[RPG] Armored Wisdom to AC

armorarmor-classdnd-3.5e

Is there any combination of races, classes, items, or feats that allows you to add your Wisdom bonus to AC, without restricting the armor that you wear?

Several classes offer Wisdom to AC while unarmored, and one (swordsage) allows Wisdom to AC while wearing light armor.

It is acceptable for this Wisdom to AC to replace the typical Dexterity to AC, as for example the deepwarden does with Constitution to AC. In this case, however, it cannot explicitly state that the Wisdom to AC is limited by the maximum Dexterity of the armor.

The bonus must count for touch AC; obviously it’s preferable to count for flat-footed as well, but it is acceptable if it does not (note this however).

The bonus must count against all opponents and operate at all times (barring things like flat-footed, bound, helpless, or unconscious); features that allow you to apply Wisdom to AC against a particular opponent, or options that have limited durations or limited uses are not welcome.

Best Answer

There is not much in the unrestricted Wisdom-to-AC department.

Unlimited bonuses

Saint template lets you to add your Wisdom bonus as an insight bonus to AC.

Limited bonuses

Balance domain granted power (Player's Guide to Faerun) allows Wisdom bonus to AC for 1 round/level 1 time a day.
Mantis Mercenary class (Oriental Adventures) lets you to add your Wisdom bonus to AC... against the target of your Dodge feat. Though you might want to (ab)use Expedituous Dodge or Desert Wind Dodge here.
Multiple ways to get monk-like Wisdom bonus to AC while unarmored or while in light armor, which are not suitable for your needs.

Rules as written: No limit

Armors limit your Dex bonus to AC. Deepwardens do not have Dex bonuses to AC, they have Con bonuses to AC. The Con bonus replaces the Dex bonus (and so you would not get it in situations where you lose your Dex bonus to AC), but it still is not a Dex bonus and thus the limits of the armor do not apply. And, indeed, there’s no reason why an armor’s weight or inflexibility would prevent you from benefiting from your resilience and connection to the earth.

Intent: Unknown, and unknowable

As far as what the authors intended, that’s anyone’s guess. The author never wrote anything on the subject aside from the original publication, so we have no evidence one way or the other.

Precedent: No limit

As for precedence, generally speaking the special rules for one ability score do not apply when you swap to another ability score. There are instances where you can replace your Strength to damage with Dexterity to damage, but RAW you do not get ½Dexterity to damage on a light weapon or 1½Dexterity to damage on a weapon wielded two-handed, unless it explicitly says so. (Dragon vol. 221 has the Corsair which explicitly halves Dexterity to damage with light weapons, for example)

FAQ: Limit

However, there is an FAQ entry on the question. The FAQ, it must be very clearly stated, is not errata. It is supposed to only explain the rules that already exist. If its statements contradict the actual rules, officially, the actual rules take precedence every single time. And the FAQ has been wrong many times, in many cases quite blatantly so. Finally, the FAQ is not (usually) written by the original authors of the book, so it does not correspond to the author’s intent, either.

All together, the FAQ is worth very little, and has a very poor reputation. In fact, it’s so bad that when this poster in the thread Squera linked learned that the FAQ said the Con bonus was limited, it proved to him that it actually wasn’t!

At any rate, the FAQ has this to say:

Does the deepwarden’s Stone Warden ability (RS 105) still have a maximum Dexterity bonus to his Armor Class, and does that maximum still apply to his Constitution?

The maximum Dexterity bonus should be treated as the maximum ability bonus given by the armor, so if you were playing a deepwarden wearing full plate, you would only add 1 to your Armor Class from your Constitution.

Conclusion: Rule it based on what improves your game most

Personally, I think it makes almost no sense that restrictive armor would inhibit a Con bonus to AC, I think that deepwardens make sense in heavy armor and shouldn’t be penalized for wearing it, and I don’t think the deepwarden or the AC they can get is overpowered or problematic, so I would not limit it. You may answer any or all of those questions differently. Ultimately, remember than AC is a limited thing, and lots of nasty things ignore AC; having a lot of it only does so much for you.

