Rather then having plate makeing you harder to hit, it should just let you take more punishment. DR doesn't work because 50 halfling slinging stones at 5 HP a pop vs 5 dragons doing 50 damage don't work out. Doing it as THP keeps things more or less balanced.
So i suggest something like this.
Your get some Armor HP from your armor, which is worth a percentenge of your maximum hit points. Any damage you take is reduced from your Armor HP first. Once that is depleated, the remaining damage goes against your normal HP. Durring a short rest, you repair your armor, and you get your aHP back. If you have a skilled smith repair your armor, it can go higher then it's starting value.
Generally, light armor will avoid hits more, and thus avoid more status effects, but heavy armor allow you to take more total hits. This also allows "martial healing" in the form of extra-repairing armor, or perhaps mid battle repairs. These numbers need a bit of balance.
Light (Dex / Int to AC ~ 4) Cloth = 10% ... Hide = 50%
F-111 Interdictor Long (200+ squares) distance ally teleporter. With some warlord stuff. Broken in a plot way, not a power way. Thought Switch Higher level build that grants upto 14 attacks on turn 1. If your allies play along, it's broken. Elven Critters Crit op with crit generation. 5 of these will end anything. Broken. King Fisher Does an excellent job at keeping an enemy disabled in a few ways. Strong. Boominator Fun catch-22 booming blade build with either strong or completely broken damage depending on your reading. Very Distracting Warlock Lot's of dazing and major penalties to hit. Overpowered. Pocket Protector Pixie Stealth Knight. Maximizing the defender's aura by being in an ally's/enemy's square. Yakuza NinjIntimiAdin: Perma-stealth Striker that offers a little protection for ally's, and can intimidate bloodied enemies. Very Strong. Chargeburgler with cheese Ranged attacks at the end of a charge along with perma-stealth. Solid, could be overpowered if tweaked. Void Defender Defends giving a penalty to hit anyone but him, then removing himself from play. Can get somewhat broken in epic. Scry and Die Attacking from around corners, while staying hidden. Moderate to broken, depending on the situation. Skimisher Fly in, attack, and fly away. Also prevents enemies from coming close. Moderate to Broken depending on the enemy, but shouldn't make the game un-fun, as the rest of your team is at risk, and you have enough weaknesses. Indestructible Simply won't die, even if you sleep though combat. Sir Robin (Bravely Charge Away) He automatically slows and pushes an enemy (5 squares), while charging away. Hard to rate it's power level, since it's terrain dependent. Death's Gatekeeper A fun twist on a healic, making your party "unkillable". Overpowered to Broken, but shouldn't actually make the game un-fun, just TPK proof. Death's Gatekeeper mk2, (Stealth Edition) Make your party "unkillable", and you hidden, while doing solid damage. Stronger then the above, but also easier for a DM to shut down. Broken, until your DM get's enough of it. Domination and Death Dominate everything then kill them quickly. Only works @ 30, but is broken multiple ways. Battlemind Mc Prone-Daze Protecting your allies by keeping enemies away. Quite powerful. The Retaliator Getting hit deals more damage to the enemy then you receive yourself, and you can take plenty of hits. Heavy item dependency, Broken. Dead Kobold Transit Teleports 98 squares a turn, and can bring someone along for the ride. Not fully built, so i can't judge the power Psilent Guardian Protect your allies, while being invisible. Overpowered, possibly broken Unnamed Avenger|Runepriest/Hammer of Vengance Do lot's of damage while boosting your teams. Strong to slightly overpowered. Charedent BarrageA charging ardent. Fine in a normal team, overpowered if there are 2 together, and easily broken in teams of 5. Super Knight A tough, sticky, high damage knight. Strong. Super Duper Knight Basically the same as super knight, only far more broken. Mora, the unkillable avenger Solid damage, while being neigh indestuctable. Overpowered, but not broken. Swordburst Maximus At-Will Close Burst 3 that slide and prones. Protects allies with off actions. Strong, possibly over powered with the right party.
The extra hp in this scenario is just a little bonus to help out the people who complain about armor never getting damaged in the course of a fight. The real value of armor is still the AC boost, which still needs to be balanced.
Right now a rogue with +3 dex in studded leather (+4 total) would have a better time after the first round of combat than a fighter in full plate (+3 total). If a fighter gets hit by a power that dazes, and some of the damage is absorbed by his armor, is he still dazed? What about when the armor HP run out? It still looks like evasion is always better. You prevent less damage (from one, maybe 2 hits per encounter), but you avoid more ongoing damage and spell effects.
I think you're looking for a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
There is still a nasty balance problem there. Because damage scales with level, and looks to scale even more in 5e then it does now, the extra HP are worth more a low level but are a trap at high level unless they scale also. 30 temp HP might stop a couple of attacks at first level, but WotC described a high level rogue of being capable of multiple 20d6 attacks per turn, making 30 HP worthless.
