I'm trying to finish up a Monk-Rogue build in PFS.
Stunning Fist + Flurry of Blows + Sneak Attack is godly. Sap Adept at level one.
Currently, I just reached level 2.
My AC is 18. Wis=3, Dex=4, +1 Dodge bonus from Dodge. I have no extra feat slots available, and roughly 1,400 gold to spend.
UMD is a rogue skill, but not an option.
The best solution I got so far was a suggestion from a really old thread; "get a wand of Mage Armor and give it to somebody else."
Not only is that majorly inconsistent, but I can't make head or tails of it from a role-playing perspective. I don't have knowledge arcane or spellcraft.
"I went to a magic item store and told the guy at the counter I get hurt too often. He handed me this wand. Not sure what it does. Poke me with it and we'll see what happens."
Maybe AC potions? Shield or Mage Armor? I vaguely remember some spells are arbitrarily banned in PFS as potions, like True Strike, so I'm not sure how that would work.
Any ideas?
Shield and true strike aren't available as potions because they have a range of personal and hence don't "target one or more creatures or objects". So now that's hopefully less arbitrary-seeming. :-)
Once somebody casts mage armor on you once, it's not ridiculous to buy it along the lines of "somebody did this and I liked it - do you have something similar?" And if you understand how wands work (probably a DC 5 or 10, so no ranks needed) that's not a major in-character leap.
But yes, that's probably the only thing affordable at this level that'll make a big difference. Fighting defensively costs too much accuracy, armor or shield lose you monk abilities, and other magic items are at least 1000 times bonus squared.