Minor mechanics questions

[Bastiat]

I'm a new player and have a couple of minor mechanics questions for the experts out there.

1. Protection seems to be split between Head, Body, and Shield and I'm assuming that the "Protection" attribute on the character description screen is some composite average of the individual Head, Body, and Shield Protection values. I understand how Shield Protection works from the manual. Page 75 of the manual references the "at hit location" and whether the Head or Body Protection value is checked, but I cant find any reference to whether it is a random draw between Head or Body or whether some other factors work in. Is whether the Hit is to the Head or Body completely random or does it depend on something like Size of attacker/defender, Melee vs Range vs Magic, etc?

2. The character description screen gives a value for Attack, Defense etc. If you right click on a character's items (weapons, armor) they also have Attack and Defense values. I assumed that the character description screen already factored in the item values, but page 75 of the manual implies that the character screen values are innate, and the item values are additive. It notes a Jotun axeman with Attack+10 and a Jotun axe of Attack-1 and computes the Attack total of +9. Is this the way people understand it? Do I need to add all of the item attributes to the base attributes on the character screen?

Many thanks in advance.

-Bastiat