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Message: <blockquote data-quote="howandwhy99" data-source="post: 6275163" data-attributes="member: 3192">What a strange mini-forum. Armor Class used to mean class of armor. Skin, leather, chain, metal plates. And equivalents. It's basically Hardness, but not as a damage buffer like in 3.x.Later games emulating D&D would use armor as a damage buffer and that works. New versions of D&D use it as an aggregate of many different things. For example, early on Dexterity Reaction Modifiers used to modify AC. They didn't put the character in another kind of armor. They modified the target number needed to be hit. It was a variance on the default dodging and parrying already being done by the character. A player could apply less dexterity, even stop defending completely, and their AC would remain the same.  But the target number needed to hit them would change.Shields are separate. They are similar enough, but unique too as they are positional. All the other types of effects that can alter "To Hit" rolls and combat target numbers, like AC, are unique too and dealt with individually. Armor used to take damage over time. It was fitted to the individual or the individual took a penalty to AC. Getting bludgeoned by a giant like in the OP didn't rattle a person for damage because the armor was fitted. Most tightly fitting was one's skin, but maybe something magical might be similar, like ironskin?Early versions of D&D use Weapon Damage by Armor Class even beyond piercing/slashing/bludgeoning. Perhaps those might be used for massive attacks?The most important thing here is: "To Hit" rolls represent one structure moving into another in such a way as to cause him, her, or it to lose Hit Points. Basically HPs are structural design points that can only take a limited amount of distortion before collapsing. For creatures Hit Points represent life sustaining operations. For an object, like a corpse, they represent the structural integrity keeping the corpse from collapsing into pieces. They are both still structure, but what the HPs represent each time matters. Is a body harmed as well as the systems sustaining life? Yes, so maybe character HP are part of their body HP? But armor skins them and protects those interiors.But again, maybe alternate damage by weapon type on armor type might help with the "rattling full plate warrior" smashed by a giant across a room?</blockquote>

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