There are several "Armor as DR" variant rules available for d20 games:
Pathfinder RPG: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamema...-as-damage-reduction
D&D 3.5: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/vari...sDamageReduction.htm
The Pathfinder version seems to add way too much DR at low levels and the 3.5 version is a bit too complex to keep track of. So I propose a SUPER simplified version.
Armor as Damage Reduction:
All armor bonuses and natural armor bonuses provide DR/- instead of AC. They stack normally (so armor bonuses from multiple sources don't stack, natural armor bonuses from multiples sources don't stack, direct DR/- bonuses from multiple sources don't stack, but armor, natural armor and direct DR will stack with each other).
Damage provided by the following effects ignore DR/-:
-Bleed damage
-Critical hits
-Energy damage (as normal)
-Force damage (as normal)
-Precision damage
-Untyped damage from spells and spell-like abilities
So the 5th level lizardfolk fighter with improved natural armor wearing +1 adamantine full plate and a +1 amulet of natural armor gets DR 14/-. Sure. It's hard to hurt a guy wrapped in that much metal. But the wizard's spells completely ignore it and the rogue's sneak attack completely ignores it. The only one worried about all that DR is OTHER fighter types. Monks should be worried at an average damage output of 1d8+1 per hit (~5) which doesn't even get them halfway there. This is where the monk puts their combat maneuvers and ki powers instead of flurrying over and over again and hoping that they can punch their problems away.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:04, Sat 13 June 2015.
