That way I defeated the aurelian captain. I had very low THC against him (like 15%) when he had his shield equipped, however from afar he uses his two-handed crossbow and thus my THC was much higher. he shot his crossbow, I threw handoxes. The difference was, I could still block, while he couldn't. The outcome was predictable.
Studded Barbari offers DR 3 with AP 12 and dodge penalty 5%
That's what I meant with hardly any DR. With a self-crafted armor DR 12, you'll eat considerably less damage, most often you'll read "you've been hit for 0 damage" in the combat log. Of course that armor doesn't go well with dodge. However, even as a dodger I'd go for slightly heavier armor.