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Encumbered
All of your speeds are reduced by 10 feet, your maximum Dexterity bonus to your Armor Class is reduced to +2, and you take a –5 penalty to Strength- and Dexterity-based checks (or you take your armor’s armor check penalty, whichever is worse).
As NPCs do not use the AC calculation of PCS, including armor and dexterity bonus, what, if any, effect does the encumbered condition have on the AC of NPCs?
Personal Approach: Take whatever the NPC's Dex Modifier is. If it is greater than two, subtract two from it, and then subtract the result from the EAC / KAC of the NPC.
Mechanically speaking, the decrease in Dexterity Bonus to AC is supposed to represent it being more difficult for you to dodge, so I feel that using the above strategy helps to have the same effect for NPCs.
The dex bonus is reduced to +2, not by +2.
Their armor calcs aren't based on PC methods, but subtracting the difference in dex modifiers is easy enough. There might be a couple of low CR creatures where it doesn't make sense, but for those just use your best judgement.
Personal Approach: Take whatever the NPC's Dex Modifier is. If it is greater than two, subtract two from it, and then subtract the result from the EAC / KAC of the NPC.
Mechanically speaking, the decrease in Dexterity Bonus to AC is supposed to represent it being more difficult for you to dodge, so I feel that using the above strategy helps to have the same effect for NPCs.
The dex bonus is reduced to +2, not by +2.
Their armor calcs aren't based on PC methods, but subtracting the difference in dex modifiers is easy enough. There might be a couple of low CR creatures where it doesn't make sense, but for those just use your best judgement.
Right, sorry I wasn't clear with my calculations.
My method:
Dex Bonus - 2 = Bonus to be Removed
EAC/KAC - Bonus to be Removed = New EAC/KACSo, if a creature had a Dex Bonus of 5, you'd subtract 3 from the EAC/KAC if it was Encumbered, to show that whatever bonus it got from Dex has gone from 5 to 2.
That doesn't work for dexterous enemies in low-to-medium level heavy armor, or really any enemies in low-to-medium level heavy armor. The Aeon Guard, for example, has a +4 dex modifier but wears armor with a max bonus of +2, so if it was playing by PC rules its AC wouldn't change at all.
There are a very few low level heavy heavy armors that give greater than a +2 dex bonus, but not many, and you can go as high as level 11 and still find some armors that still only grant a +2 dex bonus.