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so I'm not really a huge fan of 5e, but i got into a discussion the other night with someone on discord about realistic armor, they sent a video about a guy refuting another guy i watch on youtube's argument that armor should not be based on AC but instead damage resistance. i kinda think "why not both?" so here you go
also here's a google doc's version with commenting enabled Realistic armor D&D 5e
Armor and armor class
Touch ac and full armor class
This system re-introduces the concept of touch ac as a form of armor class that exists outside a characters bonus from armor, when an attack is made, it is made against touch ac plus full armor class, if the attack fails to pass touch ac, then it deals no damage, if it exceeds touch ac but not full armor class, then armor protection applies, if an attack exceeds full armor class (which is always does on a roll where the die lands on 20) then the weapon deals damage without armor protection.
Full armor class is in addition to touch ac, to calculate full armor class, add it on top of touch ac.
Some armors have the glancing quality, this quality gives them some touch ac making it a bit of a holdover from how D&D normally handles ac from armor but to a lesser degree. Glancing represents a plate armor’s ability to deflect a blow that would still hit a character not wearing that armor.
Bonuses to armor class
The full armor class bonus from armor is high, because it represents how much of a wearer’s body this armor covers, which is often 85% or more, very hard to hit around without great skill. This naturally high bonus to full armor class means that some outside bonuses to armor class could be too much, thus as a dm you must decide whether some bonuses to ac stack with full armor class or only apply to touch ac. As a rule all bonuses to armor class that normally apply to an armored character in 5e should still apply to an armored character’s touch ac.
Armor protection
Armor protection is a form of reduction in damage that armor grants the wearer which protects the wearer from all forms of hitpoint damage unless an attack roll is made to exceed the wearer’s full armor class. Armor protection reduces damage from all sources based by a set value given on the table, when armor protection applies, reduce total damage by that amount before applying damage reduction or resistance.
Gambeson: thick layers of fine linen quilted into a tough pattern thick enough to catch arrows and blades, gambeson is soft and offers only a minor cushion against blunt force trauma. Gambeson was often used as armor worn beneath metal armors.
Banded plate: also known as roman lorica segmentata this armor is a series of thick but simple lames of metal riveted and jointed together to form large thick plates with decent flexibility.
Lamellar: hundreds of thick plates ranging from the 2 to 4 inches in diameter are laced intricately together with brightly colored cordage producing flexible and sturdy armor.
Magic armor: magic armor grants a bonus to touch ac and increases armor protection by its enhancement bonus.
Adamantine and mithral: these 2 magical armors can only be made with high steel metal properties, thus should not be introduced into your game until the level you believe players should be able to afford that quality of armor.
Shields: the ac bonus from shields applies to touch ac
Natural armor bonus
The natural ac of creatures also changes in realistic armor for D&D 5e and behaves much like normal armor. All natural armor counts as light armor for determining touch ac. The full armor class of a creature with natural armor requires some thought on a dm’s part about what a creatures natural armor represents, is it thick skin or hide? Is it scales? Or is it thick boney plates?
Hide completely covers a creature even more than leather armor can, granting it a +20 full armor class, scales are slightly less covering as weapons can slip under the surface granting a +19 (to represent glancing, reduce scale’s full armor protection by 1 per size category above medium while give it 1 touch ac per each reduction) full armor class, lastly thick plates have joints where exposed flesh is often only inches from the surface or completely exposed granting only a +14 full armor class +4 touch ac.
Natural armor protection
The natural armor protection can be found by taking a monsters original ac from the monster manual and subtracting 10 and the monster’s bonus from dex. Alternatively take the creature’s cr subtract 10 and the monster’s bonus from dex. The highest result should be used for the creature’s natural armor protection.
creatures with armor protection from scales have +2, creatures with armor protection from plates have +4, if scales or plates are made of metal they gain the bonus from metal like manufactured armors.
size: creatures size categories contribute to their armor protection as their hides, scales, and plates are thicker. large creatures have +1 to armor protection, huge creatures have +2 to armor protection, and gargantuan creatures have +4 to armor protection. Creatures larger than gargantuan have +8 to armor protection
Weapons
Weapon properties
Niche picker: when used in melee these weapons have a +2 bonus to attack rolls vs metal armors and plate natural armor. The weapons with this property include daggers, short swords, and rapiers
Half-swording: weapons with this property can be wielded 2 handed in the half-sword position as a bonus action, while in the half sword position the damage they deal is 1d6 piercing and grants +2 to attack rolls vs metal armors and plate natural armor. Another bonus action is required to stop half-swording Weapons with this property include javelins, spears, greatswords, halberds, and longswords
Special weapons
Dagger: a dagger’s niche picker bonus to attack is doubled when used while grappling the target of your attack.
