First of all their save progression is terrible. Starts at Trained Fort, Expert Ref, and expert Will. Not bad, sure. First bump, Fortitude to expert, does not come until 9th level. Next bump, at 11th, is Will to master with success bump. Last comes at 15th, reflex to master with success bump. No legendary saves. Combine that with the fact that neither Dex nor Wis are not going to be very high on most Commanders, it has some of the worst saves in the game.
On AC, the problem is that a an INT key attribute class you can't have a +4 STR until 5th level. So that means no +6/+0 armor until 5th level. Therefore you are limited to +5/+1 armor until 5th level and you will lag behind 1 point on AC unless you invest in DEX, which becomes redundant for AC purposes at 5th level.
I love the idea of the class and am looking forward to play testing it, but I'm concerned about it living long enough to do it's cool stuff.
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I don't think you're wrong, but the Commander has a lot of tools to keep them off the front lines in combat. Their physical defenses are better than most support characters, and good enough that I think anyone targeting them is going to be punished by more direct damage dealers.
My experience with support casters is they usually come out of combat either unscathed (the enemy couldn't afford to target them) or downed -- Commanders seem beefy enough that I think they'll avoid being downed.
Saves could definitely be an issue at higher levels, though I think the multiple success bumps will help.
I could live with the AC loss, but those saves are just bad at any level.