STR. Huh. What is it good for? (Please read OP for context)

[Unoriginal]

The opening post answers this a bit, and the other threads it links to elaborate a bit more.

Thank you. Don't see why it's "they don't wear armor" rather than "they're hiding they're wearing armor", though.

The opening post answers this a bit

Well I disagree with the opening post. Outside of Unarmored Defense (which require MADness as we all know), any of those methods give you below decent AC unless you're investing more than a bit in several of them.

However it depends on the difficulty. AC 15 at Tier 3 is not that much worse than normal for backline characters.

Can't have only backline characters, that's the thing. Unless your PC group is expert at fleeing.