065 What are the most accurate enemies in each act?

[@demarge1065]

@KungFuHustling idk, why i figured it would have been nice to know in the video

[@KungFuHustling]

Ah, fair enough.

[@tinycatfriend]

i like that the foundation for this build gives you a nice amount of AC really early, so you don't even need to follow through with it all to avoid being hit most of the time. this might sound silly, but i have a hard time remembering to use buffs so i doubt i'll remember to cast shield of faith everyday and such. as much as i love the tactical nature of BG3, i can't say my brain is great at being strategic! also: swords bard!!! gotta love swords bard!!!

[@demarge1065]

@@tinycatfriend I would probably accidentally end it to use guidance every day

[@Twiggs987]

If you cast it as the same time as longstrider, talk to animals, etc it's pretty easy to remember it. I often forget after I lose concentration tho, so I get it.

[@MrMeh23]

this is me wondering why my TB Open Hand monk is doing so little damage when I clearly just forgot to drink an elixir

[@agustinamagpie]

Make one for the highest possible movement speed please! I've gotten it VERY high on my own, without proper min-maxing, something like 210 meters per turn (or like 690 feet) using "fly", and it was INSANELY fun. I freed all the Gondians from the Iron throne on the first turn. It was hilarious!

[@Esponer]

There are a lot of items and class features that help, but the basic model goeth thusly. Haste and Terazul, Boots of Speed for Click Heels, Helmet of Grit plus Thief 3 bonus action, bonus action dash. Base movement is 9+9+9 from Haste and Terazul, so 27 (add extra bonuses here from other stuff). Click Heels to make it 54. Now convert your 3 actions and 2 remaining bonus actions into dashes, so 54*6=324. Now add Fly so your speed is twice as efficient - 648m. That's just a starting point before you use other class features and items! I did an Iron Throne solo a few days ago, and it was more about having enough actions to kill the sahuagin fast enough!

[@thatguy00271]

@@Esponer Level 2 of monk grants insane movement. Step of the Wind: Dash Use a Bonus action and a Ki Point to double your Movement Speed. Jump no longer requires a bonus action.

[@thatguy00271]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y2HHZ42sd86mg6csi=1uAFPtKC3b9LTkpq

[@SlycerZ]

get infinite move speed by dancing in an allied Aspect of the Elk barbarian's aura.

[@Shadow6OO]

You're missing some of the unwritten rules to dashing there. 1. The Action Dash, the Bonus Action Dash, and the Step of Wind Dash only add the base movement speed onto your current speed, so 27 would go 27+27 on one dash, 27+27+27 on two dashes, and 27+27+27+27 on 3 dashes. 2. Those types of dashes can only be added thrice, so the max would be the 27+27+27+27 mentioned before. The only exceptions are Click Heels and Martial Exertion, which actually doubles the current value like you assume dashes normally would. Thankfully, those extra sources can equal to far more than that amount anyway. For max movement speed (bar the extra sources not mentioned yet) it would only be 27+(3x37)[Dashes]= 108x2[Click Heels]= 216x2[Martial Exterion]= 432m. If you want the max through race, equipment, feats, and class passives, then you'll need: To be a wood elf or half wood elf, be a lvl 6 Wildheart Barbarian with Elk Heart and aspect of Elk, be lvl 3 Rouge for Thief and Bonus Action Dash, get the mobile feat, have Minthara in your party, have Boots of Speed, have the Martial Exertion Gloves, have Terazul, have a lvl6 Transmuter Wiz give you a Transmutter Stone: Speed, have an ally with Haste, Have Nyrulna, Have Crusher's Ring, and drink the Elixer of Elven Elegance. To put it all together: Have someone cast Longstrider and Haste on you, have Minthara cast Soul Branding, and Rage turn 1. Turn 2, activate Terazul (it is a free actions, so no cost), active Action Dash twice, activate Bonus Action Dash, activate Click Heels, and Activate Martial Exterion (also free action). The result would be this: 10.5[Wood Elf] +3[Barbarian Fast Movement] +1.5[Aspect of Elk] +4.5[Elk Rage] +3[Mobile feat] +3[Crusher's Ring] +3[Nyrulna] +3[Transmutter Stone] +10[Elven Elegance] +3[Longstrider] +5[Minthara Soul Branding] +9[Haste] +9[Terazul] = 67.5m x4[2 Action Dashes + 1 Bonus Action Dash] = 270m x2[Click Heels] = 540m x2[Martial Exterion] = 1,080m MAX MOVEMENT SPEED. Theoretically. I've been able to confirm the way most of these stack together [Click Heels + Martial Exertion is nuts], but I haven't done a run to get everything here at once. ALSO there is momentum to consider, if you get max stacks (5) it should add 7.5 to the base value and result in a ton more, but I can't for the life of me figure out if it actually combines with base value, or if it just adds on somewhere else in the calculation. Also, if you want max distance, you'll want to go with Monk's Step of Wind and turn every 3m of that Movement into a jump that far exceeds it. But those optimizations will have to wait or come from someone else, it took me way to long to get all the details of this calculation that I'm calling it for tonight.

