| Alexeltio |
The guardian is supposed to be a class that gives a lot of offensive features in exchange for defensive features, like how they get the best armor scaling by gaining it 2 levels earlier than the champion and monk, but gain the expert and master weapon proficiency 2 levels later than other classes. This should mean that the guardian have 2 AC more than other classes with heavy armor that doesn't reach legendary, and should be harder to damage then, but lets take a look at the scenarios where you can be harmed:
- First, remember that this is only AC, so you are not more durable against effect that forces a save comparing to other classes. The only thing you get related to that is access to the mighty bulwark feat 2 level earlier than a character with bastion archetype, and your level 19 feature give you an insane reflex save against damage effects.
- In case you don't use any class feature, you are 2 above the average AC, but enemies will not have any incentive to attack you instead everyone who will deal more damage or could apply debuff. Maybe you could use action like grapple or trip to try to penalize a foe, but you are not better than another martial using it and at most level the champion have the exact same AC while doing this
- If you use your taunt ability, you give the enemies a penalty to attack allies, so now they are more likely to attack you. But wait, this give them a +2 to attacks, so the being 2 points of AC above the rest is negated by that. Also an enemy could still ignore you, since the penalty is already set and is not different from another martial using trip or disarm, or a caster using the fear spell to give a similar penalty. Also, the bonus to attack you apply also to the DC of effect, so you are effectively worse than anybody against effect that requires a save
- If you use intercept strike, you can protect a companion, but that reaction is use AFTER the ally take damage, which means that you use the result of the attack of the enemy VS the AC of your ally. Your AC doesn't matter in any moment, and you are even more likely to get crit if your ally had a lower AC than the normal (like for example, if it is a wizard or barbarian). Also, i must point that meanwhile the guardian have that problem, the commander has the level 2 feat of defensive swap that in exchange to not granting resistance make the attack target you and your AC, which sounds better for a guardian who will have shield raise and better AC
So, while you are getting earlier boost to your armor proficiency, both of your class feature nullify these boost in some way. So why the guardian still get to level later the expert and master weapon proficiency?