One of my big problems with D&D is that artificial armour is simply not as effective as it was in history.
One way to improve this is to allow armour to negate a certain amount of damage. Now there are a number of ways to do this. Many games, including Runequest for example, just absorb a fixed amount of damage. Dragon Warriors has a novel systems where weapons do a fixed amount of damage, but have an Armour Bypass Roll that must be tested against the armour worn to do that damage. But my favourite comes from an old article in Alarums & Excursions (whose author I have unfortunately forgotten) that uses random damage absorption.
| Armour Worn | Damage Absorbed |
|---|---|
| Padded | d2 |
| Leather | d4 |
| Studded Leather/Ringmail | d6 |
| Chainmail | d8 |
| Splint/Banded | d10 |
| Plate | d12 |
Magic armours get to add their magical bonus to the effect.
Chivalric weapons, which are designed to be swung with great force in order to defeat armoured opponents, halve the damage absorption (round down), but at the cost of striking last in the round (unless they also have reach).
Note that all this is in addition to the normal penalty to hit the target due to AC.
This does help greatly improve a fighter's power, and is invaluable in one-on-one adventuring games. The only problem is that you now need to go through your Manual of Monsters and determine what component of the creature's AC is due to armour that is worn, and what component is due to speed and magic (or whatever other factors might apply). I do like the variability this system provides in that you can generally rely on armour, but it's not always completely predictable and a lucky shot might make it through a gap.
