Go for AC or go with less armor check penalty?

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I usually wind up giving all my metal armor wearing characters the magical elven chain you find in the game.

I have the circle of 8 fan patches over the official patches and it has been a blast so far. The reason being that I put all my characters' spare skill points in Tumble and Listen. Granted, you are better off maneuvring your character outside enemies threat range to avoid AoO but there are times when you just have to bypass their area with a character even with your armored fighters. It is usually the attacks of opportunity that gets my characters hurt.

With the large steel/wooden shield fully enchanted and a nice elven chain, the characters only get a -4 penalty for their tumble skill and you can offset that further with gloves of dexterity +6.

 

Same here, although I don't bother giving them shields. Usually, a high dexterity and points in tumble are enough to ward off attacks of opportunity, thus allowing characters to either dual wield or use a two handed weapon.

 

I do agree since the two handers give 1.5 strength bonus to damage. Just that getting the radiant long sword so early and having characters that just don't get enough feats to develop two weapon fighting or going with ranger is hard (I have a pally and barb).

My paladin has an AC of 28 now and has enough hitpoints to withstand a few hits from hill giants (as long as it isn't two criticals in a row LOL).

 

Not sure about the nettiquette factor in replying to old posts, but...

As far as shields go, I've finally found a couple that can be enchanted. -ahem- Obviously I'm not using the Co8 patch, but I've got all the official patches. Anyway, the shields are listed below for any not-yet-Co8 players like me.

As far as stragedy goes, I've ended up using more shields than I thought I would. My thief (rngr 1, thf 9) uses bracers of AC5, gloves of dex+6, and a wooden tower shield enchanted to +3, and -of course- a ring of protection. I avoided the elven chain because I didn't want to "throw away" the extra dexterity AC bonus. This keeps her AC at 28, and her tumble score is still 18 or so...

As soon as I could make some gaunlets of giant strength, I gave them to my cleric, who was then able to use +3 chainmail and a +2 large shield without being encumbered, but now is using Hedrack's armor & shield...

My fighter has a 16 dex, so he was perfect for the purple elven chainmail. And since I learned the power of the polearm, he uses the ranseur exclusively (hence, no shield)... But I give him the ring of protection +2 because he gets kicked around more, and I hate diverting my cleric to heal him in combat...

My other front-liner is the monk, who does a great job and all, but with so many neat-o weapons and armors that he can't use, I mostly wish I would have gone for another fighter type...

***spoiler alert***

Otis in Nulb sells a masterwork buckler.

And even though I'm not lawful good, I was able to complete the Paida quest when I got to level 4 of the temple by casting Dispel Magic on her... She joins, you take her back to Wainright in Hommlet, and he says thanks. I refused the monetary reward (I've got way too much money already) and then when you talk to him again, you can ask if he makes shields. He gives you a free masterwork large wooden shield which you can enchant.

 

Cool, I didn't know that, might try it next time.

Myself I like to go old school with a dwarf with plenty o' armour and shields. Okay he's slow and has a huge penality to tumble but his AC is really high too so people can't touch him anyway. I think both way are good, it's only a matter of taste.