Armor as DR

Use armor as a damage resistance. Simply use the existing armor bonus, only instead of adding it to your AC, the armor bonus is how much damage the armor will subtract from an attack that you fail to parry. Use the DEX check penalty (and all other modifiers) the same as you normaly would.

Why: This is a two part rule that I think more accurately reflects the use of active and passive defense in meele, without being overly cumbersom or taking away from the gaming aspect of D&D (i.e. I'm not striving for "realism" or complete accuracy, just somthing a bit more dramatic with a bit of a more accurate feel).Pro: This system makes combat a bit more difficult, and really makes a heavily armored foe more dangerous. Using the existing DEX check penalties balances using the parry - as the more armor one dons, the parry suffers.Con: This part of the rule really does not work well unless you use the alternate parry as well - using the alternate parry as in the DMG efectivly doubles the armors use.

By: cliff brannonImported from a previous version of Planewalker.com