Armour rules from Unearthed Arcana

[John Q. Mayhem]

True20 has armor as DR (basically) but they also have a great way of dealing with the "immune to daggers" thing. I don't remember if it is a feat or just an option anyone can use, but you can make a "precise attack" that ignores DR but takes the DR bonus as a penalty to your attack.

 

[Waylander]

To fix the dagger with armor as DR...

Why not change the DR from X/- to X/critical?

A critical hit automatically overcomes the damage reduction?

Sounds reasonable to me

True20 has armor as DR (basically) but they also have a great way of dealing with the "immune to daggers" thing. I don't remember if it is a feat or just an option anyone can use, but you can make a "precise attack" that ignores DR but takes the DR bonus as a penalty to your attack.

I'm not familiar with True20? I'll ask a friend who has a copy to see if I can take a look

 

[Derro]

True20 has armor as DR (basically) but they also have a great way of dealing with the "immune to daggers" thing. I don't remember if it is a feat or just an option anyone can use, but you can make a "precise attack" that ignores DR but takes the DR bonus as a penalty to your attack.

That is essentially the way it works in d20 Conan as well. Some weapons are considered finesse-able and can ignore DR with a high enough attack roll. There is also a armor penetration stat that varies from weapon to weapon and is modified by Strength and possibly feats.

The only problem I had with d20 Conan was that DRs could get, IMO, uncomfortably high rather quickly. A simple leather jack started at DR 3 and with the addition of a simple steel cap became DR 4. It doesn't sound like that big a deal at first but once more serious armors were used armor piercing was no longer really a factor and combats tended to sway way more in the direction of the well armored combatants. Well and good but seeing that armor use in d20 isn't really representative of what armored combat was really like things get a bit muddled.

 

[Aus_Snow]

I think Conan RPG has a variable amount of DR for armour that is somewhat offset by the fact that weapons tend to do more damage than their equivalent in D&D (e.g. a longsword is d10 rather than d8).

Actually, no. Armour is set DR, but the system also has ways to get through or past it. Well worth looking into, in more depth. IMO, anyhow.

Another d20-based game that approaches it very similarly in many ways, is A Game of Thrones OGL, by (the now extinct) Guardians of Order. Also worth looking into, should you get the opportunity.

You might have been thinking of Iron Heroes, from Malhavoc Press, with regards to armour and variable DR. An interesting, rather complex system. Some bits of it might be good to rip out and use. The rest. . . well, I'm not a fan - after having tried it - suffice it to say.