AC & HPs, instead of fort.

[KiwiPhil889]

I may have asked this before,but dont know if it was here lol. I understand how critting werks, you have to crit on first roll,and hit on second yeah?. So,was wondering, just say your AC was roughly in the high 50's and you had say.. 400?+ hps.Is having a fort item worthwhile?? and on the same line, does fort stop spell crits?? i ask cuz i don't know,seems to me it shouldn't.

Reason i ask is mostly for flexibility,swappin itmes in and out,rather than having 1 slot fort dedicated all the time.

Just asking,it might be noobish,but still asking lol.

laters

[Riekan]

IMO, on a high AC build (like over 55) a moderate fortification item should be all that you ever need. Once the bad guys need a 20 just to hit you, they would need a 20 to hit (would be a crit) then ANOTHER 20 to confirm the crit, then get past the 75% protection to crit. With 400 HP, assuming that you are reasonably healed, even if a crit were to get by your defenses (and they will every once in awhile), you'll have enough staying power to keep going.

For the math side of things, to crit you, they need 1/20 * 1/20 * 25/100 = 25/40000 which equates to 1 crit in 1600 hits. That's good enough for me

[sigtrent]

Basicaly if crits are causing you issues, you need heavy fort. If not, you don't need it.

I don't think heavy fort stops spell crits in DDO but I'm not sure. In PnP I think by the rules it would, but again, without doing "research" its hard to say. There may be a clause somewhere about it and in PnP spell crits are only for spells that make attack rolls

[Strykersz]

Anyone know what the crit multiplier is for monsters(or if it's variable)?

[Hence]

Heavy fort does wonders, it does not matter how many hp and ac you have... monsters crit more often. Protection from criticals is a must in tanking certain encounters; Reaver for one.

IMO you must dedicate a spot to Heavy Fort, you are negating more damage with this than your AC. Im not sure, but I doubt that monsters need to make the same critical check that players do.

A great DR will also help more, especially with heavy fort. When I tank the Reaver, I negate 50% of his damage while blocking, and since he cannot crit me, my HPs drop at a steady and predictable rate which is a relief to the clerics and party in general.

I used Moderate Fort for a long time before I had Heavy Fort, and I was critted all the time, it seemed almost broken.

[sigtrent]

Anyone know what the crit multiplier is for monsters(or if it's variable)?

It is either by weapon or 20 X2 for claws, bites and slams. (although there may be some that have high natural crit ranges just "because")

I remember when jacoby had a pick, that thing could 1HKO a lot of first level characters if he got lucky.

[Obitus]

Heavy fort does wonders, it does not matter how many hp and ac you have... monsters crit more often. Protection from criticals is a must in tanking certain encounters; Reaver for one.

IMO you must dedicate a spot to Heavy Fort, you are negating more damage with this than your AC. Im not sure, but I doubt that monsters need to make the same critical check that players do.

Yeah, I certainly haven't conducted any kind of scientific testing, but it definitely seems like mobs make their crit checks a lot more often than they should, per DnD rules.

If you have 55+ AC, then you probably don't need Heavy Fort, but Moderate Fort is probably a good idea. Statistically speaking, you shouldn't need either, but the statistics don't jive with my experience. YMMV.

[liamfrancais]

Umm noob question here I have a level 12 almost 13 dwarven fighter and with + 5 full plate not mithral but two armor mastery enhancements +5 heavy shield I am at 37 ac about I have the hvy fort helm with toughness so how do I have no where near 50 ac much less high 50 what if anything can I do besides sit and weep at my pitifulness?

[Borror0]

Umm noob question here I have a level 12 almost 13 dwarven fighter and with + 5 full plate not mithral but two armor mastery enhancements +5 heavy shield I am at 37 ac about I have the hvy fort helm with toughness so how do I have no where near 50 ac much less high 50 what if anything can I do besides sit and weep at my pitifulness?

From my Dwarven Defender thread (link in signature):

Gear:

Head: +6 Wisdom helm (Might end-up becoming something else, still thinking about this one. Currently is a Intimidate helm until I get the Circle of Hatred.)
Trinket: Head of Good Fortune
Necklace: +5 Protection
Belt: Daggertooth Belt
Armor: +5 Mithril Fullplate
Shield: +5 MithrilTower Shield
Ring: Chattering Ring
Ring: Circle of Hatred
Bracers: Chaosguard
Cloak: +6 Charisma
Googles: Sandstorm Googles (Currently Blindness of Minute Seeing)
Gloves: +6 Strength
Boots: Madstone Boots


AC Breakdown:

10 Base
+13 Armor
+9 Shield
+5 Protection
+6 Dodge
+1 Aura
+5 Dex
+5 Combat Expertise
----------------------
54 Unbuffed

To that, you'd had +3 Barkskin potion or +4 Madstone Rage so you get +57-58 Self-buffed.

Lesser gear can be used to reach decent number, but I just went with the max.

[Paladin20]

Umm noob question here I have a level 12 almost 13 dwarven fighter and with + 5 full plate not mithral but two armor mastery enhancements +5 heavy shield I am at 37 ac about I have the hvy fort helm with toughness so how do I have no where near 50 ac much less high 50 what if anything can I do besides sit and weep at my pitifulness?