If you do scale the temp HP by level, it gets back to the same problem that DR has. Your juggling two different scales, so you need to constrain them tightly to keep people from gaming the system.
so there you are, you have Hit locations, % of coverage, armor thickness, armor encumbrance, soft armor, hard armor, armor piercing attacks, falling damage, joint breaks, and the material your armor is made of.
When you have these factors in place, it's very easy to give armor "hit points", although Damage Reduction is usually the first thing people come up wth. The next question is whether the armor can be damaged. Here's what I think: Sometimes. You can throw a rock or hardball against tank armor all day, possibly even against platemail, without damaging it. Even though these things would injure a human being, they don't do much of anything to these sturdy armor plates.
But we are adding in an awful lot of realism, and the game is starting to resemble Cyberpunk. When you give armor hit points, you have to have some kind of damage reduction in place. Cyberpunk set it up so the amount of damage reduction decreased with penetration until armor was useless. That's not entirely accurate, but it's an interesting way to represent armor.
Some others might take the % of coverage and multiply by the damage reduction. Clever systems might even factor in size, so the hit points for the armor of a giant are higher than those of a sprite's armor.
I think you would want to keep the systems as simple as possible, possibly 2-3 rules. People already have enough trouble with things like weapon size and speed factor.
If a fighter gets hit by a power that dazes, and some of the damage is absorbed by his armor, is he still dazed?
Use a damage threshold for rider effects.
Yet more mechanics where what we have already works.
And this still leaves the plate armor fighter SoL once his temps are gone. (Although I guess he'll be fine as long as he carries a shield. But this still proves my point that the real value of armor in this scenario is still AC.)
The extra hp in this scenario is just a little bonus to help out the people who complain about armor never getting damaged in the course of a fight. The real value of armor is still the AC boost, which still needs to be balanced.
Right now a rogue with +3 dex in studded leather (+4 total) would have a better time after the first round of combat than a fighter in full plate (+3 total). If a fighter gets hit by a power that dazes, and some of the damage is absorbed by his armor, is he still dazed? What about when the armor HP run out? It still looks like evasion is always better. You prevent less damage (from one, maybe 2 hits per encounter), but you avoid more ongoing damage and spell effects.
I think you're looking for a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
Having 2 extra hits of THP is similar to avoiding 2 hits per battle. Yes their are trade-offs. Heavy armor should probably add up to more total HP, but more vulnerable to status effects.
you do scale the temp HP by level, it gets back to the same problem that DR has. Your juggling two different scales, so you need to constrain them tightly to keep people from gaming the system.
Unless your advocating getting rid of AC entierly, you already have 2 scales.
DR doesn't work because 50 halfling slinging stones at 5 HP a pop vs 5 dragons doing 50 damage don't work out. Doing it as THP keeps things more or less balanced.
F-111 Interdictor Long (200+ squares) distance ally teleporter. With some warlord stuff. Broken in a plot way, not a power way. Thought Switch Higher level build that grants upto 14 attacks on turn 1. If your allies play along, it's broken. Elven Critters Crit op with crit generation. 5 of these will end anything. Broken. King Fisher Does an excellent job at keeping an enemy disabled in a few ways. Strong. Boominator Fun catch-22 booming blade build with either strong or completely broken damage depending on your reading. Very Distracting Warlock Lot's of dazing and major penalties to hit. Overpowered. Pocket Protector Pixie Stealth Knight. Maximizing the defender's aura by being in an ally's/enemy's square. Yakuza NinjIntimiAdin: Perma-stealth Striker that offers a little protection for ally's, and can intimidate bloodied enemies. Very Strong. Chargeburgler with cheese Ranged attacks at the end of a charge along with perma-stealth. Solid, could be overpowered if tweaked. Void Defender Defends giving a penalty to hit anyone but him, then removing himself from play. Can get somewhat broken in epic. Scry and Die Attacking from around corners, while staying hidden. Moderate to broken, depending on the situation. Skimisher Fly in, attack, and fly away. Also prevents enemies from coming close. Moderate to Broken depending on the enemy, but shouldn't make the game un-fun, as the rest of your team is at risk, and you have enough weaknesses. Indestructible Simply won't die, even if you sleep though combat. Sir Robin (Bravely Charge Away) He automatically slows and pushes an enemy (5 squares), while charging away. Hard to rate it's power level, since it's terrain dependent. Death's Gatekeeper A fun twist on a healic, making your party "unkillable". Overpowered to Broken, but shouldn't actually make the game un-fun, just TPK proof. Death's Gatekeeper mk2, (Stealth Edition) Make your party "unkillable", and you hidden, while doing solid damage. Stronger then the above, but also easier for a DM to shut down. Broken, until your DM get's enough of it. Domination and Death Dominate everything then kill them quickly. Only works @ 30, but is broken multiple ways. Battlemind Mc Prone-Daze Protecting your allies by keeping enemies away. Quite powerful. The Retaliator Getting hit deals more damage to the enemy then you receive yourself, and you can take plenty of hits. Heavy item dependency, Broken. Dead Kobold Transit Teleports 98 squares a turn, and can bring someone along for the ride. Not fully built, so i can't judge the power Psilent Guardian Protect your allies, while being invisible. Overpowered, possibly broken Unnamed Avenger|Runepriest/Hammer of Vengance Do lot's of damage while boosting your teams. Strong to slightly overpowered. Charedent BarrageA charging ardent. Fine in a normal team, overpowered if there are 2 together, and easily broken in teams of 5. Super Knight A tough, sticky, high damage knight. Strong. Super Duper Knight Basically the same as super knight, only far more broken. Mora, the unkillable avenger Solid damage, while being neigh indestuctable. Overpowered, but not broken. Swordburst Maximus At-Will Close Burst 3 that slide and prones. Protects allies with off actions. Strong, possibly over powered with the right party.