[@AR-bj5et]

Honestly, 25 AC + Cloak of Displacement has been enough to break most enemies in the game. They just miss almost everything and a good deal of them don't even take an action.

[@ChongFrisbee]

the reason why I like these long build videos is the discussion around the mechanics and the reasoning for the choices made.

[@nodrogj1]

Shield of Faith can be cast on you by a party member, so you can skip the cleric level and free up concentration by having someone else cast it like you do with warding bond. That way you can also get level 10 bard for magical secrets and counter spell to shut down the few spells that can still cause you issues. If you also get gaseous form as a gnome you can have advantage on all saving throws. You could also skip the wizard level and instead pick up shield with the magic initiate feat, though that's probably not worth it.

[@demarge1065]

@nodrogj1 with that much ac could probably use the harper neck and rarely get it to proc for the 1 per long rest to matter

[@Votuse]

Astarian, had 33ac, critical immune, paladin 6 for +8 to all saving throws (happy after bite, forbidden knowledge and 22 charisma) resistance to everything. And 3 reduction to all damage. And regener 3-7 hp a turn He was taking a quarter damage from AOE and then reduced by 3. Soloed everything and fights took forever

[@Dekse_]

Cool video, I like how even though the build is taken to the extremes, it also shows which parts you could impart on your own game if you chose to stay around 36, giving you options to pick and choose

[@Skarzaag]

You could use Terazul for an easy additional 2AC. Not that it really matters at that point, but if we're talking theoretical max... :P

[@Cephalopocalypse]

You're absolutely right! For some reason I remembered the extra action stacking but not the bonus AC, but it does. Good catch! I'll add that to a pinned comment

[@TheEbob33]

Nothing wrong With these theoretical videos, I think they’re quite interesting. Bonus points to this one because it’s also actually useable

[@mikedickens848]

Love these kinds of videos. Please keep them coming.

[@kinggamereon653]

28:10 defensive duelist doesn't seem to specify that it needs to be an opponent that hits the character so we could just use one of our own characters with some ridiculous bonuses to attack rolls to do the job. Tavern brawler monk already gets a +20 bonus to hit from just a cloud giant elixir and proficiency, multiclass with something that has hunter's mark and use the circlet of hunting for 1d4, bless for +1d4, phalar aluve sing for +1d4, gaunlets of the warmaster for +1, offhand rhapsody for +3 and favourable beginnings for another +4. That makes our highest attack roll against an enemy we can't crit against a 59 (+40 to attack rolls) so we could just hit the 52 AC to activate both shield and defensive duelist while using duelist's prerogative. All of these bonuses have been tested to work in-game even though something like the circlet of hunting seems very unintuitive for a monk. We could achieve even better results by using the deadshot for +6, lvl 6 magic weapon for +3, draconic elemental weapon for +1 (yes, they stack), proficiency +4, favourable beginnings +4, 22 dex +6, legacy of the masters +2, archery fighting style +2, high ground +2, rhapsody +3, phalar aluve sing for +1d4, bless for +1d4, circlet of hunting for +1d4. Since we crit on a 19 the max allowed roll is decreased to 18 but since we have a max of +45 to our attack rolls we could still roll a 63 potentially even making some of our attack rolls impossible to defend from even with that monstrous AC even with shield and defensive duelist. I'm guessing there's also some arcane acuity setup that would do the job based on that the staff of arcane blessing any any arcane acuity item can already give you a maximum bonus of +18 to attack rolls with just one slot and one buff from a teammate but I am too lazy to reopen the game yet again to figure out the exact logistics. To make any of these more consistent at hitting the 51 AC without shield and defensive duelist we could also utilize bardic inspiration for another 1d10 and rapture for 1d6 if those are available. None of this is practical but since we don't need to go past the 36 AC anyways we might as well proc defensive duelist this way.

[@oliorogue]

Yes this is one of my fave videos of yours because now that I know 36 AC and anti-crit gear is all you really need I can strip some things to make room for more damage, better saving throws or something.

[@chuckchan4127]

If your AC is so high only a NAT 20 can hit you and you're immune to critical, do you become impossible to hit with AC attacks?

[@58thFalcon]

That's exactly right. It will show the "Critical Hit!" text in white and be registered as a miss.

[@chuckchan4127]

@58thFalcon So in that case, if you also had extremely high saving throws, then you're nigh invincible outside of stuff that has 100% hit rate like Magic Missile?

