A 5th level fighter with +5 BAB wearing chain and heavy shield would have an base ac of 10 , + .5 * (+ 5 for chain, +2 for shield, +5 for bab) = 10 + .5 * (+12) = 16.

Then, the benefits of all other bonuses to a/c are also halved (rounded up). I.E. +4 plate mail and a +4 heavy shield would give an armor class bonus of +18 (+8 armor +2 shield +4 magic and +4 magic shield) divided by 2 is +9.

For monsters with natural ac, I took the base a/c -10 and halved that remainder. then added 10 (base) and the BAB *1/2 was added in. So a Dragon with an AC of 24 and a BAB of +8 would have a new AC of (24-10 *.5) = 12 +10 + 4 = 26. If the dragon wore an item of +2 protection it would only give him an ac bonus of 1 etc.

Note: Dexterity’s affect on A/C is not affected by this change.

I did this to speed up combat, lessen the effects of high magic to boost a/c and to make combat more 1st edition like in lethality. Also, level makes more of a difference as it should. Its a bit of a pain to calculate this but at least it is just a/c and not saves etc. Also its just me – the players dont have to work out that much of it. If I Know their equipment etc., I can do it myself for them …….

It takes a bit of work to do this, but it is easier than chucking the whole system.

It is worth noting that my standard ability roll is 4d6 take the best 3 for all stats for a (low-powered game like wilderlands or Goodman games world) or 2d6+6 for each stat (high powered like Faerun)

All combat modifiers are unaffected.

I also simplified touch attacks (instead ranged touch attacks are treated as standard attacks but they are at a base attack equal to the level or HD of the character – class doesnt matter). Dex is the stat that improves this.

Once I see how 4.0 handles this same subject area (merging a/c with reflex, fortitude saves etc) I may just take that into account and modify my 3.5 variant rules to be more like 4.0. Ive spent so much on 3.5 though, I dont plan on using 4.0 for anything other than online gaming. I dont feel that 3.5 required a full reload to 4.0 – it just needed a book of variant rules or a 4.0 update mechanic along these lines. I dont like the fact that the rules they are using sound like just a money making excuse to make all previous books obsolete – (by merging a/c with the save mechanic etc). It may have a sound reasoning behind it but it is probably just a reason to make more money. There are other ways to fix the problems in 3.5 that dont involve wholesale changes to all monsters and characters. Thats my point.