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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fuindordm" data-source="post: 6409908" data-attributes="member: 5435">I thin you're talking about a setting where the weapons have so far outstripped the available armor that no one bothers to wear any. Think not just Wild West or Victorian England, but also Star Wars (barring stormtroopers, whose armor doesn't seem to do them any good anyway). In such settings, STR is a dump stat, and that's OK. Let's face it, STR is a dump stat in real life for most people, even cops. There isn't much call for STR-based fighters when most mooks have guns (or light sabers, or legendary katanas)--professions adapt with the times.  The viability of the STR fighter (inc. barbarian, etc.) in this kind of setting depends then on the prevalence of guns and the occasional need to dominate hand-to-hand combat where guns are not available, or grapple so as to take prisoners. So with STR fighting reduced to corner cases like this, most people who learn to fight will learn dex-based fighting.The point of all the above, is that I think that players avoiding STR-based fighters is a feature of such settings, not a bug, and I don't think PCs that would normally have heavy armor proficiency should be given extra AC to make up for it. I wouldn't want to artificially push characters into a fighting style that is ineffective for the period. In such settings, HP are really 90% luck, and I agree with prior posters that the 5E solution is that HP are essentially your character's main (ablative) source of protection, much more than AC. Most characters who want to fight will put points in Dex and Con, and those who want Str will take it because they want to be brawlers. In short, I think your idea of adding prof. bonus to AC for all characters will work fine. Rather than removing Unarmored Defense completely, you can just allow Barbarians to use Con rather than Dex if their Con bonus is higher, and allowing Monks to use Wis rather than Dex.Then there a few optional rules you can consider to flavor the setting:* A feat/class/skill that gives a sneak attack bonus for attacking first in duels (e.g. Iajitsu in 3E Oriental Adventures, which also works OK for wild west).* "Wounds": every time you drop to 0 HP, and every time you take a critical hit, you lose a HD from your reserve.</blockquote>

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