Change to Canny Defense and how it affects existing characters

[Samuli]

A few weeks ago the rules of Canny Defense were changed.

The original rules read "When wearing light or no armor and not using a shield, a duelist adds 1 point of Intelligence bonus (if any) per duelist class level to her Dexterity bonus to modify Armor Class while wielding a melee weapon". It was 'clarified' in the FAQ that "Her Int-based bonus to AC ignores the max Dex limitation of armor because the Int-based bonus to AC is not a Dex bonus".

How does this affect existing Pathfinder Society characters who have Canny Defense? For example, characters who bought Bracers of Armor +4 to overcome the Max Dex restriction? Or characters who multiclassed to sorcerer to get access to Mage Armor. Etc.

Being a rules change - and we can argue whether it's a rules change or clarfication, but IMO that's pretty clear - I'd say it's fair to let those characters retrain parts of their character that are clearly influenced by the change. Unfortunately, I don't have any clear guidelines for the 'clearly influenced' part.

[RtrnofdMax]

My impression about rebuilds in the past are that they are only used for features that can't be used anymore; such as when something becomes illegal.

Since you can still use your levels of sorcerer or your bracers of armor, I can almost guarantee that you're not going to get a rebuild.

When it comes to the Bracers of Armor +4, you could sell them for 8k and have almost enough gold to buy a Haramaki +3 for the same armor bonus and no dex max or ACP.

[CRobledo]

What Max said. Rebuilds are usually only offered when items, feats or other game components get banned or changed significantly. IN this case, canny defense was actually clarified, not changed. All the items you mentioned still work even after the clarification.

[Czrenobog]

RtrnofdMax wrote:

My impression about rebuilds in the past are that they are only used for features that can't be used anymore; such as when something becomes illegal.

Since you can still use your levels of sorcerer or your bracers of armor, I can almost guarantee that you're not going to get a rebuild.

When it comes to the Bracers of Armor +4, you could sell them for 8k and have almost enough gold to buy a Haramaki +3 for the same armor bonus and no dex max or ACP.

When playing a high dexterity character, the best armors you can wear are Celestial armor (Max AC of 17 including Dexterity bonus), Bracers of Armor which do not limit your max dexterity (effectively 8+Dexterity) or Max's suggestion (4+Dexterity and far cheaper).

Basically, if your dexterity bonus is +9 or above(28+), go those other two routes for maximum benefit. Otherwise, fly once a day, have armor that is AWESOME armor and undetectable underclothing (will still radiate magic of course).

[Belafon]

And remember that the max DEX limitation is still in place. A duelist adds both DEX and INT bonuses to AC. The FAQ clarification simply states that the INT part of the bonus is not subject to the armor limitation.

[Samuli]

Actually, I mostly agree with all of you. My question is more about, when do you get to rebuild, and when not. When they changed how feats work, you were allowed a rebuild (fey foundling, for example). How is this different?

I also agree that it's questionable whether this is a rules changes, or clarification. To me "Her Int-based bonus to AC..." is noticeably changed from "adds ... Intelligence bonus ... to her Dexterity bonus to modify Armor Class". Pathfinder rules work by keywords, and "Int-based bonus to AC" is clearly not the same as "Int bonus to Dex bonus".