APG Armour

[Ramanujan]

I was expecting to find solutions to the issue with the core rule book in that the best/sometimes only way of increasing AC was to take the Champion dedication, which has very specific thematic consequences or constraints. The same could be said of the Fighter and weapons, but the theme of a Fighter is very simply and directly 'weapon master', so the same thematic issues don't occur.

I like the APG - and am still very glad to have it, but for me this is probably the single biggest disappointment/hope dashed.

I was also expecting uses/improvements/progressions to the rather odd situation with the general feats weapon training and armour training. Or something at least that explained/clarified their existence as not-traps.

Edit: Just re-looked at Champion. Sentinel does cover the same functions as Champion, so that complaint is addressed - I apologise. But there is still no way to gain even one step better than what your base class gives you.

[Xenocrat]

Did you check out the Bastion archetype? Or the weapon/fighting style specific archetypes like Mauler and Martial Artist?

[AnimatedPaper]

Sentinel more directly address that concern, though in an extremely limited fashion because it more or less overrides the Armor proficiency feat. The only time you'd gain benefit from both feats is if your class gives proficiency to light armor only, and you wanted to be in heavy armor. In that case, taking Armor proficiency to give yourself trained in medium armor would give you heavy armor training and match it to your class's light armor proficiency.

Otherwise you'd be better off just taking the dedication if at all possible.

[Xenocrat]

Yeah, Sentinel, not Bastion. Bastion is the shield one.