Armor Class and Dexterity Penalties

[Masema]

I have just a quick question.

Since you add your Dex bonus to your armor class, What happens when the "Bonus" happens to be a penalty, say when your wizard dumped it at 7? Would it apply as a penalty to your AC? Or do you not apply it? If you do, would the penalty be removed from your Flat-Footed AC, thereby making you harder to hit standing still?

[Necroticplague]

I have just a quick question.

Since you add your Dex bonus to your armor class, What happens when the "Bonus" happens to be a penalty, say when your wizard dumped it at 7? Would it apply as a penalty to your AC? Or do you not apply it? If you do, would the penalty be removed from your Flat-Footed AC, thereby making you harder to hit standing still?

your AC goes down,yes, no, no.
Relevant srd quotes:

Your Armor Class (AC) represents how hard it is for opponents to land a solid, damaging blow on you. It’s the attack roll result that an opponent needs to achieve to hit you. Your AC is equal to the following:

10 + armor bonus + shield bonus + Dexterity modifier + size modifier
If the Dexterity Modifier is a negative number, it reduces it. Shield and armor only apply if they're positive, but DEX and size also apply if they're penalties (i.e, big creatures have negative size modifiers to AC).



Note that armor limits your Dexterity bonus, so if you’re wearing armor, you might not be able to apply your whole Dexterity bonus to your AC.

Sometimes you can’t use your Dexterity bonus (if you have one). If you can’t react to a blow, you can’t use your Dexterity bonus to AC. (If you don’t have a Dexterity bonus, nothing happens.)

So, if your AC is <9, than you don't have a DEX bonus. You have a DEX penalty. The rules only say that some scenarios prevent you from adding your dex bonus, and don't say any situations stop you from adding your dex penalty. And as per the last part in parenthesis, nothing happens when you can't use your DEX bonus, because you don't have one.