The World of Avlis

MorphlingROR wrote:There are several types of damage resistance.

1. Damage Reduction. Comes from spells like Stoneskin, Premonition, etc. or in form of item property like Soak 5/+1, Soak 10/+3, etc. +1 or +3 in this case means the requirement in weapon property to ignore this damage reduction. Stoneskin for example gives damage reduction 10/+5, so +5 weapon will ignore Stoneskin. Elemental protection spells are in the same category.

2. Damage Resistance on items (Swordman's Belt for example) in form of a property similar to Slashing Resist 5/-, Fire Resist 10/-, etc.

3. Damage Resistance from feats. As far as I know feats from barbarians, dwarven defenders, epic damage reduction do stack with each other.

Now to examples:

Damage Reduction (1) from Stoneskin, Greater Stoneskin and Premonition will NOT stack. They will not stack with items that give Soak properties either. The best one will take effect.

Damage Reduction (1) + Damage Resistance (2) WILL stack. Not only that, but 2nd type will absorb damage first, which is cool as it will make your Stoneskins last longer. So with Stoneskin and Swordsman's Belt you will absorb 15 damage when hit with a sword or axe, unless you are hit with a +5 weapon or better in which case you will absorb only 5 damage.

Two items that give the same type of Damage Resistance (2) will NOT stack. So if you have an item with Slashing Resist 5/- and an item with Slashing Resist 20/- you will absorb 20 damage, NOT 25.

Now I haven't tested the damage reduction feats myself, but it's 100% that they will stack with Damage Reduction (1) and I am almost completely sure that they will stack with Damage Resistance (2) on items.

Fredegar wrote:They stack together (I have them)

Keep in mind that the adventurer's robe will only absorb damage dealt by non magical wielding creatures so later on it loses it's fluff.

In general, any two effects that have an identical description do not stack, instead having the highest take effect and the lowest being redundant.

You have 5 types of "defensive effects" against physical damage, all of which use the best effect within their category which is applicable for the attacking effect:

1) physical damage resistance, f.i. Brawler's Belt (5/- damage resistance to bludgeoning)
2) physical damage reduction, f.i. Stoneskin spell (10/+5 vs. all physical) or monk's resistance (20/+1 vs. all physical)
3) physical damage soak, f.i. Adventurer Robe (+1 soak 5 damage, effectively 5/+1 damage soak)
4) elemental damage resistance, f.i. Cloak of Fire Resistance (15/- resistance to fire)
5) elemental damage reduction, f.i. Protection from Elements spell (30/- resistance to all elements)

Of course within the elemental resistance group there are five subgroups, one for each element, so 20/- fire resist and 20/- cold resist "stack" and both work against the same hellball coming your way.

Damage Resistance and Soak come before Damage Reduction, which means that damage resistance will make your damage reduction effects (that are often temporary spelleffects that wear down after a set amount of damage has been reduced, only exception being the inate reduction of monks and other special creatures) last longer.

In your example, 20/+1 is group 2, 15/- cold resist is group 4 (cold) and 5/- cold resist is group 4 (cold), so 5/- cold is superseded by the 15/- cold resist.

As a final note: although the different effects of damage reduction do not stack, they DO work in sequence because they have durations: if you have both a Stoneskin (10/+5 reduction) and a Premonition (30/+5 reduction) active, initially only the premonition works. However, unless the duration of the Stoneskin has lapsed, it will still be active when the Premonition has absorbed it's maximum amount of damage and it will kick into action the first attack after the Premonition has stopped working. The same goes for spells like Protection from Elements and Resist Elements.

Hope this helps!

Fredegar wrote: Keep in mind that the adventurer's robe will only absorb damage dealt by non magical wielding creatures so later on it loses it's fluff.

engelhar wrote:I think there is one mistake above, if you have adventures robes and stoneskin active, they will not both absorb damage. In your example, stoneskin would absorb 10 and the belt would absorb five. The robes are not taken into consideration cause stoneskin is more powerful.

engelhar wrote:I believe this has always been true, or at least for the set of master adventurer's robes I have been using for hte last year.

Dirk Cutlass wrote:

engelhar wrote:I believe this has always been true, or at least for the set of master adventurer's robes I have been using for hte last year.

I must admit I thought that was the case too. I thought "soak" was simply another way of saying Damage Reduction, i.e. "5 soak +1" was just another way of saying "5/+1". And as they are both damage Reduction they don't stack!

Mickey, are you 100% they used to stack?

Isengrim wrote:Heh, so basically I may also throw out the belt, isn't it?

Isengrim wrote:Um, ok, thanks again.
Given that I don't have much else to wear, I'll stay with these robes until I am able to find the greater ones...

Khaelindra wrote:

Isengrim wrote:Um, ok, thanks again.
Given that I don't have much else to wear, I'll stay with these robes until I am able to find the greater ones...

Already found them for you...Mel sells them for the bargain price of 1.300.000 gold!

KenLie wrote:I have pure barbarian, now which of all those DR's stack with his barb DR's and Epic DR's?