Harrim is sort of offensive cleric though, so that is like comaring oranges vs potatoes.
I only played BG/IWD/ToEE when it comes do D&D and i realize that my knowledge maybe lacking.
So, can you share please?
I'd really like to see a lvl2 character with 6-7 more AC than a fighter in full plate armor with a fucking tower shield.
You won't be using a full plate with Valerie at level 2 though. Even if you bought it for her (and there are better ways to spend your early money - like getting a good custom character) with her 14STR she would crumble under the combined weight of a full plate + tower shield.
On a tower shield specialist with reasonable starting stats and feats compared to Valerie:
- switch Toughness and Bastard Sword proficiency for Dodge and Heavy Armor focus = +2AC. On a tank you want to stack AC not a few more HP and she is not meant to be a primary damage dealer so that bastard sword is pointless, use a longsword instead.
- add more DEX, she only starts with ridiculous 13DEX and only +1 modifier becasue of that. The best she can do at the start is banded armor with +1AC from DEX = 8AC total iirc? With 16DEX she could do breastplate for 9AC (which is also lighter and with her 14STR that's a good thing) another 1AC difference, for a total of 3 more AC compared to Valerie.
In addition with levels she could use even more DEX for AC but because her STR is so low you might want to raise that first which means that with levels the difference between Valerie's AC and a min-maxed Tower Shield specialist's AC will be even bigger later on.
Still not 6 or 7 points difference but even 3AC early is a big difference.
I'm a 3.5/Pathfinder amateur at best - so if I wrote something stupid, please anyone correct me.