Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:
They definitely offer protection in canon sources, including dissipating energy weapon bolts (and protecting from glancing bolts - which is why you see rebels being able to shoot and kill stormtroopers) and protecton from shrapnel, as well as other protections. I'm a bit reluctant to just copy/paste from existing well-compiled sources for detailed proof, so here's links: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/38509/what-was-the-point-of-the-stormtroopers-armour https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/14454/is-stormtrooper-armor-not-very-strong-or-were-the-rebel-guns-just-that-powerful?noredirect=1&lq=1 http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Stormtrooper_armor Also, remember that most of the...
Full answer by DVK: https://movies.stackexchange.com/a/65225 (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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