Plot Armor
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Plot armor is the ultimate, logic/odds-defying plating that can be outfitted on any Player character. Plot armor is rarely absent in any role-playing character, and it basically allows a character to survive situations that would outright kill anyone and/or anything else, such as surviving a Nuclear blast outside shelter, or fending off thousands of elite warriors without so much getting a wound. In games, such as D&D, players often have many abilities that provide Plot Armor, since delving through dungeons and slaying monsters would get most people killed. In time-travel stories, the character might be known to exist at some point in the future, making this person impossible to kill before that event occurs.
In short plot armour in sci-fi and fantasy stories is done to allow a writer to tell a story, as the main character or characters being killed off too quickly might impend the great work the authors imagines, even if said situations grow a little too improbable especially if super demons or full on nuclear attacks are involved. Heck the universe has thrown every monster horror in it's basement at the Doctor and he just can't be killed.
Forms
Plot armor can take many forms:
- hidden die rolls that "miss"
- surprise reinforcements
- some type of armour/clothing that renders most/all attacks useless or inert on the wearer
In role-playing games, there can be a mechanism for plot armor, where player characters (and potentially very important NPCs) have "fate" or "karma" points that can be spent to offset bad rolls or shrug off injuries, or just many more hit points than anything else around them.