<div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=254080.msg12616307#msg12616307">Quote from: rikka on 31-08-2016, 08:53:34</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">One thing I never liked about D&amp;D is that better armor translates to higher AC.  But we've seen or read of heroes fighting and coming out almost unscathed while wearing no armor or rarely, naked, in fierce battles.<br/><br/>I remembered a Arthurian film (can't remember the name) where in a young Guinevere warded off an attacker with just a shield she picked up.  To me I assumed her to be an NPC class and just 1st-level but somehow managed to withstand a couple of deadly blows before being rescued.<br/><br/>Back to my argument above, it could be translated that such heroes were higher level characters, probably at least mid-range.  But for low level characters, especially for 1st levels it takes one or two lucky hits to bring them down, and its game over.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>remember that hps are mostly an abstract construct... hps could mean that you were wounded, scrapped, urn lightly or nothing... after all characters doesn't lose any proficiency in combat until well... they go below 0 hps, while in real life a warrior would become fatigued or weakened from bloodlose.<br/><br/>A tried  many years ago changing the armor sistem in 3E in one of my home campaigns, there armor's protection was damage reduction or damage absortion... the problem is that making the same for the enemies makes for a long game of padded sumo, it was interesting but very simple combats lasted a lot. dramatically you could describe the combat and the damage would only be trully noticeable in the last killing stroke.<br/><br/>in other case remember that many clases have skills or feats to support thatlack of armor and still being resilient, in the case of the barbarian (Conan) the rage gives hiom both more strenght and cosntitution, adding to his health, he ignore penalties in his combat progress or attacks to the mind, etc.<br/><br/>But in general these are mostly simulations, easy ways to portray the combat while still making it fun, there are other sistems more complex or that are intended for armorless combat or ignoring armor, or having different ways to resist damage.