Hey, if you're going to try out the route of "Armor as Temp HP"... I say go all the way with it and really rework the system-- remove HP as a "health meter" altogether.
Each PC already gets has 3 Death saves, which is effectively 3 body points-- lose that 3rd point and you're dead. So in this variant, every PC only have 3 Body points. Or if we want to be generous, 3 Body points plus/minus their CON modifier (so a PC with a +3 CON has 6 Body points.) And THAT'S IT as far as "health". There are no amorphous "hit points" for any of these characters-- so no more worrying about hits that reduce "meat" or "luck" or "energy" or any of that stuff.
Then on top of that... any armor you wear gives you Armor Points. Just pulling numbers out of my rear... say normal clothing (which would ordinairly be AC 10) gives you 10 Armor Points. Then for each type of armor which give you an AC bonus above AC 10 on the armor chart, you get an additional 3 Armor Points. So Padded and Leather armors (AC 11) would have 13 AP, Studded Leather and Hide (AC 12) 16 AP, Chain Shirt and Mage Armor (AC 13) 19 AP, all the way up to Plate Armor (AC 18) 34 AP.
Then when it comes to combat... your AC is calculated normally (adding in AC values, DEX mod, shield, cover etc. as normal)... but every time you get hit with an attack you lose Armor Points as your armor loses its integrity. Once you reach 0 Armor Points, any further attack hits your Body Point total. Lose all your Body Points and you're dead.
What this system means is that you can't "heal" your AP during combat, because your Armor Points don't come back via healing spells. Maybe you could allow the Mending cantrip to "fix" your armor in small amounts during a fight (and thus you regain some Armor Points), and maybe the Fabricate spell can completely rejuvenate your AP total... but any Healing Word or Cure Wounds spells only bring back your Body Points. But even that isn't such a great deal because you only HAVE between like 3 and 8 Body Points (or even less if you have a negative CON modifier), and thus going from being down 5 Body to down 0 Body means little if you are out of Armor Points and the next attack against you is still going to do 1d6+4 points of damage. It basically says to every PC: "Once your armor has been breached, you better get the hell out of dodge because all these next attacks are causing actual physical wounds. And you're going to lose all your Body and DIE fairly easily once your armor is no longer soaking any attacks.
If you want to talk about deadlier combats... there you go-- no "healing of hit points" during fights themselves, no "death saves", and no up-and-down "falling unconscious" (because you don't get "knocked out" at 0 Armor Points, and at 0 Body points you're just DEAD).
The only thing last thing you have to add into the game then is a "fixing armor" mechanic where PCs can repair their Armor Points during a Short Rest. Theoretically you could use the Hit Die mechanic to represent the amount of time and supplies you have to hammer armor back into shape, re-tighten straps, re-stitch or completely change out your undercoats of leather and such... and/or use Mending and Fabricate spells to "fix" the armor to regain Armor Points. And depending on how technical you want to go with it, you could add in additional rules that do things like drop your Max AP each time your Armor Points reach 0 (denoting the actual degradation of the armor that you can't repair out in the field). So at some point you have to return to a smith or leatherworker in town to do a full repair or your armor or just buy a new set of armor altogether.
I'm just coming up with rules off the top of my head here... but if you really want to create "armor hit points", then go all the way with it. Don't try and overlap regular hit points, regular temp hit points, and armor hit points and armor temp hit points... just replace the hit point mechanics with Armor Points and see how it plays out.
Each PC already gets has 3 Death saves, which is effectively 3 body points-- lose that 3rd point and you're dead. So in this variant, every PC only have 3 Body points. Or if we want to be generous, 3 Body points plus/minus their CON modifier (so a PC with a +3 CON has 6 Body points.) And THAT'S IT as far as "health". There are no amorphous "hit points" for any of these characters-- so no more worrying about hits that reduce "meat" or "luck" or "energy" or any of that stuff.
Then on top of that... any armor you wear gives you Armor Points. Just pulling numbers out of my rear... say normal clothing (which would ordinairly be AC 10) gives you 10 Armor Points. Then for each type of armor which give you an AC bonus above AC 10 on the armor chart, you get an additional 3 Armor Points. So Padded and Leather armors (AC 11) would have 13 AP, Studded Leather and Hide (AC 12) 16 AP, Chain Shirt and Mage Armor (AC 13) 19 AP, all the way up to Plate Armor (AC 18) 34 AP.
Then when it comes to combat... your AC is calculated normally (adding in AC values, DEX mod, shield, cover etc. as normal)... but every time you get hit with an attack you lose Armor Points as your armor loses its integrity. Once you reach 0 Armor Points, any further attack hits your Body Point total. Lose all your Body Points and you're dead.
What this system means is that you can't "heal" your AP during combat, because your Armor Points don't come back via healing spells. Maybe you could allow the Mending cantrip to "fix" your armor in small amounts during a fight (and thus you regain some Armor Points), and maybe the Fabricate spell can completely rejuvenate your AP total... but any Healing Word or Cure Wounds spells only bring back your Body Points. But even that isn't such a great deal because you only HAVE between like 3 and 8 Body Points (or even less if you have a negative CON modifier), and thus going from being down 5 Body to down 0 Body means little if you are out of Armor Points and the next attack against you is still going to do 1d6+4 points of damage. It basically says to every PC: "Once your armor has been breached, you better get the hell out of dodge because all these next attacks are causing actual physical wounds. And you're going to lose all your Body and DIE fairly easily once your armor is no longer soaking any attacks.
If you want to talk about deadlier combats... there you go-- no "healing of hit points" during fights themselves, no "death saves", and no up-and-down "falling unconscious" (because you don't get "knocked out" at 0 Armor Points, and at 0 Body points you're just DEAD).
The only thing last thing you have to add into the game then is a "fixing armor" mechanic where PCs can repair their Armor Points during a Short Rest. Theoretically you could use the Hit Die mechanic to represent the amount of time and supplies you have to hammer armor back into shape, re-tighten straps, re-stitch or completely change out your undercoats of leather and such... and/or use Mending and Fabricate spells to "fix" the armor to regain Armor Points. And depending on how technical you want to go with it, you could add in additional rules that do things like drop your Max AP each time your Armor Points reach 0 (denoting the actual degradation of the armor that you can't repair out in the field). So at some point you have to return to a smith or leatherworker in town to do a full repair or your armor or just buy a new set of armor altogether.
I'm just coming up with rules off the top of my head here... but if you really want to create "armor hit points", then go all the way with it. Don't try and overlap regular hit points, regular temp hit points, and armor hit points and armor temp hit points... just replace the hit point mechanics with Armor Points and see how it plays out.
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