Actually I went back to an old save and looked at Valarie. Fighters do get more AC than monks by a fair margin.
I have level 4 Valarie at 29 AC with nothing extremely special gear-wise. +1 full plate, +1 tower shield, +1 from amulet, ring and bracer. AC is 29/27/13.
My level 5 monk is 22/17/21 with 20 wis and 20 dex, +1 ring and bracers (hat and belt are wis and dex items, amulet is +unarmed damage so I could get 1 more AC there if I used the same gear as Valarie).
Seems like more of a tradeoff. Valarie's damage is crap while the monk is a DPSer but Valarie has 7 more AC which is quite a lot and I could spring for the adamantine armor still.
I have level 4 Valarie at 29 AC with nothing extremely special gear-wise. +1 full plate, +1 tower shield, +1 from amulet, ring and bracer. AC is 29/27/13.
My level 5 monk is 22/17/21 with 20 wis and 20 dex, +1 ring and bracers (hat and belt are wis and dex items, amulet is +unarmed damage so I could get 1 more AC there if I used the same gear as Valarie).
Seems like more of a tradeoff. Valarie's damage is crap while the monk is a DPSer but Valarie has 7 more AC which is quite a lot and I could spring for the adamantine armor still.