Unearthed Arcana - Armor as Damage Reduction

[Exquisite Dead Guy]

I was leafing through UA at the local Barnes & Noble when I noticed the 'Armor as Damage Reduction' section. It sounds like an interesting and more realistic system, but I'm wondering how it plays out.

I'd be interested to hear from players and DMs if it is a worthwhile house rule to institute.

 

[jodyjohnson]

We thought about it for our latest campaign but then remembered how many times people forget to apply DR and how it can suddenly change hp totals when you finally remember (frequent retroactive changes).

We went with the Damage conversion rules instead since at least if you forget to convert you still end up taking the same amound of damage (lethal or non-lethal). The Conversion rules also don't actually make characters tougher (dead or unconscious is the same to an opponent) in addition to making healing magic more efficient.