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Thoroughly disappointed myself, as well, and it makes no sense. Certainly, we expect the Champion and Fighter to tread the ground of heavy armor mastery, as that’s what stirs in the imagination when these classes are mentioned (typically).
Hellknights? As above, armored juggernauts, quoting laws, the whole shebang. Heck, the armor itself, stylized and intimidating and covered in iconography in fluff and art is the image of the Hellknight (typically). Helllknight -Plate- is as much a part of this organization as anything else, and they end up shorted on mastery? It steals some of their thunder, their flavor and their charm. Going into a Hellknight archetype should carry with it the assumption “I’m going to be an armored judge by dedicating my character’s development career to this”. It seems like an oversight.
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I never felt like Hellknights were _masters_ of heavy armor in the past. They wore it for its shock/intimidation value. It makes them a symbol and sets them apart from the people they police. But it didn't feel to me that heavy armor was part of their 'fighting style'. So getting to expert feels about right. They wear it all the time, so they are familiar with it past 'trained', but its primarily a prop to them.
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It’d be quite weird for Monk Hellknight to be the best armor-user in the game.
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Monks are the only class that would gain anything before level 19 from that change. I don't think a hell knight ranger gaining master heavy armor at 19 and 20 would break anything, but it seems like a fairly minor concern.
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Perhaps we should parse the hell knight as it has existed from 1e and into 2e, and I'm talking at it's most basic and accessible. Both first edition prestige classes that come to mind have class features that specifically deal with armor, either a variant of armor training, or a straight-up original buff to wearing 'Hell Knight Plate'. Furthermore, utilizing their unique, heavy armor grants them supernatural defenses in the form of resistances and skill boosts for doing so.
If we take a look at the 2nd Edition, a similar trend follows. Four out of the five options available are defensive in nature, and half of those are physical defense or specifically armor related in LOWG. Expand this to Hellknight proper in LOCG, and we see a similar emphasis. Half of the feats for the Hellknight grant some boon to armor, specifically Hell Knight Plate. Even the ostensibly spellcasting Signifer gains not just medium, but -heavy- armor proficiency boosts.
OP's concern is that this seems like a good track to take; they are following in the footsteps laid out in the setting. They are simply not enough. Hell Knights should be intimidating, certainly, but they should also be skilled in the use of this armor. This armor should be intrinsic to that dedication, and that implies better than merely expert.
Try though we might, we cannot divorce the armor, the defense and the plated-mastery this Golarion staple has broadcast over the years. This is an important element to the theme of this organization, from its flavor and aesthetic, to its mechanical emphases. And arguing against as much is arguing against the setting itself as it has been laid out from the beginning.
I feel like there's been a worrying trend on the forums. That if there is a design flaw with the system or a break with continuity or some in-congruence with previously laid down material, there must be some justification conjured to obfuscate a potential oversight by the developers.
I love our game, and I want our game to grow, to sell books, to enthrall storytellers, the lot of it. But working backwards from published source material to scrub the unsightly bits that might not work is not the way to do it. Maybe we'll see an update to these dedications in the future; I certainly hope so. And God knows errata is a part of every new system anyway, there is simply no way around it to 100% playtest all material and involve all variables in a creative endeavor like this.
Until that time, I pray we don't keep trying to justify decisions by the developers that may not have been thought 100% through, and it seems like their attitude on these forums has been fairly amicable to us voicing these concerns and inconsistencies, with a salutary “We'll take a look!” for the most part. Providing them with an echo chamber gives them no ammunition to better our game.
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I never felt like Hellknights were _masters_ of heavy armor in the past. They wore it for its shock/intimidation value. It makes them a symbol and sets them apart from the people they police. But it didn't feel to me that heavy armor was part of their 'fighting style'. So getting to expert feels about right. They wear it all the time, so they are familiar with it past 'trained', but its primarily a prop to them.
They're one of the only organizations in the game (if not the only) that has their own, specially branded armor and they're so universally known for the stuff that even their spellcasters are trained to wear plate.
I don't really know how we can turn around and say it's not a core part of their identity given that.
And I mean, even that aside. It's just kinda dumb to be put in a position where you get to wear your awesome full plate and then all of the sudden at exactly level 19 it becomes a balance issue and you have to hang it up or potentially deal with penalties.
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It's more a response to overblown negative hyperbole than blind defense.
Aka you're allowed to point out things you don't like, and others are allowed to point what they like, and of course those two cross.
Trying to scuttle conversations by attributing malicious subservience on those you disagree with and fearmongering of "echo chambers" doesn't do your stance any favors. The fact that there's so much disagreement and back and forth outright disproves the echo chamber fear from the get go. Calls for those to stop disagreeing when someone is displaying a negative is literally an echo chamber. So the arguments stay, lest we have an echo chamber of nothing but complaints and hyperbole.
Continue to point out things you don't like, but don't take grievance when someone disagrees or points out a way that you are wrong.
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And I mean, even that aside. It's just kinda dumb to be put in a position where you get to wear your awesome full plate and then all of the sudden at exactly level 19 it becomes a balance issue and you have to hang it up or potentially deal with penalties.
You have to get to level 19 first though, and even then it's 2 AC.
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The Ranger not mixing well with Hellknight is due to Ranger class abilities shutting down if they’re wearing heavy armor, not because they don’t have Heavy Armor Proficiency starting out.
Oh, forgot about that.
Well sucks for mr. Master of Blades Leuden Mardinus (LN male human ranger 6/HellknightISWG 2) xD I guess writer for that one didn't actually check that the class would work with prestige class. That or assumed they don't actually use the uniform