Uncap dexterity bonus from light armor

[Pandip]

Outside of Fencers, Dexterity characters are largely bad in EFU for a number of reasons.

Even Fencer -- who get a bunch of freebies to compensate -- are often in a position where they have an equal amount of AC compared to their plate wearing equivalents. This AC is often significantly more fragile to the nuances of being flat footed or dispelled.

Further, whereas armor bonuses on light armor are mostly a stopgap for when Mage Armor gets dispelled, they're often a flat bonus to medium and heavy wearing characters who don't get the benefit of Mage Armor but can benefit from Magic Vestment. This has gotten more apparent since 5/2 armor was changed to 5/3.

Characters wearing 8/1 heavy armor or 5+1/3 medium armor, even without Magic Vestment, are usually hitting the same AC as a Dexterity-based character with 10+ base Tumble ranks.

I propose making it so that all light armor can benefit from as large of a Dexterity bonus as you can get.

[Mia]

Finesse Training already makes dexterity an outright, flat superior ability score than strength. By the mere reality that dexterity provides reflex save, ranged attack bonus and many more skills are tied to it over strength.

Strength has two things going for it; Flat-Footed AC (From being able to lift and wear heavier armours) and Carry Capacity.

Lets not remove one of the two last things strength provides vs all the boons dexterity gives.

[Egon the Monkey]

Clothing is better than Light Armor For Many Builds
I think this is the right problem but not the right solution. The Fashion Shop means there's a range of astonishing clothing for combat characters. Meaning Silken Mail is kind of GOATed as a feat. So why bother with armor? If you have 16+ DEX,Clothing has equal AC and even better stats.

Letting people get unlimited DEX bonus only really helps minmaxers. I'd rather look at what a 16-18 DEX Generic Finesse Guy gets out of this. I feel that currently, most PCs are wearing Light Armour less for the fragile AC and more for the stats. And where Leather and Hide do shine is the rare drops can be very, very good. Like the Rat Leathers with +2 Mind saves. Which is the big win for Vagabond Fighters, as the stats on combat leathers can outdo Fullplate.

Also, Hide going up to 3/5 makes it pretty good, especially with Magic Vestment for another +2 (probably +1 overall). I always check what leathers a light armour tank has, for that reason. It's been nice for making dual-wield ranger more viable :).

Mia: Dexterity Training is irrelevant to whether dexterity builds that are not Fencers are having a bad time. And this is about Dex PCs Who Are Not Fencers.

So what would I suggest?
Magic Vestment is undispellable, which is part of what makes it so good. Same for Silken Mail. I think there could be an argument for having Mage Armour put an undispellable +2 AC on Light armour/clothing. Then it's less swingy, as a dispel will hurt you but not totally wreck you. Essentially combine the old and new way it works. Then Light Armours behave more like Medium Armor buffed with MV, but clothing remains swingy. 

Expected AC On Armours

• Padded Armor: 10 AC (1+8+1) OK look, who's minmaxed to a buffed +8 DEX and isn't wearing high-powered fashion clothing instead?
• Leather Armor: 9AC (2+6+1)
• Hide Armor: 9 AC (3+5+1)
• Chainshirt: 9AC (4+4+1)
• Chainmail: 9AC (5+3+1)

So as we can see, all Light and Medium armours cap out at 9AC if you pick up a fairly common +1 AC drop. Or you can trade 1AC for 5% DI. And except for Padded, they all gain +1 AC from the right spell (MV or MA)

Chainmail, My Beloved
Get yourself 2 Dancer items and you easily buy off the Tumble penalty from Chainmail. Which is another reason I think we've seen a fair few Huscarl AC Tanks. Fullplate AC, only lose 3 AC to Flat-Footed, and you only need 12 DEX to hit the DEX bonus cap.

[Vlaid]

Sure, if everyone gets max dex ac when wearing lighter armor. But I'm guessing that would seem unfair and nonsensical.