More mopping up of Beyond the Wall rules.

I’m fine with AC for monsters, it makes sense. When it comes to PCs I’d prefer to split out passive defence, and worn armour. But rolling to-hit against a static defence is nice and simple; I don’t want to muck about with active parries and dodges.

The problem with unarmoured fighters is the system doesn’t support them getting better at dodging except by bettering Dex, which anyone can do. So, here’s how I intend to do Armour and Defence.

1. PCs don’t get AC, they get Defence (in the spelling of your choice). It works exactly like ascending AC for purposes of monsters hitting PCs.
2. Defence starts at 10, modified by Dex and proficiency in Defensive Fighting — a proficiency that both Fighters and Rogues get (minor). So, unarmoured a Fighter gets a Defence equal to their minor Proficiency Bonus, as discussed earlier
3. Armour actually encumbers and makes Defence worse. Armour is encumbering and gives a negative to all physical actions based on its rating — including Dex saves, climbing, swimming, etc.
4. But training mitigates Armour encumbrance. Fighters get a minor Proficiency in wearing all kinds of armour, and their proficiency bonus mitigates against encumbrance penalties (so at 4th level they can soak 3 points of encumbrance). Rogues probably get a Proficiency in light armour only.
5. Armour rating is just applied to the damage dice roll. Even 1 point of armour is nice to have, and 3 points is guaranteed to reduce a wound by 1.

This means that

• Fighters get better and better at wearing armour as they level up
• Rogues will hit the limits of their light armour options in a few levels
• Mages can wear what they want, but it will interfere with everything they physically do (including defending themselves).

There was something else… oh yeah, shields. Until I do something more complicated just use them as always i.e. modify Defence/AC. I’ll work on that, along with armour tables, etc. TTFN.