How can I fix Essentials Druid sentinel's Armor Class?

Question

The sentinel is a wis/con leader designed to fight in melee combat. While it comes with an animal companion, the sentinel is limited to light armor and has dex as a tertiary stat at best.

Are there any official rulings giving a sentinel access to better armor or giving them constitution modifier to AC? If not, is a house rule giving them con to armor too disruptive?

Answer 1

Play the druid as is, it looks fine.

To improve AC:

• Take the bear companion (has an aura, any ally in the aura gets +2 power bonus to all defenses
• Level 1 Primal Guardian class feature: Use Con for AC
• Use a light shield (Noted by Peter Seckler)

Answer 2

Don't forget Sentinels get shields (unlike the standard druid..)

This is something I'd also leave to feats to handle:

Hide Armor Expertise: While wearing hide armor, you can gain a +2 bonus to AC instead of using your Dexterity or Intelligence modifier to determine your AC.

You could bump the shield up from light to heavy with another feat.

Answer 3

Sentinels use their Con instead of Dex to determine their AC. That is easy to miss if you are just using the DDI information. They are doing just fine for AC.