Couple of AC/Full Plate questions.

[other]

Been a while (years) since I've made a run through bg2, and one thing that's always annoyed me is the fact that through judicious spell usage, a fighter/mage can 'tank' better than a fighter doing the sword/board combo (for that matter a barbarian can as well due to innate dmg reduction %, or a paladin for the same reason)

It's been a while since I did the math, but iirc a fighter with the best gear can get roughtly -20 ac. That's great, but still not low enough to avoid nearly any hits on most of the ToB enemies. And since armor in DnD doesn't reduce dmg taken, once a hit gets through, you take full dmg, hence the advantage of a barbarian at that point.

My question:

A: First off, am I being an idiot, and forgetting anything about AC/dmg reduction, etc? I'm no DnD expert, and haven't discounted the fact that I might have overlooked something (or simply been wrong in my mathcraft).

B: Assuming I am correct, is there some (good) mod that either introduces 'better' plate/shields to allow the wearer to get AC low enough such that it actually...does something, or modifies current AC values of items to the same degree?

If there is a thread already on this sort of topic that's blatantly obvious and I missed it, I apologize, it just always annoys me that 'man wearing cloth with magic spell' will die slower than 'man wearing sheets of metal wielding metal plate, and closely resembling a tin can'

[F-man]

Refinements v. 3.0 will be soon downloadable. When installed all armours will have damage reductions (and some penalties... check Baldur's Gate 2 Refinements, Spellhold Studios)

[CFM]

a) I don't think you're forgetting antyhing, and b) I'm not a mod guy, myself.

My take on this, regarding ToB:

In BG, warriors have armor for AC protection, wizards have spells for various protections. In ToB, AC is least important, because many ToB enemies have THAC0s that'll hit anything (as you said).
Defense Advantage: wizards. But...

In ToB, *offense* is most important. Your dudes should be able to deal out large amounts of damage, very quickly. In ToB, damage spells are least important, because many ToB ememies have magic resistance.
Offense Advantage: warriors.

When I played through BG2, I had Keldorn & Minsc (& Boo too) as my bashers, and Imoen & Aerie as my spellcasters (w/Jaheira going both ways). In ToB, I replaced Aerie with one of the Fighter NPCs. I thought it'd be harder having only one wizard (Imoen), but now I think it would've been harder if I kept Aerie instead of opting for more sword (for ToB).