What is the history of vampires having high natural armor class?

Question

Based on this question to Order of the Stick #1002 featuring combat between the main protagonist and a vampire, I wonder what is historical motivation for D&D vampires being tough to hit, not based on sneakiness and, uh, Dexterity-ness (agility I guess ;), but due to natural armor class?

Why do vampires even have a natural armor bonus? Being a vampire doesn't make you a rhino or a dinosaur. You are faster and [sneakier], sure, but not thicker skinned.

Answers based on the history of any edition of the game—including those preceding the formal concept of natural armor class—welcome.

Comment on accepting KorvinStarmast's answer given the other good answers here: The "no explanation was given for why they were so hard to hit" really seems to nail it. The "vampire's magical nature is the root of its high armor class" just feels like so much (fantasy) handwavium, given that other corporeal under such as the ghast or wight are also magical in nature, and yet do not have the vampire's serious natural armor. The history of D&D game design simply seems to have valued hard-to-hit vampires, and that is about it.

Answer 1

Vampires Were Always Hard to Hit

1. The original release of OD&D didn't explain why. The Vampire was assigned the armor class of 2, which was the equivalent in OD&D of plate mail and shield. This may have been related to its level as a monster (7-9 HD) and thus a reflection of how tough it was even for higher level characters to do significant damage to it. It could also be explained by the vampire's inherent magical nature.

   From Monsters and Treasures (OD&D, Vol II, TSR 1974, p. 3)
   Armor Class 2 // Move 12"/18" (foot/flying) // HD 7-9 // % in lair 25% // Treasure Type F

In the text on page 9, no explanation was given for why they were so hard to hit. It explained much else on what made vampires such tough monsters.

1. In AD&D 1e, (MM, p. 99) the armor class was improved to 1, and the vampire had to be hit with a magical weapon +1 or better. No explanation was given. The "eastern vampire" was cited as being invisible and thus causing -2 from any to hit roll. (effective AC of -1). No further explanation was given. (Of interest, the DMG p. 45 noted that Polymorph Other only changed the form of vampires and other shape changers for one round, and that in gaseous form Holy Water would not harm vampires).

2. An early article on Vampires in Dragon #17 (p. 9) explained how DM's weren't playing them hard enough. While addressing powers of a vampire, it did not say why the AC was so high.

3. An extensive treatment of the undead in Dragon #138, Tim Moldvay, did not explain why vampires had high AC.

4. Second Edition AD&D Monstrous Manual carried over 1e info. No "why" was given for high armor class; Eastern Vampires lost the Charm power while retaining invisibility.

   • The 2e DMG (Ch 9, Combat) used vampire as the example of immunity to non-magical weapons

   ... they loose a volley of arrows at him. Three hit, but he doesn't even break his stride. They watch, aghast, as he disdainfully plucks the arrows from his body.

What is Armor Class?

While not getting this sort of detailed treatment in OD&D, Monster Manuals for 1e and 2e both described AC as ...

... the general protection worn by humans and humanoids, protection due to physical structure or magical nature, or difficulty in hitting due to speed, reflexes, etc.

You can derive from this that a vampire's magical nature is the root of its high armor class.

Answer 2

Every part of a vampire that isn't its heart is effectively armor.

Severing a vampire's arms & legs won't kill it. Destroying its lungs or breaking its back won't kill it. It likes having those things, true, but it can survive without them to go hole up somewhere and heal. From a perspective of "what needs to be protected, and what is protecting it", almost all of the vampire's body is armor. When you hit a vampire, you're not so much damaging the vampire itself as you are damaging the shell it happens to be using.

TLDR: Armor is material you can live without that covers & protects material you can't live without. A vampire only needs its heart.

Answer 3

I think the "problem" with their Armour class stems a bit from the nature of Dungeons and Dragons and how things work there.

We have to take 2 things into consideration there

• How do armor bonuses work?
• For what type of character is the vampire planed as an adversary?

Type of character

Vampires are meant to be adversaries for medium to high level parties. In Dungeons and Dragons this means they NEED a strong armor class in order to not be automatically hit by virtually any attack.

In the later Dungeons and Dragons editions like D20 there were rules for how to convert a normal person into a vampire. Now instead of just saying "ok this is that armor class live with it" they needed a general rule there and added an armor bonus of +6. Although this armour bonus should NOT be confused with the armor bonus gained through the dexterity bonus (as that is in addition so they gain +6 natural armor and +2 armor through the higher dex).

How does armor work?

As we saw before they needed an armor bonus in order to make them feasible as adversaries for high level parties. If you look at the armor rules you will find that there are plenty of armor bonuses that can apply....but each and every does not stack with its own kind (only with others).

More logical from an out of universe context would have been a profane modifier to armor as vampires are inherently evil and chaotic and thus a bonus from "powers of evil" would make sense there. But they choose the natural armor bonus.

So what is it?

A natural armor bonus improves Armor Class resulting from a creature's naturally tough hide.

Now as we know vampires don't have diamond hard skill as else staking them would be quite impossible as a feat to do. But still they get a tough hide bonus.

The only possible explanation there (aside from an overlook by the creators of the vampire rules) is that they took a few things into consideration and thus decided on a natural armor bonus there:

• Vampires are undead: Thus they are more resiliant to damage than other beings. Although also skeletons and zombies are undead too this should not affect them too much.
• Vampire powers: In addition to being unliving and thus unbleeding vampires have fast healing and a damage reduction. If we take this into account you COULD see it that weapons (aside from silver and magic normally) just have almost no to no effect on a vampire at all. And also he regenerates most of the minor hits at once. Thus as armor class itself also represents how hard you are to hurt this could be an ingame reason for why vampires have a higher armor class than their normal counterpart. In addition to this this is a natural part of being a vampire not an evil induced, not a luck induced, not given by a god, .... it is just part of being a vampire, part of its nature. Thus this could be a reason why they ruled that it is a natural armor bonus.
• Other types of armor class bonuses. If you look at them there is only one that represents general toughness that is not induced by gods,... and that is in addition not just you evading the attack but instead taking it, smiling and hitting back. That is th enatural armor bonus. Even though it says about tough skin there it is the only armor bonus that represents pure and other toughness.

So in total the natural armor bonus is not the best fit (in terms of fluff text for the armor bonuses) BUT it is the only fit that stands for what the vampire designers wanted to portray, that the vampire just can stand up to you, take a blow (by you missing the AC bonus) and smile while you see not a single effect there on him. Although this is redundant with the damage reduction (and beats it as the damage reduction is of no use against silver or magic) it would fit in with what is being portayed there. In addition to it with the available types of armor bonuses it is the best fit there ruleswise and what can be portrayed by which armor bonus.

As of note. The stats I talk about (and also rules) are mostly from the 3.5 and d20 versions (the D20 version can be found at: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/vampire.htm). In later versions like d&d 4 these things change though. Like in D&D the vampires gaining a shield bonus instead of a natural armor class bonus.