I'm in the process of building a Barbarian/Aegis and I have a question about how Nimble works with the Astral Suit. My intention is to primarily use the Astral Armor which states that it provides the same mechanical attributes as Masterwork Chainmail. Chainmail has a max DEX bonus of +2. What happens if your PC has a DEX of 16 or higher, or adding the Nimble customization takes you to 16 or higher? Does that mean that Nimble will not function?
Exactly what Justin said.
The customizations don't counter the restrictions of the armor type.
Thanks, but this answer is a little confusing. You say it limits AC, but then say you receive the benefit of increased DEX for AC. Am I missing something? This seems contradictory.
Thanks, but this answer is a little confusing. You say it limits AC, but then say you receive the benefit of increased DEX for AC. Am I missing something? This seems contradictory.
An armor's Max Dex caps the bonuses you can gain from Dexterity. In your case, the armor's Max Dex is +2; you can only benefit from up to +2 worth of Dex modifier. The Nimble enhancement increases your Dexterity score by +2, which boosts your modifier by +1.
For instance, if your base Dex is 12 (+1 mod) and you add Nimble, it boosts to 14 (+2) and your Dex-based stuff goes up accordingly. If your base Dex were 14, thus boosting to 16, you'd see no change without further abilities that boost your armor's Max Dex.
Does that help?
"Maximum Dex Bonus: This number is the maximum Dexterity bonus to AC that this type of armor allows. Dexterity bonuses in excess of this number are reduced to this number for the purposes of determining the wearer's AC. Heavier armors limit mobility, reducing the wearer's ability to dodge blows. This restriction doesn't affect any other Dexterity-related abilities.
Even if a character's Dexterity bonus to AC drops to 0 because of armor, this situation does not count as losing his Dexterity bonus to AC.
A character's encumbrance (the amount of gear carried, including armor) may also restrict the maximum Dexterity bonus that can be applied to his Armor Class."
If your Dex was a 14, giving you a +2 Dex modifier, and you were wearing armor that had a Max Dex Bonus of +2, and had the Nimble customization that boosted you to +3 Dex modifier, that would still apply to things like Weapon Finesse, ranged attacks, etc. But your AC bonus from Dex is still capped at +2.
Thanks for clarifying this for me. For a long time I was under the mistaken impression that the DEX cap applied to everything, and not just AC. I think this still had me a little confused.