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I think I need to make a decision on whether to spend a pile of gold very soon - before this weekend's PaizoCon UK.
My dilemma is this:
I have a Cleric/Paladin moving towards Champion of Irori via Master of Many Styles. At level 2 I can (and should) wear heavy armour. But should I eschew enchanted full plate in favour of later purchasing a Brawling Mithril Breastplate?
Money looks like being very tight, with more useful items that I'll be able to afford over the character's potential career. Allocating approx 20k gp to AC or armour means I am comparing full plate +4 (cost is 17650gp), an armour bonus of +13, with Brawling +3 mithril breastplate at 20,000gp (or just a +2 version at 13,000gp), an armour bonus of +9 or +8. DEX bonus is only +1 so not a consideration.
For a punch-y smite-y flaming holy fists guy, is +2 to hit and damage with unarmed strikes worth the trade-off of AC?
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IMO you are going to see some amount of table variation in PFS on whether you can enchant a Mithral Breastplate with Brawling.
The nagging question? Is a Mithral Breastplate really light armor for the purposes of applying enhancements if you need medium armor proficiency in order to wear it?
I'd avoid it for PFS.
I personally would take the brawling armor, even if you could only grab a chainshirt.
I mean, that +2 to your punches means you don't need a +2 amulet of mighty fists. As you said, your funds are strained. Could you really afford the 36,000 gp where the AoMF starts getting really good (where it punches through DR/cold iron or silver, and thus 'worth it')? I mean, PFS only goes to mid levels....
By skipping the AoMF, you could also grab a cheap amulet of natural armor to boost your AC. You could easily afford a +2 with the money saved (almost a +3 by certain estimates). And were you planning on a ring of protection? If not, by cheap of both these items to get the most for your gp.
Also, another note- Do you know about the Irorian Paladin archetype? It was built around being a punchy paladin. It has some interesting flexibility with its code and can use its replacement for smite on any enemy. It also has an ability that allows you to add your CHA to DEX for AC when in no or light armor (but only 1 modifier per level...but that usually get maxed in 2-3 levels before you can afford +CHA headbands). Still, despite these changes, it retains lay on hands, the mercies, divine grace, and spells. So you could very easily go tanky without any problems.
Irorian Paladin also stacks with the 'Oath against fiends' archetype, which allows you to split the bonuses of divine bond between your weapon, armor, and shield.
I've looked at the irorian paladin. It's a nice concept, but I think the champion of Irori prestige class executes the idea better. It's irksome that irori's own paladins can't qualify for his prestige class, since they lose smite evil.
Well, in some ways I can understand this, but I merely suggested it since you were going with a MoMS on the monk side, which means you are forgoing flurry anyway. This way, you could get the same stuff, and just dip some into monk for the bonus style feats.
Overall, I think the idea was that 'eh, lets just make an archetype of it instead' when looking at a prestige class. The personal trail ability is rather interesting, since it can be used on any opponent, and you can use ki to get through their DR, although it forgoes the usual tons of damage for a more modest scaling bonus instead (but hey, free AC too). This specific ability at least is fairly much on par with the stonelord archetype for dwarves, which I generally see get good opinion.
But I can understand a preference for a different style.