[@Thoth728]

​​​@@chuckchan4127you would just save every time. the thing with most damage spell is that they still do half damage if you succeed the save, so hardly invincible. the exception is the rogue/monks evasion feature, which nullifies all the damage if you succeed on the save. the down side is that it only works for dex saves and theres spells that dont target dex and do damage

[@myster1ousdemon]

@@chuckchan4127 And then there's the Shield spell that makes you immune to those

[@chuckchan4127]

​@Thoth728 Elemental Resistance and Armors that reduce damage by a flat amount go a long way to reducing that damage further. I remember by pure Eldritch Knight Fighter basically only taking damage from Magic Missiles whe. He was out of Shield spells and Stray elemental damage from Aoes.

[@Clara-ty4zt]

Thank you so much for all the awesome bg3 content! Just found your account and I love it!! Also, hi from Sweden😁

[@Khantia]

The theory crafting of this build was fun, but it is quite impractical. As it was mentioned in the video - anything higher than 36 is and overkill. So perhaps focusing on getting 36 AC and then focusing on damage and stuff would be better :P

[@Esponer]

I wouldn't even go to 36, it's too much effort. You don't want to be wearing sub-par gear like Evasive Shoes and missing out on more important benefits. 26 AC in Act 1 and 29 in Act 2, if you add in crit immunity and give enemies disadvantage against you (e.g. Darkness or Warding Bond) is sufficient, and you can achieve it with plenty of room for other stuff.

[@ianwinter514]

well it is still practical if you want to make sure your prty also cant't hurt you since you can get up to an equally impractical +40 to +58 attack bonus

[@zajtoja]

20AC makes you almost immune to physical damage in act 1, around 23 in act 2 (only Kheteric can smack you repeatedly) and 25 in act 3 is enough to barely ever lose HP.

[@Esponer]

@@zajtoja Hmm, I don't think that's quite high enough. Enemy attack roll bonuses don't really scale much throughout the game: 20 AC isn't high enough to be very safe from Flind at all. Act 2 actually has the worst enemy you'll face and it's not even unique: Moonrise guards can use War God's Blessing for +10 to attack, and somehow they can sometimes apply it twice for +20, giving them the highest attack rolls in the game for their smites. I've been at almost 30 AC and been almost 100-to-0'd in one round by Moonrise guards (and I had Warding Flare too)... best to just kite them!

[@zajtoja]

@@Esponer Didn't even realize that about the guards, the only fight in act 2 that surprised me on HM was Ketheric roof fight, he smacked out two of my party members and with a somewhat random party (no precision strike or other attack roll boosting abilities and no classic caster) it wasn't as much of a cakewalk as rest of the game is. I'm speaking only from my experience though and I tend to focus and eliminate threats asap, so the moonrise guards and some of the bosses never got a single attack on my crew in my two pts.

[@crofoegbu6535]

Without watching the video, I can already see how you could get to 31 AC all day easily enough: - Armor of Agility 17 AC (or even Yuan Ti Scale Mail 15 AC) - Dex 22 is another +6 - Lann Tarv Shield +3 - Evasive Boots +1 - Troubadour Gloves +1 - Cloak +1 - Mol Ring +1 - Warding Bond camp caster +1 - Shield of Faith camp caster +2 Damn. I was wrong , even higher than I thought. That's 35 right there (33 with Yuan Ti Scale Mail). Wear the Grym Helmet and you're immune to crits. Heck, throw in the Twilight Ring for an extra +1 in the shade lol Alternatively, wear the Holy Lance Helm to punish enemies that miss, switch to Adamantine Shield to keep crit immunity, switch out the boots and gloves for Stormy Clamour and Luminous Respectively and you're STILL at 32 or 30 at worst with Yuan Ti. Why haven't I been doing this all along? 🤦🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️

[@cpt.tryhard6554]

Perfect timing, was just looking at ways to boost some AC a little more on my chars

[@dustinwhite3800]

Love theoretical maxs in the game! So love this video

[@dla458]

I searched the highest ac in bg3 yesterday and you made this! Love your all full party guides by the way. Will you do another?

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Haha, nice! I almost certainly will at some point

[@danielkronke9393]

Highest AC. Nice. Thank you!

[@thepawn08]

24:57 I'm pretty sure that being immune to critical hits doesn't force the attacker to re-roll until they get a 19 or lower, but instead treats the 20 as if it where any other attack roll, without the guaranteed hit. So if an attack has a +16 to attack rolls, they could still hit with a nat 20, because their attack roll would be equal to the 36 AC. On another note; while it would reduce your total AC by -1, I would consider the Adamantine Shield to be the best shield for a practical build with this high AC because it inflicts Reeling when you are missed by an attacker. Reeling reduces the attackers roll by -1 for each turn, which effectively works as an increase to AC on an individual enemy basis (and considering that they were never gonna hit you anyways its a guaranteed -1 on their first attack against you. Reeling also applies towards anybody else the enemy attacks, not just yourself so its almost like sharing AC in a way).

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Nope - in BG3 it works as I described here.

