New Classes/races And Dr Stacking

[*Aslya]

With all the possible combinations, it's pretty hard to figure what kind of DR would stack; is there a rule of thumb ?

For exemple, I'm curious about the Half-dragon (Fang) DR. How is it treated ?
Would it stack with the Defender's DR ? With the barbarian's DR ? Does it enable the DR feats before epic ? And does it stack with epic DR feats ? Would it stack with item DR (say, adamantine armor) ?

My thanks !

[*Altair]

The best DR that can apply to a situation will. I've played a Barbarian werewolf for a while, and have run into this with the two forms of DR. 10/silver and for example, 5/- from barbarian.

So. Let's say I take 20 damage from a mundane sword. Highly unlikely, but in this case the best DR that can apply is 10/silver, since it isn't a silver weapon, so I take 10 damage from the attack.

Let's make it a silver weapon now. It pierces my racial DR, but barbarian can still apply, so it stops part of the attack and now I take 15 damage.

Now let's apply 3 copies of Epic DR. This adds +3/- DR per instance up to a max of +9/- that adds on top of my Barbarian 5/-, so now I have Racial 10/silver and Class 14/-.

Now it doesn't matter if that weapon is silver or not, or if I'm in a shape that racially gets DR. Since the Barbarian/epic dr is now the best that can apply, it applies in all mundane damage situations, so I'm now only taking 6 damage from the attack.

Regarding items, let's say I have an adamantine breastplate or something that gives DR 2/-. That's likely highly mechanically wrong, but the point is that it'd never be relevant because the other two DRs are always better. I'm also under the impression that certain items that grant DR don't correctly function, but I couldn't say which ones or why.

I'm not sure about the new dragons and dragon classes, but hopefully this clarifies how DR works at its base just a little bit.

[*Ceremorph]

The general rule with DR is that it will not stack, but it will combine. So for example, if you've got racial DR of 10/cold iron, then take Favored soul and and get class DR of 5/alchemic silver, you'll always have some form of protection. If someone hits you with a cold iron weapon, it will pierce your higher DR but be blunted by the secondary, so in this case the first 5 points will be reduced. On the other hand, if someone hit you with an alchemic silver weapon, its piercing of your AS DR would be meaningless because the higher CI DR would still be in effect.

Two DRs of the same type simply overlap and give you nothing.

The Epic DR feats are hardcoded, so they only will stack with the hardcoded OC DR feats.

[*ManyFaced]

Weirdness can occur with 'unpierceable' DR, like a Barbarians. It is often considered 'better' than a higher amount of lower tier DR.

For instance, 10 DR/+2 and 4/Barbarian would be 4 reduced against a +1 or unenchanted weapon. I imagine similar quirks could occur with Dwarven Defender... so those going into Barbarian or DD and want DR, devote yourself to the class DR.

[*Ceremorph]

RUN FOR YOUR LIVES MANYFACED IS BACK!

*Hugs* LTNS!

[*Whitefly]

I've noticed my 5/magic tattoo and Stone Dragon II stacking, or at least the chatlog seems to suggest so. I think it's using EffectDamageReduction(), so the stacking rules might be different from feat/item gained DR.

[*Plaxy100]

For best DR I believe 27 barbarian with Resilliancey Feat and all 3 Epic DR those stack with Class DR = Dr 18/-, The Highest with Least amount of investment to a single class would be Stalwart Defender at 10 levels invested for a Max of Dr 15/- getting all 3 epic Dr Feats. And the Best DR with the Least amount of investment over all is Death Knight, 10 levels, no epic Feats 15 Dr/+3 and Bludgeoning.

Generall rull Dr from different sources don't stack, the only exception really is Class DR/- stacking with Epic Dr.

If you have multiple sources of DR they do overlap and apply best one for situations, there are combos of Dr that effectively when put together are as effective as Dr/- Like Favored Souls Level 20s Dr 10/silver ((cold iron)) becomes effectively DR 10/- when he cast Stone body on himself. Because there is no such weapon that does both Adamantine Damage, and Silver Damage.

[*Whitefly]

Stalwart defender will reduce more damage than barbarian, since they get 10 + con modifier physical damage immunity on top of their max 15/- DR, which means that if you have +8 con bonus (which is the rock bottom amount you will have due to the epic damage reduction pre-req), you're already reducing 18 damage by 3 and then by 15.

[*Mr_Otyugh]

Stalwart defender will reduce more damage than barbarian, since they get 10 + con modifier physical damage immunity on top of their max 15/- DR, which means that if you have +8 con bonus (which is the rock bottom amount you will have due to the epic damage reduction pre-req), you're already reducing 18 damage by 3 and then by 15.

The %-immunity is calculated of the damage which goes above the DR. That is if you get hit by 18 damage, it's 18% away from the remaining 3 damage.