That should be the best and most effective way. But I will choose medium armor instead because I like to wear a metal helmet against crits and I also have a sentimental relation to shields.
I think that Karmic Dice should be enabled by default because it makes the game faster and more manageable for the player (who can deal better with the higher damage and use the many gadgets of the game to his/her advantage), it also makes the out-of-combat rolls more meaningful (perhaps rolling a 2, 3, 2, 4 in a row and failing to open a lock as alleged master thief does not make the biggest sense for non-DnD people).
