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<blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8590978" data-attributes="member: 6877472">So this just comes down to the weirdness of what a &quot;hit&quot; means.&nbsp; AC is a passive defense.&nbsp; It includes Dexterity (sometimes), which gives people the idea that it's an active defense, dodging and so forth.&nbsp; But everyone is doing that all the time.You duck, you weave, and you take actions that minimize the damage that you take.&nbsp; This is all represented with your hit point total.&nbsp; Conan does wear armor when it's available or viable, but he will shirk it if he needs to climb or stealth, or he's in a desert, what have you.&nbsp; This is something most experienced warriors would do, but D&amp;D is a strange beast in that players wear their armor all the time unless told they can't.How does Conan and his other lightly armored associates survive combat?&nbsp; HIt points.&nbsp; Hit points, as in &quot;hits to kill&quot;.&nbsp; It takes X attacks to wear down the ability to dodge, roll with punches, and avoid serious harm due to sheer luck before that one sword stab hits something vital and you go down.This is reflected in the high hit point pool of the Barbarian, but strangely, most light armored characters have fairly low hit point values.&nbsp; Rogues and Thieves are apparently unlucky and have glass jaws.&nbsp; Monks are apparently too used to fighting other martial artists and not so hot at dealing with giant monsters.TDLR: your hit points represent the means by which you survive in combat with or without armor.&nbsp; Armor just protects your vital areas more, which is why you suffer hit point damage less often.&nbsp; Some form of physical resistance would probably work better, but early game designers went with a lowered % chance you would take damage in the first place, and almost everyone since has followed suit.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="James Gasik, post: 8590978, member: 6877472"] So this just comes down to the weirdness of what a "hit" means. AC is a passive defense. It includes Dexterity (sometimes), which gives people the idea that it's an active defense, dodging and so forth. But everyone is doing that all the time. You duck, you weave, and you take actions that minimize the damage that you take. This is all represented with your hit point total. Conan [B]does[/B] wear armor when it's available or viable, but he will shirk it if he needs to climb or stealth, or he's in a desert, what have you. This is something [B]most[/B] experienced warriors would do, but D&D is a strange beast in that players wear their armor all the time unless told they can't. How does Conan and his other lightly armored associates survive combat? HIt points. Hit points, as in "hits to kill". It takes X attacks to wear down the ability to dodge, roll with punches, and avoid serious harm due to sheer luck before that one sword stab hits something vital and you go down. This is reflected in the high hit point pool of the Barbarian, but strangely, most light armored characters have fairly low hit point values. Rogues and Thieves are apparently unlucky and have glass jaws. Monks are apparently too used to fighting other martial artists and not so hot at dealing with giant monsters. TDLR: your hit points represent the means by which you survive in combat with or without armor. Armor just protects your vital areas more, which is why you suffer hit point damage less often. Some form of physical resistance would probably work better, but early game designers went with a lowered % chance you would take damage in the first place, and almost everyone since has followed suit. [/QUOTE]

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