Sain Sword armor?

[Melierax]

I am new to Pathfinder and currently stuck at the character creation. I am wondering if it is possible to wear heavy armor with a Saint Sword when combining it with e.g. a fighter. I like the description of the Saint Sword, but no armor is somehow unsatisfying for me.

Thank you.

[Azure-Ghost]

You can, but you will lose access to several class features like adding your Intelligence modifier to armor class and have a high chance to fail on spell casting.
You also will be affected by the regular downsides of heavy armor (slower movespeed/lower moverange, almost no bonus armor from dexterity and a malus on several skillchecks.
And if you crossclass you also lose access to you capstone ( auto confirm crits which highly increases your chance to crit and an increased crit multiplier)

Overall you can get better armor values through buffs , stats and other items than from wearing (expensive) heavy armor after some levels.

[SmallGespenst]

Sword Saint doesn't want armor since Canny Defence requires having no armor and provides a solid boost to AC from the Int->AC
getting heavy armor proficiency will take investing multiple feats, and between disabling Canny Defence and the max dex penalty will probably reduce your AC compared to wearing nothing.

[darkholyPL]

The best armour in Wotr is no armour.
Alas, due to how the system works, and how much you need to buff, wearing heavy armour is a net negative.
If fact, I would go so far as to say that wearing any armour is a net negative.
With spells such as mage arour, shield, shield of faith, bark skin and so forth, you will easily outclass any actuall armour you can find.
Also if nothing else, you can always wear bracers of armour and/or a Haramaki.

[jsaving]

Armor will reduce your AC for most of the game but is less harmful on a scion than a saint, so you might consider scion if you have a role-playing attachment to wearing armor.

[Invisible]

You can use bracers of armour, without any penalty.

In wrath you should use armoured battlemage instead of sword saint if you want armour.

[Melierax]

Thank you all for your help, I appreciate it!

[Azure-Ghost]

Originally posted by Invisible:

You can use bracers of armour, without any penalty.

In wrath you should use armoured battlemage instead of sword saint if you want armour.

actually every Magus besides Sword Saint and Arcane Rider can use heavy armor while casting (and Arcane Rider can still wear light armor)

Also depending on your Build, Armor can actually have its uses.
Buffs can be dispelled (though rarely happens, i don't think it ever happens on lower difficultis) and besides mage armor they all stack with wearing armor (shield spell does not with wearing a shield but is still useful if you go dual wielding or 2h weapon)

I think Bracers of Armor end at 5 armor, magearmor provides 4 armor (except if you can cast it yourself or use potions and take a mythic feat that can increase it up to 14 armor at endgame)
Fullplate gives you 10 armor +5 at max from enchantment (can be done with a spell if you don't have a +5 one yet) and still gives +1 armor from dex (so you won't lose out as long as you're at 12 or below dex) which can be raised to +5 if you play a class with armor training feats which also removes most of the skill penalty and the movespeed penalty.
So for a str based armor training class with low dex and no monk multiclassing (can provide a big boost to armorclass but prevents the use of armor) you are not that much behind.

And if you first start out with the game and use the main companions in their default builds and no customized mercs you're most likely better of using normal armor on most frontline classes instead of bothering with to much buffing and resting all the time.

[ppaladin123]

Originally posted by Azure-Ghost:

Originally posted by Invisible:

You can use bracers of armour, without any penalty.

In wrath you should use armoured battlemage instead of sword saint if you want armour.

I think Bracers of Armor end at 5 armor, magearmor provides 4 armor (except if you can cast it yourself or use potions and take a mythic feat that can increase it up to 14 armor at endgame)

Late in the game you can find bracers of armor +7.

[Tyrendian89]

Originally posted by ppaladin123:

Originally posted by Azure-Ghost:

I think Bracers of Armor end at 5 armor, magearmor provides 4 armor (except if you can cast it yourself or use potions and take a mythic feat that can increase it up to 14 armor at endgame)

Late in the game you can find bracers of armor +7.

or buy them as early as act III from the Midnight Isles vendor if you REALLY want them... had me doing a double take earlier today, but there they were...

[RandomDude2018]

Max for bracers is +8 in the main game. +9 in the DLC.

[S N E E D]

Originally posted by Melierax:

I am new to Pathfinder and currently stuck at the character creation. I am wondering if it is possible to wear heavy armor with a Saint Sword when combining it with e.g. a fighter. I like the description of the Saint Sword, but no armor is somehow unsatisfying for me.

Thank you.

Just wear Haramaki if going Sword Saint. Stay single class too, Sword Saints really want to stay pure.

[Higgy]

The mythic path ability armour master means you can do full plate and not struggle. By the end of the game it has Max dex +10 and 0 ACP. Which will more than cover any of your late game needs. Technically this will allow a higher AC than unarmoured, but requires one of your abilities.