Is it Crazy to Make a Heavily Armored Trapspringer?

[Maat Mons]

I was looking at the Nature Fang archetype for Druid, which gives access to Slayer talents. There’s a Slayer talent that gives Trapfinding. Trapfinding isn’t strictly necessary in pathfinder for anything other than disarming magic traps, but it gives a bonus of half your level to Disable Device and Perception checks related to traps, so it’s still a nice-to-have. The Wisdom of the Flesh trait lets you use Wisdom instead of the normal stat for one skill normally based on Strength or Dexterity. Wisdom of the Flesh requires worshiping Irori, but he’s an okay dude. Dwarves tend to be big fans of Irori. That in no way necessitates being a dwarf, but they seem like a fine choice.

Everything seemed to be falling into place nicely until I started thinking about armor. Druid’s dumb thing with metal means the heaviest armor I could wear while sticking to 0 ACP is darkleaf cloth hide armor. It’s pretty meh. On the other hand, stoneplate peaked my interest. But even with masterwork and Armor Expert, I’d be looking at a -4 on Disable Device checks from the armor check penalty. That partially undermines the effort that went into getting Wisdom and half my level added to the checks. It wouldn’t matter at high levels, because skill bonuses scale faster than trap DCs. But it would be annoying at low-mid levels.

Thoughts?

[Berenger]

Armor Check Penalty

Any armor heavier than leather, as well as any shield, hurts a character’s ability to use Dex– and Str-based skills. An armor check penalty applies to all Dex– and Strength-based skill checks.

Arguably, you don't use Disable Device (Dex) but Disable Device (Wis), so the penalty does not apply...

[King of Nowhere]

I was looking at the Nature Fang archetype for Druid, which gives access to Slayer talents. There’s a Slayer talent that gives Trapfinding. Trapfinding isn’t strictly necessary in pathfinder for anything other than disarming magic traps, but it gives a bonus of half your level to Disable Device and Perception checks related to traps, so it’s still a nice-to-have. The Wisdom of the Flesh trait lets you use Wisdom instead of the normal stat for one skill normally based on Strength or Dexterity. Wisdom of the Flesh requires worshiping Irori, but he’s an okay dude. Dwarves tend to be big fans of Irori. That in no way necessitates being a dwarf, but they seem like a fine choice.

Everything seemed to be falling into place nicely until I started thinking about armor. Druid’s dumb thing with metal means the heaviest armor I could wear while sticking to 0 ACP is darkleaf cloth hide armor. It’s pretty meh. On the other hand, stoneplate peaked my interest. But even with masterwork and Armor Expert, I’d be looking at a -4 on Disable Device checks from the armor check penalty. That partially undermines the effort that went into getting Wisdom and half my level added to the checks. It wouldn’t matter at high levels, because skill bonuses scale faster than trap DCs. But it would be annoying at low-mid levels.

Thoughts?

i don't understand what you are trying to achieve here. are you just trying to max disable device on a druid?
well, if your concern is armor check penalty on disable device, given that you generally do not disable traps during combat, how about just taking off your armor before disabling traps? if you can port in 3.5 content, there are some cheap armor incantations that will let you do it faster on the magic item compendium



Arguably, you don't use Disable Device (Dex) but Disable Device (Wis), so the penalty does not apply...

very unlikely that you could get the dm to go with this interpretation. disable device is a (dex) skill. the fact that you have an obscure feature allowing you to use wis instead of dex does not change that. even the rai argument is solidly in favor of armor penalty still applying, as armor still hinders your movements.

[ciopo]

very unlikely that you could get the dm to go with this interpretation. disable device is a (dex) skill. the fact that you have an obscure feature allowing you to use wis instead of dex does not change that. even the rai argument is solidly in favor of armor penalty still applying, as armor still hinders your movements.

withing the scope of X-to-Y, the substitution is a full substitution however, by which I mean afaik it's RAW that, for example Tears to wine apply to intimidate if the user has the bruising intellect trait.

So, the reading that ACP doens't apply to Disable device if you don't use DEX for disable device, seems reasonable to me

[Twurps]

withing the scope of X-to-Y, the substitution is a full substitution however, by which I mean afaik it's RAW that, for example Tears to wine apply to intimidate if the user has the bruising intellect trait.

So, the reading that ACP doens't apply to Disable device if you don't use DEX for disable device, seems reasonable to me

seconding this. I would allow it. If you're not using your dex, then your armor is not hindering you. Seems very reasonable to me.

[Ilorin Lorati]

In PF1, X to Y is parsed at the time of the roll, so if you're not rolling a skill with Dex you're not using a Dex skill.

Relevant ruling. (https://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fm#v5748eaic9tga)