Expanded Armor Class (3.5e Variant Rule)
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Expanded Armor Class
Something about Armor Class that always bothered me is that Armor and Shields contribute bonuses to your AC, which by most game standards comes out as "This armor makes you less likely to be hit." By all means the +8 granted from a suit of Plate Armor should represent a small window where your plate armor takes the damage in your stead. This is a basic enough idea that complicates combat somewhat but has some rewarding results when played correctly, allowing a player to Miss-without-Missing in some cases, or having a more interesting explanation for why they miss as opposed to just "You miss." The result of a system like this means that you have to track shield and armor health far more than you do otherwise, but gives a good fairly immersive way to incorporate equipment wear and tear, it can give players things to brag about, stories about scars that apply to weapons, shields, or armor, potentially as well as yourself.
Traditional AC
Traditional Armor class is defined in the following way: 10 + Size Modifier + Dex Modifier + Armor Bonus + Shield Bonus + Deflection Bonus + Insight Bonus + Natural Armor Bonus + Dodge Bonuses + Other Modifiers As per normal explanations, all of the factors collectively determine your difficulty to be hit, as it represents "how hard it is for opponents to land a solid, damaging blow on you."
This has a handful of effects, it makes D&D fairly streamlined, if the attack roll beats the Armor class then the attack connects. This presents a question, when someone rolls a value that would equate to the bonus given by a shield or armor, what happens to the strike? Some hand wave the Attack Roll v Armor Class system to be a Hit or Miss process, if you don't make it, you don't even connect. The SRD could be interpreted as the strikes glancing off a shield or armor, but that would still require that the strike make contact with the armor or shield.
While it requires more book keeping to use this method, it has some benefits over the traditional system, namely the "Miss without Missing" aspect, though this could also be considered a penalty, as it allows you to "Hit without Hitting." In Short: Consider that Armor, Shields, All forms of equipment, have Health and Hardness, when your armor class is such that your armor or shield would stop the attack, the attack connects with the armor or shield as though it were a sunder attempt targeting the piece of equipment that was struck. This has an added benefit of you being able to technically sunder not only Armor, which is normally not a Sunder Target, but Natural Armor as well.
Armor Class Reordering
This requires a re-structure of the formula when determining Armor Class, that being the following: 10 + Other Modifiers + Insight Bonus + Dexterity Modifier + Dodge Bonus + Deflection Bonus + Shield Bonus + Armor Bonus + Natural Armor Bonus + Size Modifier
This specific order is important, but can be shuffled some depending on the bonuses in question.
The Ten. The Ten in this formula establishes a baseline, but has a little more importance than that. Of course a 1 is a failure, but two to ten, that represents a Miss Zone, if you roll a total of below here, you will always miss due to inaccuracy as everything has an AC higher than this point.
Other Modifiers. These can be a number of different things, cover of various sizes, Cowering, being Helpless, Kneeling or sitting, being Pinned or Prone, Miss Chance (usually due to variant rules), etc. These are placed in varying locations throughout the order, Cover should be applied first as it would be the first major line of defense preventing someone from taking a hit.
Insight Bonus. Insight Bonus is much like Deflection, in that it could technically be placed anywhere, Insight represents an outside force granting you insight over where an attack will come from and where it will land, allowing you to simply not be there. By this rationale it could be grouped together with Dexterity and Dodge, but could be placed anywhere according to DM Discretion.
Dexterity Modifier and Dodge Bonus. These two are grouped together, regardless of which of the two is considered first, Dexterity is your ability to move in such a way to avoid the blow, exactly like a Dodge bonus. This can be placed before or after the shield bonus, up to the player whether or not they would Dodge before blocking.
Deflection Bonus. Representing Magic preventing you and your equipment from taking damage, Deflection may be placed anywhere in the order, as magic can be argued to act anywhere in the order, prior to guarding, prior to dodging, after other defenses fail, etc. It is recommended to be placed here, as all that precede it result in no damage to your gear, and consolidating those bonuses is simpler.
