Understanding Armour

[Eldrane]

I need some help understanding which armour each of the classes should be best equipped with, I know heavier armour provides more protection but for each class what is the optimum for them to perform best, thanks.

[Cursed Life]

It all depends what armour a character can wear and his dext. High dext light armor all the others heavy is better.

[Duder]

Many heavy armors are mithral too later, so you can equip these on your Dex characters and ranged. Some characters don't need armor at all if built right, like Woljiff and Nenio for two.
I gave Camillia Air Barrier hex, Daeran Spirit Shield.

Like said high dex and there are spells and gear that increases your armor class on these high dex characters too.

All depends on how you build the character really.

[Invisible]

It depends on your preference. Your base speed is 30 (with the exception of dwarfs and halflings). If you wear medium or heavy armour your speed get reduced to 20. Base Fighter Class has the feat "armour training", so they can wear heavier armour with out the speed reduction.

Additionally armour can cap your dextery armour bonus and all skills depending on dex are penalised. Mithral armour is an exception.

[Gralzeim]

Also note that while Dwarves have a base speed of 20, they don't suffer any speed penalties for wearing heavy armor.

On top of that, keep in mind that if the character can get a mount, that'll basically negate the speed penalty anyway.

[Yard]

Heavy armor is for tanks and warriors, say all melee classes that have the feat from the start, heavy armor reduces movement speed and dexterity and is noticeable in turn-based mode, tank classes are delayed much more in reaching the enemies but they are also the ones that provide the most physical defense

Medium armor is for executioners assassins, and barbarians , it gives them decent defense for hand-to-hand combat and does not make them slow or penalize their dexterity so much, which makes them hit more times in the same turn and other benefits derived from dexterity.

Light armor is also used by archers or assassins if what you are looking for is to have a character who is not on the front line and has defense and the dexterity penalties are minimal, also if you want to have a magician or a cleric who is not so weak. If an enemy approaches him in melee he can resist something

Now there are also mithril armor, the advantage is that they are lighter. For example, if you apply heavy armor on a melee tank, its movement speed penalty is no longer affected and if you apply it on a magician, its spell failure rate is no longer affected. with armor it is considerably reduced

This is in general aspects since the armor and all that section is much deeper

What I'm getting at is that you have to think logically, for example a barbarian does not need heavy armor that prevents him from moving quickly on the battlefield, in his case he needs light armor or medium armor that gives him mobility and certain resistance to attack ruthlessly, since its role is not to be a tank, but rather a dps and support "enough" for the group's tank to really absorb the damage or only use it as an offtank if necessary.

This same applies to all classes, the game is very well designed to bring that "realism" to the game, although obviously if you level up you can perfectly make your "barbarian" a front line tank with the correct skills.

[canuck250]

Then there is mage armour or bracers (+4 and higher) which has 4 ac. If you are a high dex or low str (low carry weight) then this is a good way to go. Because armour caps dex to ac, esp with dex buffs a high dex character will have better ac with this.

[ZeroDivide]

Armor is typically a failing mechanic in this version of pathfinder (and D&D too).
Armor's maximum dex allowed (even with mythril armor) just does not scale well at mid to late game, especially once you start leaning into splashing classes.
This results in not enough heavy armor found early game for your fighter/paladin/hellknight classes that CAN wear heavy armor and dont have high Dex, while almost every other class has high enough Dex that they would never want to wear anything more then Medium chainmail and will eventually (as you collect +dex gear, and more class features) will want to drop down to light or even no armor to take advantage of high Touch AC as well.

[canuck250]

Originally posted by talemore:

If unable to use heavy armor and not dexterous you may as well walk nude.

Or wear a dex belt and a medium armour and be fine with a reach weapon. Mage armor is 4 AC, there are plenty of armours that give that, so why burn a spell for something you can wear for free? Plus some armours have bonus features. Like the Chainmail of Dragonfly, medium armour, base 6 ac, +3 enchantment and max dex bonus of +2. So even with a base 10 dex, a single +4 belt or cat's grace give you the +2 dex. So for a single spell or item you get 11 AC, compared to 4 ac of just casting mage armour. Plus that armour gives a very nice aoe +1 insight to hit and to dex against demons. But you right might as well go naked eh?