[miltonyorkcastle]

I think what Gulnyr is explaining and what we're saying about items or magic taking part of the blow needs to be pulled together (which may very well be what Gulnyr is trying to do anyway).

The way I see HP is, if it hurts, you use up HP. It doesn't have to be an actual wound, like Gulnyr suggests, but if the blow is good enough, you must use some manner of extra effort to prevent yourself from being skewered. That extra effort hurts, but the pain of the bodily strain is worth it if you prevent your own death.

In the case of magic or exceptional armor, some or all of the attack may be absorbed/deflected without causing the wearer pain/effort. In other words, no HP loss, because they didn't have to summon physical effort to protect themselves. Something else did the work. Of course, now we could get into armor damage that doesn't happen in NWN, but when it comes to magic, you're not going to have that damage anyway.

When Frodo took the hit and passed out, he lost HP. The mithril may have prevented him from being entirely skewered, but his own body also absorbed a great deal of the blow. In the case of Shiff and the magic shirt, "B"s body wasn't absorbing any of the blow unless Shiff did more damage than the Magic barrier could contain.

P.S. knowing who you were up against, I suspect the real issue was AC, not the DR from that "shirt." In which case "B" was simply too quick for Shiff to hit.