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Armour class and essentialism
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<blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 8592683" data-attributes="member: 907"><p>That's close to how Pathfinder 2 does it.</p><p></p><p>In PF2, armors are defined by a few numbers: item bonus (the bonus it gives to AC), Dex Cap (the highest bonus you can get to AC if you wear that armor), Check Penalty (a penalty to Strength and Dexterity-based checks other than attacks), Strength (how high your Strength must be to nullify the check penalty). For the most part, light and medium armor have an item bonus and Dex Cap that sum up to +5, and there's also "Explorer's Clothing" which has item bonus +0 and Dex Cap +5, so the whole point of that is to have a not-armor that you can still enchant and stuff. Heavy armor instead sums to +6. The tables are also set up so that the higher the item bonus and the lower the Dex Cap, the higher the Strength needed to nullify penalties – essentially, the point of medium armor is to let melee-focused characters get a decent AC without having to pump both Strength (for melee attacks) and Dexterity (for AC).</p><p></p><p>Monks start out with Expert proficiency in unarmored defense, meaning they get a +2 bonus to AC over those who start out Trained in whatever sort of armor they wear. This is slightly less of an edge than it initially appears, because you generally can't get to a Dexterity bonus of +5 until level 10, so the actual effect is that they get the same AC as characters wearing heavy armor (though it does help a bit at the really low levels before PCs can afford heavy armor). Pathfinder 2 also offers monks who want to eschew Dexterity a feat called Mountain Stance, which gives them a +4 item bonus to AC but a Dex cap of 0 (and taking an action to activate and imposing certain limitations). So for a low-level character maxing AC in PF2, the values would look something like this:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">No armor (non-monk): Item +0, Dex +4, Proficiency 2+level, total 16+level. This might very well be lower because these characters might not max out Dexterity, but at higher levels they will likely catch up.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Light armor: Item +1 or +2, Dex +4 or +3, Proficiency 2+level, total 17+level.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Medium armor: Item +3 or +4, Dex +2 or +1, Proficiency 2+level, total 17+level.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Heavy armor: Item +5 or +6, Dex +1 or 0, Proficiendy 2+level, total 18+level.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">No armor (Dex-monk): Item +0, Dex +4, Proficiency 4+level, total 18+level.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">No armor (Mountain stance): Item +4, Dex 0, Proficiency 4+level, total 18+level.</li> </ul><p>So the effect is to create a baseline for light/medium armor wearers, and then put fighters, champions (paladins) and monks a little above that, and cloth casters (basically wizards, sorcerers, and cloistered clerics) a little below. Different classes might combine things differently to reach that baseline, but they will get there.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Staffan, post: 8592683, member: 907"] That's close to how Pathfinder 2 does it. In PF2, armors are defined by a few numbers: item bonus (the bonus it gives to AC), Dex Cap (the highest bonus you can get to AC if you wear that armor), Check Penalty (a penalty to Strength and Dexterity-based checks other than attacks), Strength (how high your Strength must be to nullify the check penalty). For the most part, light and medium armor have an item bonus and Dex Cap that sum up to +5, and there's also "Explorer's Clothing" which has item bonus +0 and Dex Cap +5, so the whole point of that is to have a not-armor that you can still enchant and stuff. Heavy armor instead sums to +6. The tables are also set up so that the higher the item bonus and the lower the Dex Cap, the higher the Strength needed to nullify penalties – essentially, the point of medium armor is to let melee-focused characters get a decent AC without having to pump both Strength (for melee attacks) and Dexterity (for AC). Monks start out with Expert proficiency in unarmored defense, meaning they get a +2 bonus to AC over those who start out Trained in whatever sort of armor they wear. This is slightly less of an edge than it initially appears, because you generally can't get to a Dexterity bonus of +5 until level 10, so the actual effect is that they get the same AC as characters wearing heavy armor (though it does help a bit at the really low levels before PCs can afford heavy armor). Pathfinder 2 also offers monks who want to eschew Dexterity a feat called Mountain Stance, which gives them a +4 item bonus to AC but a Dex cap of 0 (and taking an action to activate and imposing certain limitations). So for a low-level character maxing AC in PF2, the values would look something like this: [LIST] [*]No armor (non-monk): Item +0, Dex +4, Proficiency 2+level, total 16+level. This might very well be lower because these characters might not max out Dexterity, but at higher levels they will likely catch up. [*]Light armor: Item +1 or +2, Dex +4 or +3, Proficiency 2+level, total 17+level. [*]Medium armor: Item +3 or +4, Dex +2 or +1, Proficiency 2+level, total 17+level. [*]Heavy armor: Item +5 or +6, Dex +1 or 0, Proficiendy 2+level, total 18+level. [*]No armor (Dex-monk): Item +0, Dex +4, Proficiency 4+level, total 18+level. [*]No armor (Mountain stance): Item +4, Dex 0, Proficiency 4+level, total 18+level. [/LIST] So the effect is to create a baseline for light/medium armor wearers, and then put fighters, champions (paladins) and monks a little above that, and cloth casters (basically wizards, sorcerers, and cloistered clerics) a little below. Different classes might combine things differently to reach that baseline, but they will get there. [/QUOTE]
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