[@thereisnosun8620]

Any source on that? Because there is some information online about critical hits being treated as a 20 roll without auto hit, including screenshots of battle log where it's shown that attacker roll is 20

[@thereisnosun8620]

Interesting experiment! But if we scale it down to earth so to speak... Is it possible to make a character with high enough AC to dodge not all but most attacks, resistance to phisical damage, proficiency and advantage in most relevant attributes saving throws - dex, con, wis and also immunity to other effects like prone and stun... Something like gnome cleric with armor and shield, with bless and blade ward activated on self healing... Will this character be able to solo honour mode or is there some enemy which still would be a threat because they has abilities which doesn't rely on attack roll or doesn't trigger saving throw?

[@Tumasch]

Hey mr. cepahlo-squidward, can you make a build we could make to get the "jack-of-all-trades" achievement, beating the game with a 1 level into every class?

[@KyleHead]

He’s got you covered! kzbin.info/www/bejne/iaCXlGiNfMeLrqcsi=PEwhAQkwWDEusF9j

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Already done!

[@Yuyanaa]

Now make a character that can hit this.

[@FelipeArthurferpa]

I like this kind of content as well as the ones you usually gives us 🙌 I do have a question about one thing, I normally don’t see you suggesting Half-Orcs in build guides, normally I hear you saying that a good choice would be a halfling (which I love) and githyanki, but for other builds that you have done I thought that the passives from Half-Orc would be of grant advantage Also, I would love to see a Race Tier List video ❤

[@notCalle]

Pathfinder: Hey look, I multicheesed to stack all my stats on AC, twice. BG3: hold my stacking enhancement bonuses.

[@aaronholmes3409]

It’s not vanilla core, but the Artificer mod is available on all platforms and actually exists in DnD rules. Taking a few levels in this can allow you to get the Shield spell without dipping Wizard and you can use an infusion to boost AC by a further +1. Also includes some other helpful defensive buffs as well.

[@bruceflyingsolo3977]

An interesting build - certainly going to give it a try.

[@johnplayer3637]

There’s that ring that boosts your ac by 1 after pushing someone, pretty sure it works for all displacement abilities.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Yep, we can use that or the ring of twilight, but since we have only 2 ring slots sadly we can't use both of those and the ring of protection all at the same time.

[@johnplayer3637]

@@Cephalopocalypse These two-finger builds are handicapping Tav potential

[@Kryptic245]

The fact that you say the gnome is probably the best race to play with the build. That's perfect. I imagine a situation where your character is kind of like Yoda. Where do you get into a fight with them, and you try to hit him, but he keeps flipping around, doing all sorts of backflips and random bullshit dodges, to the point that you're going insane because you just can't hit them and you eventually give up out of frustration. 🙂🙃😉🙃🙂 "Hold still you little fucker!" 🤣

[@Martin-sp1nj]

Been playing bit of Solasta: Crown of the magister thanks to your recommendation video, pretty fun game not quite the same as bg3 in good and bad ways but still very fun game. The use of verticality in arenas makes combat very interesting think its shame lot of arenas in bg3 dont make good use of it besides a few early fights.

[@jrh63200]

Doesn't the Cloak of Displacement add more average AC than the Protection Cloak because of the disadvantage? thanks

[@kinggamereon653]

@@jrh63200 depends. With most ACs, yes but sometimes the cloak of protection makes you impossible to hit by a certain enemy and the cloak of displacement makes the enemy have a 0,25% chance instead of a 5% chance to hit you. Effectively the same but protection is slightly better in this case.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Yep - as kinggamereon says above, the cloak is more *average* reduction to enemy hit chance for most characters, but averages get weird at the extremes. If the enemy has an infinitely small hit chance (because our AC is too high for them to hit, so their chance is zero) - it doesn't matter how many chances they get.

[@sundanser]

I just finished my first run ever of BG3. Decided to do honor mode for my first time (bad idea i know) and it was extremely enjoyable. Wanted to say thank you for the awesome vids and builds (i went for gloomstalker/assassin, ek tb thrower, tb monk and ancients paladin) because you helped me out a ton with learning about the game. Keep up the good work, your channel is amazing!

[@arronbrown7753]

So you've never played. You gotta beat it to play honor mode.

[@sundanser]

@@arronbrown7753 ? XD

[@Adam1984_]

@@arronbrown7753 You are incorrect. I don't know whether that used to be the case, but I just checked and I am able to play on Honor Mode despite not beating the game yet.

[@Zero_Zone.]

Very cool build where one stat is boosted to the roof.

[@crimsonbard8929]

Love this exercise!

[@inderdeepsingh5498]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but defensive duelist requires a reaction to use, which was already used up by the Shield spell. The only way to activate Defensive duelist would be to have the (name might be wrong) Duelist's Prerogative which gives you two reactions, but that would mean losing +3 from the shield and +1 from defender's flail, which would just result in a net 0 gain.

