Monster Armor penalties

[Hans]

The FAQ states that NPC's have the same penalties for armor as PC's.  However, the following seems to argue against this...
* PC's don't pay anything for armor besides the penalty, while the Antagonist must pay Strife. 
* Narratively, it's not exactly clear which penalty would apply for, say, the tough hide of a monster.  For PC's each die size is tied to a particular item/penalty. 
* The combat example does not show the Boar applying either a positioning or melee penalty for Armor, even though the Boar has a d10 armor die, which implies he should have all three penalties. 

Therefore, is it really reasonable to make the Antagonist pay the Strife, and also experience the penalty on the NPC?  I could see it working either way; for an NPC, if you take a penalty the armor die cost nothing, with no penalty it costs Strife.

[Mel White]

The FAQ states that NPC's have the same penalties for armor as PC's...  

That surprises me.  I've never used armor penalties for NPCs.  I can't imagine using armor penalties for something with natural armor, like a boar or a dragon.  And I know I would forget to use it for humanoid NPCs using real armor because there is no box on their NPC sheet for armor components/penalties. 

[John Harper]

I always, always forget armor penalties. They're annoying.

I'm kinda working on an alternate thing for armor.