In what order is AC protecting you?

[Kylas]

When someone is attacked what is the order are their AC benefits penetrated. I don't think there are any rules on this exactly but I always imagined it to be something like this:

Cover -> dodge/dex -> Ex abilities (monk AC) -> deflection -> shield -> magical bonuses (morale, luck etc.) -> armor -> natural armor.

Not that I'd memorize every players individual AC's but i think it be interesting to describe exactly how close an attack came to causing damage.

[udalrich]

This is purely for a fluff description, right? AC generally protects you completely or not at all, and any special situation, such as an attack that might shred armor if it hits the armor, should have specials rules to cover that.

When I'm describing an attack, I'll generally use these levels:

Misses touch AC: the attack completely missed
Hits touch AC, misses touch + armor + shield: the attack hits, but doesn't penetrate the armor
Hits touch + armor + shield, misses because of natural armor: the attack hits, but is unable to get through the skin (or whatever creates the armor).

If I know that there's a new spell/item/feat that pushed it into one of the categories, I might include the effect of the spell in the description. For example, Bob has a touch AC of 12, full AC of 19 and just got the dodge feat. The attack roll is an 11, which misses the touch AC because of the dodge bonus. "Bob nimbly dances out of the way of the blow in a way you haven't seen him do before."

[Gregor]

If this is just for descriptive purposes, then I would probably keep it easy and say:

cover - magical bonuses - dodging - shield - armor

That way, you can give a simple description like: "the bolt flies toward you with such speed and force that it blasts through the wooden table you are using as cover. You see that will likely penetrate your magical aura, so you try to dodge to the side while lifting your shield arm to try and deflect the missle. However, you find that you are far too slow to avoid the bolt and it is the edge of your breastplate that finally turns it away."

[Voadam]

I go out to in. So Cover would happen first, then dodging types as it gets you out of the way completely, then shield blocking then armor absorbing what gets past the shield, then natural armor blocking what gets past the armor.

Where you stick in deflection is partly on how you want to conceive of it, I generally put it between dodging and shields as a first line force field blocker. Putting it last after things have penetrated armor and natural armor seems off though after shields would be fine instead of before them.

[milo]

I think I would go with cover, dodge, shield, deflection, armor, nat armor.
With the other bonuses though like luck, divine/profane, morale, and insight it gets a little bit tricky. I guess my full layer would be
cover, insight, dodge/dex, morale, luck, shield, deflection, divine/profane, armor, nat armor
I think cover first is pretty much a general consensus and it makes sense, if the arrow hits the wall you are hiding behind it won't hit you
Insight, you know the attack is coming and you are already somewhere else before it ever gets close
Dodge, you just get out of the way of the attack in the nick of time
Morale, not sure about this one, but it seemed like it had to go somewhere
Luck, could easily go anywhere, but it seems like luck should come in after dex to me and before it makes contact with any of your equipment.
Divine/Profane, the holy power that is protecting you isn't going to help you until it is almost too late, otherwise it wouldn't be dramatic enough