Quote Originally Posted by Youjirou View Post
No, it will only decrease his defense by a few points. As well, the Monk's defense depends on his stamina, not his level. If you like, I can dig up the statistics for you. I know they're available on GameFAQs.

On my current game, my Monk / Master has 73 bare defense. With a Ribbon equipped, it drops to 62. The Monk has incredibly low magic defense, though. The Ribbon helps to raise this, as well as adding resistance to various status effects. It's a must-have.
[qq=BSiron at gamefaqs]A = 0 for all classes, except...
= LV for a bare Bb/Ma*[/qq]

Unarmored BB gets armor = level, armored BB gets 0. That's for the NES. This is due to a bug, it may be fixed/different in the remakes. I wouldn't know.