[@vampiregoth9]

this is the bg3 content i'm here for - how wacky can we get

[@TheYak2266]

the "you literally can't touch this" build

[@ericgorr]

Have you covered a build that can never (or almost) fail to pick pocket or steal something?

[@gressorialNanites]

I think his "the best astarion build" guide does that, by virtue of being a single-classed rogue, and thus, learning Reliable Talent.

[@boopdabeep5300]

It’s less interesting, since it’s just 11 rogue with expertise in SoH + Smuggler’s Ring + Shapeshifter’s Boon Ring + Unlucky Thieves Gloves with 22 Dex.

[@idkwhatisthis6718]

I love your videos, I really do, I just wish if you showcase the build, like make an enemy hit you or smth. and other cool tests. But still great work nonetheless !

[@davidshepard-alenko4232]

hilarious build. love it!

[@oousan58]

22:25 for Mirror of Loss, it's better to not choose Selûne in Cleric leveling up (7:31); it gives disadvantage to dice roll for just praying Shar.

[@iRideMB]

This character just means Astarion is going to be targeted 100% of the time until hes downed lmao

[@musicmancp]

Correction: The circlet of intelligence can be worn in the morning after a long rest to increase the number of spells you can prepare as a wizard. Select all of your spells, then remove the circlet. This will keep all of the prepared spells regardless of your intelligence modifier.

[@zegreatpumpkinani9161]

Didn't even talk about true strike's bonus effect, smooth...

[@SpookyGman]

It's crazy to compare this to bg1 and 2 where -20 AC was amazing. Lol. RIP Thaco

[@alexanderball9080]

Learned the hard way the warding flare doesn’t work on intellect devourers. One landed a crit on me on the beach. No eyes to be blinded😂

[@BranMcRay]

You don’t need to take off everything g to get higher ac from defensive duelist and shield to pop. You could just take off main armor and go into battle without buffs. Allow someone with high attack to hit you then put on main armor and get all the buffs applied

[@mysecretavatar]

Excellent exercise in AC increase but why do it with an archer? I would be more curious about a tank with high AC and ways to manufacture aggro (maybe a 2 level dip into the anger management issue class). Also, it would be great to add spell defense features. Or does your Eldritch Knight, abjuration multi-class build cover this already?

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Our melee weapon loadout is forced, since that's the only way to get +4 ac from our melee slots. Since that's a pretty low-damage setup, our best bet is just using a bow.

[@mysecretavatar]

I guess that’s your next challenge: build a high AC tank with decent damage & aggro. ❤

[@Esponer]

@@Cephalopocalypse I'd go with a thrower personally. Throwing non-returning weapons is completely overlooked, but it means you can equip both a stat stick melee weapon and stat stick bow, which can be really useful. Throwing also maximises range (and hence safety) and means you're Strength-based which makes jump OP for positioning.

[@noahhudson9632]

love this idea

[@Pickle_Maniac]

I recently discovered how good resilient with dex is on a rogue, Greater Invisibility is very difficult to break even if the enemies have see invisibility. I made Astarion into stuff of nightmares 👀💀😆 My apologies Faerun ⚰⚰

[@aaronprice8563]

Im doing something similar to this for a eldrich blast theme on a solo honor mode run, self imposed rules of no respec allowed. Its pretty good so far, im at 31 AC in act 2 lol.

[@xAfterTomorrowx]

still looking for you to try a horizon walker build in the future

[@thomashiberg3098]

Can you do the same for saving throws? I always find that more annoying than anything else, when you get paralysed and can’t play the game.

[@jeangrondin921]

I would argue that the nimblefinger gloves are a better option because 24 DEX means not only +1 AC, but also +1 to hit and +1 to dmg (with a bow).

[@Cephalopocalypse]

They are, yeah. This way was just a little easier to set up for the video.

[@MarkovChains223]

I wonder if you'd be able to make a similarly unhittable character, but with at least 7 levels in OoTA paladin for the 2 auras that'd help defend against spells too. Since paladin gets you the defensive fighting style and shield of faith, you wouldn't need fighter and cleric at all, so youd basically just need to switch 5 bard levels to paladin

[@Esponer]

Re: 36 AC meaning you can't be hit by any enemy: see Moonrise guards' smiting with War God's Blessing, which can glitch and apply twice, for attack rolls in the 40s. And with Sarevok and humanoid Orin whose counter-attacks automatically hit, skipping attack rolls completely.

