Quilted armour grants 4 AC with 2 base and 2 dex however it has the comfort trait, meaning you can rest in this armour.
This might not come up often but when it does you will be very grateful for the extra AC.
For a metal kineticist build this is also perfect as you can ALWAYS have some armour and then use metal carapace. Eating a crit only reduces your AC by one, which isn’t as dire as it could be.
My favourite solution to tables with that sort of slightly meta vibe is to introduce a plot reason for it.
Telepathic connection between the players for reasons. My favourite being myconid spores which sorts comes up in BG3.
Their loan sharks beg to differ, rouge families accounts are always in the red.
I wonder if the Ukrainian people would rather pay off loans or have their children stolen by Putin.
It’s a mystery for the ages.
Or worse, someone will tell the Canadians that the Houthi have the puck.
Not exactly a hot take given Putin tried poisoning Navalny once.
There’s an old adage that one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist.
Allowing a label to dictate your view of the events is naive at best.
Amateurs think Bards are the horny ones but really it’s the Paladins.
Charisma based with disease immunity, strength and the constitution to back it up.