raising ac with Inquisitor / monk dip

[Gibo Auja]

So I'm going a melee dex build with my inquisitor for PFS legal play.
I currently have a
+4 dex
+3 dex (going to +4 wis at four)

So i was thinking i could get a +4 ac(+5 with a 2 lvl dip into sacred as well as toughness) by going 1 into monk, but I can no longer where armor.

So I'm trying to think if this would be a good idea, i couldn't wear armor
anymore, but i would get a good ac buff. Is it worth it? Or is ac from armor much better in the long run?

[Charlie Bell]

AC from armor is much better. Regular old chain shirt gives you +4 AC, all the way up to +5 mithral breastplate for +11 AC.

[Deadmanwalking]

The AC from Armor is much better in the long run. Heck, even now a Breastplate would net you more AC, and a Chain Shirt the same.

Multi-classing is almost never a good idea mechanically, especially not on the spur of the moment. It should generally be reserved for concepts that demand it.

[blackbloodtroll]

Shields will help too. What does your build look like?

[Gibo Auja]

In that case anyone got any ideas for multi-classing or pristage. I was thinking 2 lvls of duelist at 8,9

I know it doesn't seem amazingly efficient,
but I get 2 ac + 1D6 and some other goodies.

All though it seems a little inefficient, I really want to do
a little multi-classing.

My Idea is to get feats to get duelist as well as Dervish Dancer
and just prance around the battlefield poking people.

[blackbloodtroll]

What does your build look like?

[LostWormOnItsWayHome]

I understand there's some sort of level cap that's less than 20 in PFS play and I'm not sure what treasure ends up looking like in PFS, but for a game at level 20 that uses the wealth by level tables, the boost to AC from monk is greater than any armour (that I am aware of) you could wear. This depends entirely on where you spend your gold, of course.

AT LEVEL 20 WEALTH:
WITH MONK:
Assuming you do not raise your wis mod or dex mod past +4 from levels, you could be getting +9 to your AC from wisdom and +9 to your AC from dex, in addition to the +8 from bracers of armor.

For a total of +26 AC (+27 with monk's robes)

WITHOUT MONK:
This is opposed to +5 Mithral Breastplate which allows +11 from armor, +6 for dex

For a total of +17 AC

Of course, one of the bigger drawbacks about the monk is that shields can't be used in conjunction with their AC boost.

With a shield, the non-monk could be up to +24 AC
With a tower shield, the non-monk could reach +26 AC

The monk would miss out on special armour abilities that could be provided by shields and armour.

I also believe that improving the AC of unarmoured characters is more expensive and unarmoured AC does not reach its true potential until later levels (neither of these beliefs have been examined very closely).