[@djglxxii]

Was a reason given for Hope's Shield removal? Never knew it existed.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

I assume it was just never supposed to drop for players, but I don't know if they ever mentioned anything specific

[@sadaikira2037]

To optimise Not beeing Hit even more the next build needs to be a taunting Tank with the highest HP possible, but low armor, so enemies target that one

[@Cautionarytale666]

In the same vein as this video, I’d love to see how many status effect immunities/resistances can be squeezed into a single build via race selection, class/subclass/multi-class combos, equipment, and/or story choices. I’m talking beyond just having 20 points in [attribute] and being “sufficient” at resisting stuff. For example, there’s various fixes to be immune (or at least highly resistant) to blindness, prone, poisoned, charmed, fear, madness, disarmed, difficult terrain, hideous laughter, shoved, and so many more. It wouldn’t be the most OP build maybe, but it would be a lot of fun to laugh off enemies’ attempts to affect that character. Is it possible to be immune to everything?

[@ProbeAway]

What about Resilient: DEX as the second feat? It seems to me that one of the few ways you can take damage is via spells and effects that target DEX, so reducing that damage seems sensible. Alternatively you could just take 2 levels of Ranger (with Ranger knight) at the start instead of one level of fighter. Or start with Bard before fighter and then use a cleric subclass that grants heavy armour proficiency.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

One option I meant to talk about but forgot is Shield Master. This character has super high dex saves even without proficiency since we stack so many items that improve it, so that can remove all damage on successful saves and make the character even safer!

[@ProbeAway]

@@Cephalopocalypse haha if I'm being completely honest I forgot all about that feat!

[@maxbouchez2294]

Maybe your next video should be about creating the highest theoretical "bonus to hit" build, see if it could have a chance of hitting a 60AC target

[@alexanderball9080]

I wish I could like this video more than once. 😂

[@novawilde2096]

Hey! Would be super banging if you could show us where to get these items! That's the only thing your really missing in your guides.

[@ivanangeli]

I enjoyed this one, and make more like this

[@JSiuDev]

Really want to see this in action.

[@victor1756]

The Duellist might go off during the final fight with 4 mind flyers and dragon at the end!? 4 mind flyers will shoot magic missiles at you or your party. If I remember some of your advice from caster videos, all the spells will go off ,here, with CHAR modifier not INT because bard was the last class taken , not wizard!? So it should be pretty save to learn WIZ spells, and they will use Bard CHAR stats to attack?

[@sinner5452]

By the way. What would happen if character with immunity to critical hits got paralyzed which forces every hit againt them became critical?

[@senomas]

immunity to crit should mean all crit become regular hit

[@lowfuture4856]

I can confirm that. Some Gyth immobilized my fighter but with the adamantine shield, I only got normal hits.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Yep, immunity still negates those hits - in the case of this character, the attacks still always miss. Behind the scenes what paralyse does is just set the attack roll to a 20, but then the normal critical hit immunity rolls take over and the die gets rerolled.

[@BraghDaMan]

If you're immune to crits, and something lands Hold Person on you, does every attack in melee miss you? Do they become normal hits in that case? Also, what's the next highest enemy to-hit after the red dragon? Are there consistent +12s? If so, it'd be much more practical to just go to 33 with gear and/or buff effects then focus on other things. Like, you wouldn't even want the defender flail with an 8 STR. You'd never hit with your flourishes. And that's bare minimum.

[@thepawn08]

I tested this with a potion of sleep (cause it was easier but the guaranteed crit effect is the same) and the answer is yes. When you melee attack someone who is sleeping, or hold person'd, any attack roll you make will be a crit; it doesn't simply make every roll you do into a nat 20. The combat log will say something like: "Attack Roll: 11 (Critical!)" With the crit immunity, you are simply making normal attack rolls.

[@BraghDaMan]

@@thepawn08 Thanks. Was wondering how the replacement effect worked

[@Esponer]

They can miss while you're held. I've done this (solo high AC build on custom Honour) and got chain Held by Ethel and her clones, and she just missed over and over until her clones killed themselves from a 'do fire damage if you pass a saving throw' effect I had. After the Red Dragon I think it's Sarevok, but technically the highest enemy attack roll isn't the Red Dragon and it isn't close to being the Red Dragon. Moonrise guards use War God's Blessing and strangely they can apply it twice for a +20 above their attack roll. I've seen them roll in the 40s. Also, on the topic of Sarevok, his teleporting counter-attacks don't even do an attack roll, they just automatically hit and roll damage. So yep, it's much more practical to top at about 30 AC with a source of disadvantage (like Warding Flare). You really don't want to be using the Defender Flail, Wondrous Gloves and Evasive Shoes when you could be using Shar's Spear, Reviving Hands and Helldusk Boots. You're getting +3 AC you don't need and losing: a good weapon; bonus 1d6 to your bow attacks/throws if you're not melee; darkness at will; advantage on saving throws; immunity to blind; resistance to all physical damage [since we're using Helm of Balduran]; immunity to shoves/prone and difficult terrain; 1/day auto-success on saving throw; teleport. (Reviving Hands is really only for e.g. Sarevok who can auto-hit, but you can use other good gloves the rest of the time.)