Javelin: a javalin’s half-swording bonus to attack is doubled when used while grappling the target of your attack
Longsword: a longsword’s half-swording bonus to attack is doubled when used while grappling the target of your attack
Armor piercing arrows/bolts: designed specifically to pierce armor these arrows gain a +2 bonus to hit vs leather, gambeson, hide, scale, chainmail, lamallar, and chain shirt. weapons using armor piercing arrows use a damage die that deals 2 less damage, for example a longbow would deal 1d6 damage with armor piercing arrows. Armor piercing ammo costs as much as regular arrows/bolts and have the same weight.
Combat
Opportunity attack
when an opportunity attack may be made is changed from "when a hostile creature that you can see moves out of your reach" to "when a hostile creature that you threaten moves from a square that you threaten" in all other ways opportunity attacks are unchanged.
Conditions
Overwhelmed
when a character or creature is threatened in melee by 2 or more opponents, it is considered overwhelmed. an overwhelmed creature takes a -1 penalty to its touch ac for every 2 opponents that threaten them. for example if 3 characters threaten a creature with melee attacks then that creature takes a -1 penalty to their touch ac, if another character joins in threatening the creature then their touch ac is reduced by another point. the overwhelmed condition represents a characters inability to account for so many potential threats at one time.
being in the middle of a swarm enemy (even if such enemies do not yet exist in 5e) would count as being threatened by 2 enemies for the purposes of a character's distraction by multiple threats.
it is suggested that the overwhelmed condition not be used alongside the optional rule of flanking
also here's a google doc's version with commenting enabled Realistic armor D&D 5e
Armor and armor class
Touch ac and full armor class
This system re-introduces the concept of touch ac as a form of armor class that exists outside a characters bonus from armor, when an attack is made, it is made against touch ac plus full armor class, if the attack fails to pass touch ac, then it deals no damage, if it exceeds touch ac but not full armor class, then armor protection applies, if an attack exceeds full armor class (which is always does on a roll where the die lands on 20) then the weapon deals damage without armor protection.
Full armor class is in addition to touch ac, to calculate full armor class, add it on top of touch ac.
Some armors have the glancing quality, this quality gives them some touch ac making it a bit of a holdover from how D&D normally handles ac from armor but to a lesser degree. Glancing represents a plate armor’s ability to deflect a blow that would still hit a character not wearing that armor.
Bonuses to armor class
The full armor class bonus from armor is high, because it represents how much of a wearer’s body this armor covers, which is often 85% or more, very hard to hit around without great skill. This naturally high bonus to full armor class means that some outside bonuses to armor class could be too much, thus as a dm you must decide whether some bonuses to ac stack with full armor class or only apply to touch ac. As a rule all bonuses to armor class that normally apply to an armored character in 5e should still apply to an armored character’s touch ac.
Armor protection
Armor protection is a form of reduction in damage that armor grants the wearer which protects the wearer from all forms of hitpoint damage unless an attack roll is made to exceed the wearer’s full armor class. Armor protection reduces damage from all sources based by a set value given on the table, when armor protection applies, reduce total damage by that amount before applying damage reduction or resistance.
| Historical armors | ||||||
| Armor | Cost | Full armor class | Armor protection | Strength | Stealth | Weight |
| Light armor. | ||||||
| Touch ac: 10+dex | ||||||
| Leather | 50gp | +19 | 3 (-1 against bludgeoning) | 10lb | ||
| Gambeson | 100gp | +19 | 5 (-3 against bludgeoning) | 10lb | ||
| Medium armor | ||||||
| Touch ac: 10+dex (max 2) | ||||||
| Hide | 150gp | +19 | 6 (-2 against bludgeoning) | 20lb | ||
| Scale | 300gp | +18 (-2 vs piercing) | 6 + metal (-2 vs bludgeoning, halve metal bonus vs bludgeoning) | Disadvantage | 30lb | |
| Chainmail | 500gp | +19 (-2 vs piercing) | 8 + metal (-2 vs bludgeoning, half metal bonus vs piercing, no metal bonus vs bludgeoning) | Disadvantage | 30lb | |
| Heavy armor | ||||||
| Touch ac: 10 | ||||||
| Banded plate | 750gp | +15 +2 touch ac | 10 + metal | Str 13 | Disadvantage | 35lb |
| Lamellar | 1000gp | +16 +2 touch ac (-2 vs piercing) | 10 + metal (3/4 metal bonus vs bludgeoning (round down)) | Str 15 | Disadvantage | 45lb |
| Field plate | 1500gp | +14 +4 touch ac | 12 + metal | Str 15 | Disadvantage | 45lb |
| Metals | ||||||
| Bronze | -200gp | 2 | Str 11 or +1 | +5lb | ||
| Mild steel | +0gp | 4 | ||||
| Medium steel | +500gp | 8 | ||||
| High steel | +1500gp | 16 |
Banded plate: also known as roman lorica segmentata this armor is a series of thick but simple lames of metal riveted and jointed together to form large thick plates with decent flexibility.