Having 2 extra hits of THP is similar to avoiding 2 hits per battle.
Yes, but be careful here that you do not compare it to having higher AC.
Let's say enemies have a 50% chance of hitting a character with 13 AC. Let's say they make 20 attacks per combat, so statistically +2 AC over 13 means you dodge 12 of those attacks instead of 10. It's tempting to say that this is comparable to +20 temporary hitpoints (assuming those hits do 10 damage each), but remember that the guy with temp HP will also get hit more often – and continue to get hit more often after his temp hp are gone. As well, the statistics only work out over a long period of time. If your character dies because of insufficient AC, then the pendulum never has a chance to swing the other way.
Yes their are trade-offs. Heavy armor should probably add up to more total HP, but more vulnerable to status effects.
It's possible that status effects will be a lot weaker in 5e than they were in 4e or 3e, but if not then having the fighter dazed for a round is a lot more devastating to the party than having him take 10 damage (and to the fighter, if he gets hit with any effect that makes him easier to hit).
F-111 Interdictor Long (200+ squares) distance ally teleporter. With some warlord stuff. Broken in a plot way, not a power way. Thought Switch Higher level build that grants upto 14 attacks on turn 1. If your allies play along, it's broken. Elven Critters Crit op with crit generation. 5 of these will end anything. Broken. King Fisher Does an excellent job at keeping an enemy disabled in a few ways. Strong. Boominator Fun catch-22 booming blade build with either strong or completely broken damage depending on your reading. Very Distracting Warlock Lot's of dazing and major penalties to hit. Overpowered. Pocket Protector Pixie Stealth Knight. Maximizing the defender's aura by being in an ally's/enemy's square. Yakuza NinjIntimiAdin: Perma-stealth Striker that offers a little protection for ally's, and can intimidate bloodied enemies. Very Strong. Chargeburgler with cheese Ranged attacks at the end of a charge along with perma-stealth. Solid, could be overpowered if tweaked. Void Defender Defends giving a penalty to hit anyone but him, then removing himself from play. Can get somewhat broken in epic. Scry and Die Attacking from around corners, while staying hidden. Moderate to broken, depending on the situation. Skimisher Fly in, attack, and fly away. Also prevents enemies from coming close. Moderate to Broken depending on the enemy, but shouldn't make the game un-fun, as the rest of your team is at risk, and you have enough weaknesses. Indestructible Simply won't die, even if you sleep though combat. Sir Robin (Bravely Charge Away) He automatically slows and pushes an enemy (5 squares), while charging away. Hard to rate it's power level, since it's terrain dependent. Death's Gatekeeper A fun twist on a healic, making your party "unkillable". Overpowered to Broken, but shouldn't actually make the game un-fun, just TPK proof. Death's Gatekeeper mk2, (Stealth Edition) Make your party "unkillable", and you hidden, while doing solid damage. Stronger then the above, but also easier for a DM to shut down. Broken, until your DM get's enough of it. Domination and Death Dominate everything then kill them quickly. Only works @ 30, but is broken multiple ways. Battlemind Mc Prone-Daze Protecting your allies by keeping enemies away. Quite powerful. The Retaliator Getting hit deals more damage to the enemy then you receive yourself, and you can take plenty of hits. Heavy item dependency, Broken. Dead Kobold Transit Teleports 98 squares a turn, and can bring someone along for the ride. Not fully built, so i can't judge the power Psilent Guardian Protect your allies, while being invisible. Overpowered, possibly broken Unnamed Avenger|Runepriest/Hammer of Vengance Do lot's of damage while boosting your teams. Strong to slightly overpowered. Charedent BarrageA charging ardent. Fine in a normal team, overpowered if there are 2 together, and easily broken in teams of 5. Super Knight A tough, sticky, high damage knight. Strong. Super Duper Knight Basically the same as super knight, only far more broken. Mora, the unkillable avenger Solid damage, while being neigh indestuctable. Overpowered, but not broken. Swordburst Maximus At-Will Close Burst 3 that slide and prones. Protects allies with off actions. Strong, possibly over powered with the right party.
