[phayman53]

This variant to the blunt trauma through DR rules in my first post. It makes it so that the DR of armor affects when a target starts taking blunt trauma, raising the minimum threshold for when a target starts getting injured. It is a little more complicated than the above rules to figure damage during play, but it is also more realistic and hopefully straight forward enough once you get some practice.

Alternate Blunt Trauma through DR Rule:
Armor starts letting blunt trauma through after damage has exceeded 50% of the armor’s effective DR (modified by any armor divisors). For every point of damage stopped by DR which exceeds 50% of effective DR, the target takes a fractional point of injury. This fraction varies based on whether the source of the damage was a balanced or unbalanced attack and whether the armor is flexible or rigid. In all cases, round fractions normally (<0.5 rounds down (minimum 0), >/=0.5 rounds up). This is injury, not damage, so it is never multiplied for hit location or damage source. Also, this blunt trauma injury is retained and added to injury from damage exceeding DR (the blunt trauma from the portion of the damage stopped by DR still injures even if the DR is defeated), but it is added after damage exceeding DR is multiplied by any relevant wounding modifiers. The fractional injury values are as follows:

-Unbalanced attack against Flexible DR: ½ point of injury/point damage greater than 50% DR which is stopped by DR
-Balanced attack against Flexible DR: 1/3 point of injury/point damage greater than 50% DR which is stopped by DR
-Unbalanced attack against Rigid DR: 1/3 point of injury/point damage greater than 50% DR which is stopped by DR
-Balanced attacks against Rigid DR: ¼ point of injury/point damage greater than 50% DR which is stopped by DR

If flexible and rigid DR are layered, count all DR as rigid (this may not be completely realistic but is for simplicity of play).

Example: In the same case as above, where Sir William (ST15) is attacking Sir Jean (Fine Mail 4/2*cr) with a swing from a thrusting broadsword (2d+2(1/3)cut). Sir William will average 9 cut against an effective DR of 12*, which means he will do 1 point of bludgeoning injury. A max blow will be 14 damage, resulting in 2 points of bludgeoning injury and 2 points of cutting wounds, resulting in a total of 5 injury. If Sir William thrusts (1d+3(1/2)imp he will average 6.5 damage against an effective DR of 8*. This means he will average 1 point of bludgeoning injury. A max hit will do 9 damage resulting in 1 point of bludgeoning injury and 1 point of imp wounding, giving him 3 injury total. A vital attack will instead do 4 injury total. The damage totals do not change in this case, but heavier armor would have an effect. Light layered cloth under/over the fine mail would increase DR to 6/4*, effective DR18* against the sword swing. This means an average hit would not do any bludgeoning damage (whereas it would still have done 1 injury in the original system).