[@johnbryant6690]

You could equip a helm different than the helm of balduran. They could crit hit you. You could trigger defensive duelist (which would fail) have 60 AC, but you got hit. But you would have 60 AC.

[@nodrogj1]

I'm not sure this would work - I don't think it lets you use a reaction if it wouldn't change the result. I know shield at least doesn't trigger when the attack roll is more than 5 over your ac.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Sadly that doesn't work - as nodrogj said above, Shield and Defensive Duellist only trigger if they would change a hit to a miss, which they can't with a critical hit

[@johnbryant6690]

​@Cephalopocalypse are there ways with the Mystra's spell mod? It is like 300 spells or something? Also, doesn't mirror image only lose an image if the attack would normally have hit? So wouldn't it stay up for the 10 turns or does it automatically assume you are evading with the image? I don't use the spell that often (I rarely need to)

[@Carblesnarky]

I wonder how well you could adapt this idea to a solo jack of all trades achievement build for honor mode.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Check my jack of all trades honour mode guide :D

[@Carblesnarky]

@@Cephalopocalypse Oh haven't watch that one yet. Will do. Your darkness/evil party setup is amazing btw.

[@xgirvel]

Maybe do a maximal protection build? Maximize not only AC, but the saving throws while keeping the character playable? Would be cool to make a demo with a boss/a ton of opponents unable to do anything at all.

[@Esponer]

I'm playing this at the moment! My AC is much lower (in Act 3 it's 29), but I have high saving throws, advantage on saving throws, crit immunity, Warding Flare, once per day auto-success on saving throws, high HP, make sure to have resistance to whatever damage I'm facing, have some damage reduction, etc. Playing a Str-based thrower also maximises range and means jump gives exceptional mobility. This is a solo build on custom Honour, and very few enemies have ever threatened the character at all.

[@tiolmxp9935]

@@Esponerwhat’s the build out of curiosity?

[@Esponer]

@@tiolmxp9935Be warned, it's offensively off meta. Light Cleric 1 / Gloomstalker 5 / Wizard 1 / Arcane Trickster 5, Tavern Brawler thrower. The basis of it is abusing the early Helldusk Armour exploit and being a tanky solo build. There's a lot of weirdness to it, like wanting early poison resistance for Act 1 from Ranger, and I have houserules around consumable use that meant I really wanted to be able to cast Haste (hence the really ugly Trickster sub-class choice). Rogue 5 for Uncanny Dodge isn't usually appreciated but is much better when you rarely get hit and you want to halve stuff like Ansur's ultimate or Raphael's hellfire spells. It really is a strange Batman build that gets a diverse toolkit for problem solving rather than tripling down on firepower. Guidance and Shapeshifter's Boon plus a lot of skills and Expertise mean it's been passing all the needed conversation and thievery checks as well.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Check my builds "the safest character in bg3" or "the immortal dodge tank" for builds like that that are designed for actual play!

[@xgirvel]

@@Cephalopocalypse oh, thx, missed them. Love your builds btw

[@TurantulaGaming]

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but don't cast True Strike! You'll lose concentration un Shield of Faith 😵

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Thanks very much for the support! Don't worry - we can always have an ally concentrate on shield of faith for us so we can focus on the most important things.

[@TurantulaGaming]

@ fair point! I'm kind of tempted to make this a solo honour mode character tho....

[@imglaishy3830]

Since the top AC is overkill as it's above 36, it would be very interesting how to build two characters to reach 36 or close to it using all options in game. cheers!

[@4enTo5]

Just finished run with a similar build with radiant orbs. The main problem was that all enemies do not attack u at all, so i had to take spirit guardians from bard lvl 10(2 fighter/10 bard)

[@ficroulaud]

Interesting. I think i might try this but I'll level fighter to 6 for two feats instead of continuing with bard. Since I'll be mostly unkillable, might as well grab extra feats to mess around with.

[@Dungwader]

If 36AC is the highest you need to avoid physical attacks, what would be the way to get multiple characters to that threshold?

[@xAfterTomorrowx]

How do we get you to actually reply? Been like 5 videos already trying to ask about a horizon walker build and still can't get your attention on it

[@KDub57]

Can you explain how the enemy chooses its target? Do they go after low AC targets?

[@Cephalopocalypse]

There's a bunch of different factors, but basically they prefer to attack, in *roughly* this order of priority: - targets that are easier to hit (low ac or advantage) - creatures with low hp - creatures concentrating on spells - creatures capable of casting spells

[@SwankyPsammead]

Could you sacrifice a memory to the Mirror of Loss to get DEX to 24 (and thus 58 AC)?

[@chufa72]

You can add 1 more if you get Hope’s shield.

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Patched out sadly, I discuss this in the video

[@c3n5i]

please correct me if im wrong, to my knowledge is the highest + to attack 13 from the netherbrain, a 20 (crit) hits always. therefor the highest armour is 19+1+13 = 33 ac therefor the only hit (5%) is a crit. spells and saviong throws did have different numbers?

