My Roderick was wearing some level 5 bracers because they gave +1 One Handed (and +1 Lockpicking, which I never used).
Were there bracers with better base armor? Yes.
Did I care enough to sacrifice 10% of my damage? No.
If you want to min/max your skill points then you're probably going to have to make some sacrifices elsewhere. Either that or do what I did with my Scarlet - if you get a really awesome piece of gear which gives bonuses you don't need, consider speccing into those bonuses. I turned my pure mage into a mage/rogue hybrid, and it worked out fine.
Being able to only be proficient in three skills has nothing to do with sacrifice that is just plain and simple bullshit.
And pay some damn attention, I'm not talking about 10% difference I'm talking about god damn 80% at the absolute minimum and sacrificing massive attribute bonuses and AP bonuses and speed bonuses and on and on and on. Being able to be proficient in 7 to 10 skills is sacrificing something else, being able to only be proficient in three is the lousiest god damn bullshit I've ever seen in a leveling system.