Shield Bonus. Representing your ability to block an attack with your shield, or in the case of Two Weapon Defense, your weapons, forcing the damage to be taken by it instead like Armor. Shield bonus may be placed before or after Dexterity and Dodge Bonuses if a character is more likely to Block than to Dodge. Whenever an attack lands the Shield AC range, treat it as a successful sunder attempt on the shield, roll damage, deduct the hardness, and inflict that damage to the health of the shield.
Armor Bonus. This is the point in the AC lineup where the Armor Itself stops the attack, tanking the damage in your stead. Whenever an attack lands the Armor AC range, treat it as a successful sunder attempt on the armor, even though armor isn't normally able to be sundered, deduct the hardness, and inflict the damage to the health of the armor.
Natural Armor. Natural armor is considered the last line of defense protecting your health, whenever the Natural Armor AC range is landed, treat it as a successful sunder attempt to both Armor and Natural Armor. This is because in order to hit the Natural Armor, either there is no real armor in the way, or the weapon is cleaving far enough into the person that it beats the armor, but the Natural armor stops it, meaning both are hit.
Size Modifier. This is part of this, but is difficult to say where to place it, it represents the size of the creature making it more or less difficult to make contact with, if it increases their AC it can be justified that an otherwise accurate attack simply doesn't connect due to the size of the creature they're fighting, or if it lowers their AC, that an otherwise inaccurate attack makes contact due to their size.
The Meaning of the Order
They're ordered in a specific way intentionally, as it lends to a certain Order of Operations style structure of AC. 1-10, the Opponent Misses, Other Modifiers such as cover would logically be the first thing to make contact with when attacking, assuming the cover or other modifiers are in place and are capable enough to block a strike. While Insight Bonus can be placed anywhere, I group it together with the other no-contact conditions for the reasons under Dexterity and Dodge, and I believe it should come prior to Armor and Natural armor at the very least, as if insight bonus takes hold, it would be before the strike makes contact, not between armor and the full contact. Dexterity and Dodge follow, representing your ability to move and avoid contact outright, as its more likely that one would choose to evade before blocking. Deflection bonus is grouped with the other no-contact bonuses, but may be placed universally in the order, as it could be seen as deflecting the blow regardless of its contact. Shield Bonus follows, marking the point where you start putting an active effort into preventing damage to yourself. Armor follows this, being where you can't react quickly enough with your shield or dodge, and your armor takes the blow instead. Natural armor follows armor, representing the last line of defense, a final layer between your armor and your health.
Examples
First for the sake of comparison, the Traditional AC arrangement: A character equipped with +3 Platemail (+11 Armor) with a +2 Tower Shield (+6 Shield Bonus) and a Dex Bonus of 1 to AC, total of 10 + 1 Dex + 11 Armor + 6 Shield = 28 Armor Class, 27 Flat Footed, 11 Touch AC.
Now, under this reordering, it would look something like this: Miss 1-10, Dodge (Dex) 11, Shield 12-17, Armor 18-28, Flat 27, Touch 11. Its presented as a set of numbers kind of like the Flat and Touch AC listings, but has Ranges for the relevant.
What is this used for?
Well, this allows for a descriptive version of the Attack vs AC system, a DM can narrate that instead of just missing, "Your sword clatters against his shield as he throws up his guard, stopping your blow." This is a minor effect really, but primarily I think it makes combat a little more cinematic, a little more fun on merit of "That was a close one" or worry over equipment integrity due to a hard fight, but the biggest advantage this poses is a Tense Boss Fight of some sort.
Really this allows for you to create a creature or encounter where someone is quite heavily armored, and as they attack them, even if they "Miss" generally they're hitting the armor of the character, provided they're dealing enough damage to beat the hardness, eventually they should shatter the armor to get at the enemy within.
Many would take issue with this as it results in Equipment Destruction, but I recommend the use of a system like Broken (3.5e Condition) where the AC is lowered, or one where it is eliminated in response, where the armor or shield will no longer take damage as it is "out of the fight" and won't be Destroyed because of that.
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