If you, the player, had a choice for your character. You could either have your character wear Leather + 1 or Breastplate + 1, which would you wear? Leather + 1 provides AC 12 + Dex, so if your character had Dex 16 (+3 bonus), you'd have AC 15. Breastplate + 1 provides you 15 + Dex (max 2 bonus), so you'd have 17 AC. Which would you have your character wear? Neither has any penalties to stealth?
I'd have my character put on the Breastplate + 1 because it provides a higher AC. So why SHOULDN'T they give Minthara at least Breastplate + 1 armor and make her even more of an awesome enemy.
You do know that this is a post labeled "Make Minthara Great" right? Right now, I see her as almost perfect for the game. So let's go that little extra mile and keep the armor's appearance but make it something LIKE Breastplate + 1 with AC 15 + Dex (max 2 or 3) and give her a Dex stat boost like a cleric of the trickery domain should have, and boost that AC to something like 19 or 20, like she should have if she's carrying a shield or shield + 1.
So, to recap, visually, armor remains as is and she remains as is. Beautiful! Wonderful! Now, increase armor AC to 15 and give her a Dexterity of 16 with a +3 bonus. So, let's say that boosts her to AC 17 with a max of 2 for the Dex bonus for her armor. Add to that, now, her shield and make it a Shield + 1 because she's a boss drow who should probably have a better shield, not just better armor and weapon, so she's up to 20 AC. Bam. Good. Perfect. Done.
But, even if you want to just give her a regular shield, AC 19 is not a super difficult AC to hit at this stage in the game. I just think she should, at this point, have a Shield + 1, but maybe that's just me.
