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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Drowbane" data-source="post: 5937771" data-attributes="member: 23396">Armor does not make you harder to hit, if anything it slows you down and makes you easier to hit. What it does do is absorb some of the impact of a blow and/or turn a direct hit into a glancing blow.With the focus on flat math I believe that armor should provide some minor Defense boost and some amount of DR based on how heavy your armor is. Or perhaps by armor type vs weapon type (Chainmail is nigh useless vs bludgeoning and piercing, but makes slashing weapons less useful, etc).Shields could be a straight up % to deflect a blow, and maybe keep its piddly AC boost it has traditionally had. Makes you harder to hit, and can even turn a "hit" into a miss on %. example: Buckler 5% + 1% per level (cap 25% at level 20), Medium Shield 10%, Tower Shield 30%... whatever, those numbers are merely illustrative at this point. The point is that when it comes to shields... size matters. This % to miss worked fine for spells such as Blur and Displacement for years, and would bring shields up to the usefulness they should be. To build on this, perhaps if/when you successfully block outright your shield takes the dmg (1/2 what you would have? 1/4? full? other?).edit: in AD&D armor class did not improve nearly as much as in later editions, and back then you could wear Full Plate and you still got your full Dex mod to AC.</blockquote>