Am I missing something about Unarmored Defense?

[Quadsword]

You always get a higher AC by wearing medium armor, and there doesn't seem to be any other benefits to going unarmored as a barbarian.

[Hobocop]

Nah, it's basically a trap option for a good chunk of the game until you get items and stats to make it good.

[Pixel_Kitsune]

It's just Math. Unarmed defense on a Barbarian is 10+Dex+Con plus a shield. So a Con of 20 is equal to Halfplate. Unless you have a Dex of 16 or higher. That's before considering Halfplate +X armors.

Essentially the time to go Unarmored Defense is when you get the Amulet of Health in Act 3. At that point you reapec dump Con to 8, focus on getting Dex to 20 naturally and then find clothes you like since your Base AC is 21.

Personally the first time I used unarmor defense involved Karlach after that item and the gloves in the same area. It let me dump Str and Con, magically set then both to 23, then max Dex and Wis for resistances.

[Zaris]

Depends on the items you year like Hobo said. Later on you can get items like:
- 18 dex gloves
- 21 or 23 constitution amulet
- 23 str gloves
- multiple barbarian clothes with nice effects (can't remember details)
- gloves +2 AC when unarmored

Let's say you start with 17 str / 15 dex / 16 con with con amulett and dex gloves you will have +6+4 AC which is already 20 AC and enough even on tactician. You could also add some +1 AC items like glove, ring, boots on top of it.

edit: i looked through my finished save and couldn't find any worth mentioning barb cloths but some other nice items popped up:
- gloves with +2 attack / +2 dmg
- helldusk gloves D6 fire bonus (+3,5 dmg)
- crafted medium scale armor 16 AC from grimforge with reeling (-1 attack debuff on attacker -> 17 AC indirect) and crit immunity

Both these items are imho more valuable for a barb. After using relentless attack enemies have advantage against you (~10% crit chance) and the gloves would equal 24 str if you have 20 base str (16 start + 2x feat, great weapon master) which makes them better as the 23 str gloves.

[RhodosGuard]

There are items specifically for unarmored defence classes, that buff them offensively and defensively.

Plus Barbs get Resistance to Physical Damage during rage, and Monks get Patient Defence

Like, Bracers of Defense are available literally within like 1-2h of playing and give +2 AC for unarmored characters.

in Act 2 there is a robe that gives +2 Strength up to 20, and Bulls Charge, there is also a ring giving you +1 AC when you shove something, and the game counts anything as shoving that moves the target against it's will, so the Skill from Dror Ragzlins Hammer, the Repulsor or Dash Illithid Power, just the base Shove action.

Being afraid of low AC because you wanna use unarmored defense is completely unneccessary.

There even are Boots as soon as Act 2 that give +1 AC, and a Cape with +1AC that cost like 500 Gold combined.

[Crom]

Originally posted by Quadsword:

You always get a higher AC by wearing medium armor, and there doesn't seem to be any other benefits to going unarmored as a barbarian.

There are items for that.