Lamellar: hundreds of thick plates ranging from the 2 to 4 inches in diameter are laced intricately together with brightly colored cordage producing flexible and sturdy armor.
| Fantasy armors | ||||||
| Armor | Cost | Full armor class | Armor protection | Strength | Stealth | Weight |
| Light | ||||||
| Touch ac: 10+dex | ||||||
| Studded leather | 60gp | +19 | 4 (-2 vs bludgeoning, -1 vs piercing) | 15lb | ||
| Medium armor | ||||||
| Touch ac: 10+dex (max 2) | ||||||
| Chain shirt | 100gp | +10 (-2 vs piercing) | 8 + metal (-2 vs bludgeoning, half metal bonus vs piercing, no metal bonus vs bludgeoning) | Disadvantage | 20lb | |
| Breastplate | 400gp | +10 +2 touch ac | 12 + metal | 20lb | ||
| Half Plate | 750gp | +13 +2 touch ac | 12 + metal | Disadvantage | 35lb | |
| Heavy armor | ||||||
| Touch ac: 10 | ||||||
| Ring armor | 200gp | +19 | 8 + metal (as hide armor vs bludgeoning and piercing damage) | Disadvantage | 35lb | |
| Splint | 250gp | +18 (-4 vs piercing) | 10 + metal | Str 15 | Disadvantage | 45lb |
Adamantine and mithral: these 2 magical armors can only be made with high steel metal properties, thus should not be introduced into your game until the level you believe players should be able to afford that quality of armor.
Shields: the ac bonus from shields applies to touch ac
Natural armor bonus
The natural ac of creatures also changes in realistic armor for D&D 5e and behaves much like normal armor. All natural armor counts as light armor for determining touch ac. The full armor class of a creature with natural armor requires some thought on a dm’s part about what a creatures natural armor represents, is it thick skin or hide? Is it scales? Or is it thick boney plates?
Hide completely covers a creature even more than leather armor can, granting it a +20 full armor class, scales are slightly less covering as weapons can slip under the surface granting a +19 (to represent glancing, reduce scale’s full armor protection by 1 per size category above medium while give it 1 touch ac per each reduction) full armor class, lastly thick plates have joints where exposed flesh is often only inches from the surface or completely exposed granting only a +14 full armor class +4 touch ac.
Natural armor protection
The natural armor protection can be found by taking a monsters original ac from the monster manual and subtracting 10 and the monster’s bonus from dex. Alternatively take the creature’s cr subtract 10 and the monster’s bonus from dex. The highest result should be used for the creature’s natural armor protection.
creatures with armor protection from scales have +2, creatures with armor protection from plates have +4, if scales or plates are made of metal they gain the bonus from metal like manufactured armors.
size: creatures size categories contribute to their armor protection as their hides, scales, and plates are thicker. large creatures have +1 to armor protection, huge creatures have +2 to armor protection, and gargantuan creatures have +4 to armor protection. Creatures larger than gargantuan have +8 to armor protection
Weapons
Weapon properties
Niche picker: when used in melee these weapons have a +2 bonus to attack rolls vs metal armors and plate natural armor. The weapons with this property include daggers, short swords, and rapiers
Half-swording: weapons with this property can be wielded 2 handed in the half-sword position as a bonus action, while in the half sword position the damage they deal is 1d6 piercing and grants +2 to attack rolls vs metal armors and plate natural armor. Another bonus action is required to stop half-swording Weapons with this property include javelins, spears, greatswords, halberds, and longswords
Special weapons
Dagger: a dagger’s niche picker bonus to attack is doubled when used while grappling the target of your attack.
Javelin: a javalin’s half-swording bonus to attack is doubled when used while grappling the target of your attack
Longsword: a longsword’s half-swording bonus to attack is doubled when used while grappling the target of your attack
Armor piercing arrows/bolts: designed specifically to pierce armor these arrows gain a +2 bonus to hit vs leather, gambeson, hide, scale, chainmail, lamallar, and chain shirt. weapons using armor piercing arrows use a damage die that deals 2 less damage, for example a longbow would deal 1d6 damage with armor piercing arrows. Armor piercing ammo costs as much as regular arrows/bolts and have the same weight.
Combat
Opportunity attack
when an opportunity attack may be made is changed from "when a hostile creature that you can see moves out of your reach" to "when a hostile creature that you threaten moves from a square that you threaten" in all other ways opportunity attacks are unchanged.
Conditions
Overwhelmed
when a character or creature is threatened in melee by 2 or more opponents, it is considered overwhelmed. an overwhelmed creature takes a -1 penalty to its touch ac for every 2 opponents that threaten them. for example if 3 characters threaten a creature with melee attacks then that creature takes a -1 penalty to their touch ac, if another character joins in threatening the creature then their touch ac is reduced by another point. the overwhelmed condition represents a characters inability to account for so many potential threats at one time.
being in the middle of a swarm enemy (even if such enemies do not yet exist in 5e) would count as being threatened by 2 enemies for the purposes of a character's distraction by multiple threats.
it is suggested that the overwhelmed condition not be used alongside the optional rule of flanking
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