RagnellHD's page

HumbleGamer wrote:

The major issue is that Paizo gave +1 AC to heavy ones.

Armors might have just been:

light: +1 AC +4 DEX or +2 AC +3 DEX ( STR 10 )
medium: +3 AC +2 DEX or +4 AC +1 DEX ( STR 14 )
heavy: +5 AC +0 DEX ( + bulwark - 5 speed) ( STR 18 )

ending up without forcing players into +1 bonus, given how bonuses work here in 2 ( even a +1 is excellent ).

In addition to this, there're not enough armor type specific runes ( and good one ), making you wonder ( if I get armor X I can take rune y... but I will renounce to rune x which his strong... what to do... ).

Currently, if you can afford it, you go with heavy armors, which is bad in terms of both mechanics and flavor ( similar to a tax feat ).

I don't think that's the problem.

Paizo's designers actually broke armor down into 4 practical categories:

Characters with no armor proficiency (except the monk) receive only the dexterity bonus.

Characters with armor proficiency, whether light or medium, receive an item bonus and can top up the remainder with the dexterity cap, resulting in an average +1 AC when compared to characters without armor.

Characters with proficiency in heavy armor, who don't need dexterity and average +2 AC when compared to characters without armor.

And here comes where I see the real problem with medium armor. Their problem is that for you to get +5 in full AC you need to make some investment in dexterity, this kind of "forces" players without access to heavier armor to have dexterity in their build and given the way the stats are distributed in PF2, for optimization reasons this ends up making the player continue investing in this attribute until the end, which over time ends up making the need for these armors unfeasible.

In a practical example to facilitate understanding:
Let's say you wanted to make a melee, charisma-invested Magus for whatever reason (whether multiclassing, or simply wanting to Demoralize), plus being an intelligence-based spellcaster, you want to also...

Honestly it isn't the end of the world to be slightly behind on Int as a Magus. If you're planning on playing a Cha focused Magus, Int would be the first Stat I would think to dump instead. Sure it affects the DCs of save spells, but Magus' are really only reliant on that if they choose to be by taking expansive spellstrike or straight casting those save based spells, something you don't have to do as a Magus to play them. Given you have limited spell slots, it would just mean you would focus those spells into attack roll based spells or your buff/utility spells without a save.

If you're worried about the damage you lose from Int based damage like on certain cantrips you can plan around that by taking one of the cha caster archetypes and damage cantrips from there.

Hell you can still leave Dex at 12 and make room for some extra Wisdom in your build that's more of a nice to have stat increase for saves and perception.

I'm planning to play a Flashy "anime/video game" esque Samurai in an upcoming campaign for my group. Though instead of something like Fighter, Monk or Swashbuckler like others are suggesting. I built mine as a Laughing Shadows Magus. I honestly see a lot their kit works well for a flashy swordsman.

For instance Spellstrike can be considered an over the top finishing move putting all your energy into one attack. The Laughing Shadow Focus Spell Dimensional Assault fits well for the Blindingly fast Iaijitsu cuts. Arcane Cascade let's you infuse your blade with an element so even your regular strikes are flashy. Not to mention having access to the arcane spell list for a lot of extra stuff you can do with your turn.

This build obviously fits a specific definition of samurai tropes like DMC Virgil, or animes like Demon Slayer and Bleach. I.e the fictional ones with a lot of creative liberties for rule of cool rather than one meant for historical accuracy.

There's lots of ways to play specific types of characters with the classes we currently have.