[@Esponer]

The highest attack roll you can face is actually far higher, at least in the 40s. War God's Blessing is no joke and somehow it can stack. Taking a smite from one of the Moonrise guards that has a cool +20 from two War God's Blessings is a nasty surprise for a high AC build.

[@c3n5i]

@@Esponer War God's Blessing where du you encounter this? who in MRT has this?

[@AjarTadpole7202]

I've calculated higher but idk if its possible. If I find my old research I'll put it here for other people to debunk

[@wildkatz84]

why not use Viconia's Walking Fortress as the AC3 shield?

[@Cephalopocalypse]

That's the best one of course, but for the actual AC total it doesn't matter so I just grabbed the first one I saw.

[@wildkatz84]

@@Cephalopocalypse ah ok fair enough.

[@vampiregoth9]

what is the AC you need to reach 36 'effective' AC with the cloak of displacement? i definitely went hard turning arcane trickster rogue into a tank and with the cloak of displacement at 26 AC *very* few attacks ever went through

[@Cephalopocalypse]

It really depends! With 36 ac, no enemy can hit you. With 35, the highest attack enemy can hit you 1 in 19 times (because of the way the crit immunity works). Cloak of displacement would change that 1 in 19 to a 1 in 361, but that's worse than just boosting our ac by 1 because impossible is still better than 1 in 361. The point where the disadvantage from displacement is better than +1 AC depends on what enemy is attacking you, but generally at these extreme AC values (30+ or so) you're better off just increasing your armour class further since it means more enemies will never be able to land a hit. At lower values, the displacement cloak is better.

[@oskann]

Just a consideration.... if you'r playing tactician or Honor, all enemies has a +2 to atack... SO. In early game 20AC it's not that difficult to hit it's like having 18. I'm saying this beacuse of my experience tryng sólo honor. 22Ac aginst goblins it's not life saving. You'r going to be hit a lot and regulary. 25Ac in Act 2 it's quite good but still you'r been hit a lot. Great video like always ^^

[@Esponer]

Yeah, my experience of solo is you need 25-26 AC for Act 1 and that has to include critical hit immunity. The route for that is Helldusk Armour at level 3 and cheesing Grym at level 4.

[@amouramarie]

I'd love to see this but for Saving Throws. I don't mind taking a fair hit, but man I hate getting CCed. ;.;

[@ericvvught]

Doesnt warding bond (either from an ally or the set of rings) also increase AC by 1?

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Yep! We use that in the video.

[@SashaBaych]

Wouldn't Helmet of Arcane Acuity + Glove soft Battlemage's Power + Band of the Mistic Scoundtel will make this character play godmode on Honor?

[@methodmask]

How would this build work in a solo playthrough?

[@KyleHead]

I would imagine kind of like watching paint dry. Like he said in the video, enemies tend to just give up and skip their turns after they realize they can’t even touch you. I could also see this solo run ending with an unlucky athletics check and you getting shoved to your death.

[@cyrt2889]

so 36 with crit immunity is the way to guarantee not getting hit

[@MC-Recalibrate]

If only you could add Evasion from level 7 Rogue or Monk as well so even AOE spells will effectively 'miss' you due to your high dex. Unfortunately, due to the level 12 cap, I don't think there is way to still get ASI, shield spell, defence fighting style and defensive flourish.

[@nodrogj1]

Rogue 7/bard 4/fighter 1 could do it. A companion can cast Shield of Faith so you can skip the level of cleric. Your two feats would be ASI and magic initiate for shield, the fighter level would get your defence fighting style, and you would have defensive flourish (albeit only 3 per long rest). You'd be way way worse on offence but in theory it would reduced the chance of taking any damage at all

[@Cephalopocalypse]

One option I forgot to talk about is the Shield Master feat! We can take this instead of defensive duelist to effectively get evasion. Unfortunately there's a bug where it negates all damage on a successful save but doesn't halve the damage on a failed save as it's supposed to, but with this character's approx. +15 dex save we should very rarely fail those anyways.

[@jesusmolina4136]

If you kill Hope in the House of Hope after defeating Raphael, she drops a +2 shield

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Not anymore sadly, it was patched out - I talk about this in the video!

[@jesusmolina4136]

@Cephalopocalypse ah ok. I dont that was parched😅😅

[@seePyou]

Impossible to hit? But there is the roll 20 that enemies can still roll, right?

[@Cephalopocalypse]

Not for this character! Critical hit immunity makes 20s still miss (I go more into why that's the case in the video).

[@c3n5i]

next class: highst saving throws?

[@RohanAppaloosa]

I got my AC up to 27, I thought I was doing good.

[@gianlucamorelli]

Bhaal Edict would still do us sadly 🤔🤔

[@kato0122]

Why bother with the cleric level? Couldn’t you just take shield of faith with level 10 magical secrets?