Dex bonus bug

[kaiserp]

So, i have a Dexterity of 21, biving me a bonus of +5 do AC
when i equip a Belt of Incredible Dexterity (+2) , my Dex bonus goes to +6, butmy bous to ac drops to +3. any idea whats up here?

[forkofspite]

Seems like the weight of the item (or loss is strength from unequipping a strength belt) is putting the character to medium encumbrance load. The maximum dex bonus to AC with a medium load is +3. If that's the case, you should also have a -3 penalty to the strength/dexterity skill checks.

[mrstrider1]

It's not necessarily the encumbrance load. What Armor are you wearing? Each Armor has a max AC bonus that it will allow for Dexterity. no matter how high your Dex bonus on everything else it will never go higher than this number when wearing that type of armor. Each kind of Armor has a different one.

[forkofspite]

(equipping a belt typically doesn't change the character's armor, but maybe the OP left something out)

[mrstrider1]

Originally posted by forkofspite:

(equipping a belt typically doesn't change the character's armor, but maybe the OP left something out)

The way OP describes it. OP may not even know about the Armor affecting things.

[forkofspite]

Originally posted by mrstrider1:

The way OP describes it. OP may not even know about the Armor affecting things.

I did hedge the statement with "maybe the OP left something out", and that remains true.

But ...

Originally posted by mrstrider1:

He only talks about his dex bonus from his stats until the end where he says it only shows a 3 for armor.

The first sentence from the OP states (emphasis added)

Originally posted by kaiserp:

So, i have a Dexterity of 21, biving me a bonus of +5 do AC
when i equip a Belt of Incredible Dexterity (+2) , my Dex bonus goes to +6, butmy bous to ac drops to +3.

Nevertheless, it is plausible that the OP didn't actually check that the character was getting the full +5 bonus to AC prior to the change.

[kaiserp]

Yes, i did check I got the +5 to AC.
Max Dex from armor isnt a thing either, because Monk and therefore no armor. And even IF I wore armor, equiping a +Dex belt would not lower the max Dex bonus to AC.

the problem was absolutely the medium encumbrance. I did not realise that would limit my dex bonus. So much to Str as dumpstat :(
Thx.

[Raikon]

That's one hell of a dump stat if wearing a belt for you encumbered. You realize you get -6 stregnth from exhaustion, that can instant kill you if you only have 6 stregnth. Same with ghostly enemies and stregnth drain. They can do up to 6

[kaiserp]

yea well :D lets just say... I play with "dead companions raise after combat" so my stats wont drop below 1. but yes, I do realise exhaustion will get me a -6 to Str.

[forkofspite]

Originally posted by Raikon:

That's one hell of a dump stat if wearing a belt for you encumbered. You realize you get -6 stregnth from exhaustion, that can instant kill you if you only have 6 stregnth. Same with ghostly enemies and stregnth drain. They can do up to 6

Nenio has a 5 strength, and exhaustion doesn't kill her.

Death from a 0 ability score does happen though. My favorite was from fighting mites at the Old Sycamore (Kingmaker). If you paralyzed (such as from failing a save against Hold Person), the game lowers the character's dex score to 1. If that paralyzed character then fails a save against centipede poison and takes dex damage, that character dies.

I don't know if Wrath has the same implementation.