If you would like a compromise, here’s a suggestion. Purely houserule with no basis in the rules, either deepwarden’s or elsewhere in precedence, but it might be a good solution:

The deepwarden’s Constitution bonus to AC is limited by her armor’s maximum Dexterity bonus, just as the Dexterity bonus it replaces would be. However, the Constitution bonus is not limited for the purposes of AC against touch attacks. For example, if a deepwarden with 18 Constitution (+4) wears Chainmail (+5 AC, +2 maximum Dexterity bonus), and has no other bonuses to AC, his AC is 17 (+5 armor, +2 Consitution), but his touch AC is 14 (+4 Constitution). A deepwarden’s touch AC may not exceed her regular AC.

I don’t think this is necessary, but it does prevent the high-end AC that you might get from armor+Con, while still giving a deepwarden a good bonus for their class feature.

Remember, a class feature is supposed to make you better. Yes, Con, not limited by max Dex, is better than what the deepwarden had before, but that isn’t necessarily a problem. It’s only a problem if it’s “too much better,” and I really don’t think it is.

[RPG] the RAW of how Dodge works

You’re running afoul of some major name conflicts here: there are multiple different things that are called “dodge.”

So, three instances of the word “dodge” that are not actually the same:

Dodge bonuses. This is just a type of bonus, almost-always to AC. For clarity, the rest of the answer will refer to these as “dodge-type bonuses.” Dodge-type bonuses stack with other dodge-type bonuses (unlike most types of bonuses), and you lose dodge-type bonuses to AC any time you would lose your Dexterity bonus to AC.
The Dodge feat. This is a feat that gives a dodge-type bonus to AC, but only against one chosen target.
The Uncanny Dodge class feature. This is a class feature that allows one to keep one’s Dexterity bonus to AC in more situations. Since you don’t lose your Dexterity bonus to AC, you also don’t lose any dodge-type bonuses to AC that you may have (since you usually lose those when you lose your Dexterity bonus to AC). However, the Uncanny Dodge class feature itself does not grant any bonus, dodge-type or otherwise, it just affects when you lose any bonuses you may or may not already have.

Note that the restriction of applying only to one target is a facet of the Dodge feat; it does not apply to any other source of dodge-type bonuses, nor does it have anything at all to do with Uncanny Dodge.

So, for example, the dwarven dodge-type bonus to AC against giants applies to any and all giants, all at once. You do not have to pick one. If a dwarf has the Dodge feat, he can apply the Dodge feat’s dodge-type bonus against the attacks of any one creature. If that creature is a giant, the dwarf gets to stack his racial bonus alongside the bonus from the feat, for a total of +5. His dodge-type bonus against other giants remains the same +4.

If he does not have Uncanny Dodge, he loses all of these dodge-type bonuses when caught flat-footed or attacked by an invisible attacker, since he loses his Dexterity bonus to AC and dodge-type bonuses are tied the to Dexterity bonus. However, if he does have Uncanny Dodge, then he gets to keep these dodge-type bonuses in this case, because Uncanny Dodge lets him keep his Dexterity bonus.

So, for your example:

Dex-16 4th-level dwarf rogue with leather armor: basic armored AC of 15. Note that dwarves are Medium creatures, and therefore have a size bonus of +0, not +1. (Only Small creatures get a +1 size bonus to AC.)
- Touch attacks ignore the leather armor, so against those his AC is 13.
- Since he is a rogue with Uncanny Dodge, being flat-footed does not cost him his Dexterity bonus to AC, so his flat-footed AC is the same as his regular AC. It is still possible to lose one’s Dexterity bonus to AC with Uncanny Dodge, however (balancing is a big one); if that happens, his AC is 12.
He gains a +4 dodge-type bonus against any and all giants, so that includes our two hill giants. For this fight, against only giants, his AC is 19. Uncanny Dodge means he keeps those dodge bonuses even if caught flat-footed or the hill giants are invisible (but not if he is balancing or otherwise does lose Dexterity to AC; then his AC is back down to 12 since it takes out the dodge-type bonuses as well as the Dexterity bonus).
He may designate one of the hill giants for his Dodge feat. His AC against that hill giant only improves to 20. Against the other hill giant, his AC remains 19.
Flanking doesn’t affect AC. If the hill giants are flanking him, they get a +2 bonus to their attacks. If they are also rogues, they would also get to add their Sneak Attack damage to their attacks, as appropriate.