Well, for starters, Fighter Armor Mastery II on a +5 Vanilla Full Plate is equivalent in total AC as a +5 Mithral Full Plate equipped with no Fighter Armor Mastery Enhancements. You might not have the Dodge feat which is another +1 to AC, and then you also might not have a +5 Protection item. In the case you are lawful good, you can also use the Chaosgarde (+2 Dodge Bonus to AC which stacks), and for ultimate AC boost it likely requires the Chattering Ring from the Titan Raid (+3 Dodge Bonus to AC which stacks with the Chaosgarde). Since you are a Dwarf, you also have access to the racial Armor Mastery Enhancements, which will further raise the Max Dex bonus possible while wearing armor. Of course, you need to have enough Dexterity to take full advantage of such. Last but not least in the gear department, you could also use a Tower Shield which will give you another +2 in comparison to a Heavy Shield with the same enhancement bonus.

Also good to note is that most times people count a Barkskin potion (+3 Natural Armor) and a Haste potion (+1 Dodge Bonus) into their AC since such things are easily accessible. Now, you can also tweak your build in case you did not pick up Combat Expertise (+5) but it's a stance and requires that you have 13 unenhanced Int. Also, even without Combat Expertise you can gain +2 to your AC by simply switching to Defensive Fighting stance (which everybody gets).

[liamfrancais]

I hope I am not hijacking Kiwiphil889's thread. Borror0 great build, I do wear +4 prot necklace so that helps not a 5 I know but I am a poor dwarf (my kin dug to deep and the demon's took over and left me with nothing but my life and my axe). I have been helped by the kindness of others such as a paladin who took me in and gave me some spoils of his adventures while smiting evil.

I don't have all the stats with me (**** laptop can't run any good games) but I do have at least a +6 dex bonus. I will check if I have dodge or not, I have several dragonshards but not sure I want a kalashtar messing with my brain even if his name is fred. Thinking about armor a drow sorcerer by the name of baltaz bestowed on me the breast plate of vol which does seem to have some benefits (actually it is wash with AC over +5 steel fullplate but it looks cool to me). As soon as I am raid ready I will look for some of the other items on the list that fall from the reaver.

Thank you all for your help and suggestions and to Kiwiphil889 sorry to interrupt.

[Slayer918]

I may have asked this before,but dont know if it was here lol. I understand how critting werks, you have to crit on first roll,and hit on second yeah?. So,was wondering, just say your AC was roughly in the high 50's and you had say.. 400?+ hps.Is having a fort item worthwhile?? and on the same line, does fort stop spell crits?? i ask cuz i don't know,seems to me it shouldn't.

Reason i ask is mostly for flexibility,swappin itmes in and out,rather than having 1 slot fort dedicated all the time.

Just asking,it might be noobish,but still asking lol.

laters

There are some ways to not need have an item slot just for fortification, head of good fortune is mod fort for your trinket slot and +2 to your skills/saves, White dragonscale has mod fort on it as well as being +6 fullplate, and electric haze has heavy fort and GFL on it...

Well 55-60 AC +275 hp +mod fort > 55-60 AC +400 hp imo

My paladin runs around with 58 AC and mod fort with 288 hp... I would think that having 400 hitpoints would just be stupid if you have that kind of AC... If mobs don't hit you enough to ever drop you to 100/400 hp before they are dead then 400 hp would be essentially the same as 301 hitpoints... and anything over that is wasting resources... If your running around with high 50s AC and 400 hitpoints you would get much more benefit dropping your GFL or Con item (or even both... or laying off the dwarf/fighter/paladin toughness enhancements) to pick up more beneficial items such as mod fort (can be found on any item that your con or GFL would be, heavy fort on most on some different slots too such as minos legend)

Yes in theory if a mob only hits you on a 20 then with no fort you have 1/400 chance of being critted (1/1600 with mod fort) BUT there is nothing stating taht mobs do not have some sort of seeker bonus (I.E. players have feats, items AND enhancements boosting confirmation it wouldn't surprise me at all if the devs gave some mobs miscellaneous seeker benefits)

[brootus31]

Well, from hours and hours and hours of playing, I can say that an AC of 50+ and 400+ hp along with heavy fort will make you the tank everyone wants. You can achieve these numbers easy, along with some nice damage dealing feats. Damage and Tanking do not have to be exclusive.

[Yshkabibble]

Its a relatively minor thing in most quests but Heavy fort makes you immune to sneak attacks. Moderate fort means you still take all of the sneak attack damage from rogues.

[death_smurf]

If your worried about inventory slots there are many heavy fort items that serve dual purposes ie: heavy fort ring of disease immunity, electric haze- heavy fort greater false life, minos legens- heavy fort and toughness feat. I personally wont run a high level toon without heavy fort regardless of the class. You will at some point be critted regardless of your ac. I have a fighter pali mix that boosts his ac to 67 on a regular basis and on high level elite content would still get critted alot if not for heavy fort. Ultimately you can get by without heavy fort but based on all of my toons being designed to be as self sufficent as much as possible, its not a choice i would make. hope this helped