shield max dex penalty (?)

[Icedfate]

i'm confused here.
i rolled a new character. made a ranger demonslayer, with the intent to go 2 weapons fighting later.. . so the shield thing really doesn't matter because i'm not gonna be using it anyway.

but here's what is confusing me.
it's right at the start of the game. i gave myself 20 DEX at the start and it starts me off with studded leather. .and that bracer that adds +1 luck bonus to ac.

like that, i have 19 AC.
the sutdded leather is 3ac.
-1 armor check penalty (which i understand is for skill checks?)
arcane fauilure 15 (i assume that's irrelevant on my character)
max dex 5


i found a light shield and it says "+1 ac. -1 check penalty. arcane failure chance 5"

when i equip the shield, my AC drops down from 19 down to 18.

and i'm like, huh? why is my AC dropping?

and then o move the pointer ofer ac to see the breakdown

and when the shield is unequipped, it says
total value : 19
base 10
luck +1 (engraved lucky bracer)
dex +5
armor +3 (studded leather)

but when i equip the shield, it says
total value : 18
luck +1
dex +3
armor +3
shield +1

why am i only getting 3 of my 5 dex bonus while the shield is equipped?!
the armor says +5 max dex.
the shield says nothing about reducing the max dex.
in fact, i'm looking it up right now on the website and it says "shields do not reduce your max dex bonus, except for tower shields".

this is not a tower shield. it is a light shield. why is it reducing my max dex bonus?

[Cutlass Jack]

It might be an encumbrance issue. The weight of the shield might be pushing you up to a higher category. Medium encumbrance limits you to +3 dex bonus.

[Icedfate]

ohh, yeah . .that makes sense.
that's what happened

[hilburnashua]

You know, we really should have a pinned entry for "Does your AC seem lower then it should? Check to see if you are above light encumbrance." Because threads about this seem to crop up weekly.

[Icedfate]

or. .they could have explained encumbrance a little better in the encyclopedia in game. like have it somewhere where it says that it limits your max dex bonus.

i just remembered this same thing happened to me in kingmaker when i played it and i made this same thread there and got the same answer and i just forgot