(PF) Damage Reduction - Worth it?

[Teryon]

I would've searched first, but the forum search function is like my old car: utterly broken atm; apologies if this has been duplicated, I didn't find anything in the first 10 pages.

The topic really states it: is DR worth bothering with? I'm playing a warforged fighter, Pathfinder books only(no ToB, etc etc), starting at level 5. Basically realized based on spell lists, powers and whatnot, that a point rapidly gets reached that DR is worthless. I mean, any sort of magical enhancement overcomes it, and the abundance of save enhancements and AC enhancements makes me believe the system is set up to require those things more.

Why this matters is it means the diff between taking the Adamantine Body feat and Mithral Body Feat, with the Dex bonuses therein. Plus, I could take Two-Hander Fighter without worrying about losing the armor training, since the AC Penalty for Mithral Body isn't worth worrying about IMO.

Am I right?

[StreamOfTheSky]

Unless you can get a LOT of DR, it's pretty useless.

Do note that in PF, while a +4 weapon overcomes adamantine and tons of other metal-based DR, casting greater magic weapon won't do it; it has to actually be permanently enhanced as a +4 weapon.

Not much comfort, but it's something. +4 swords aren't cheap, and NPCs have gimped wealth. Shouldn't be faced with them for quite a while.

[Jack Zander]

PF barbarians can get some pretty decent DR/-

You need to have 10 minimum though at high levels. And even that can be only about 20% reduction per hit.

[Teryon]

True, I suppose, though the WBL are being skewed somewhat. More to the point, is a mere 2 pts of damage eliminated really worth all the crap adamantine armor stacks against me(I like being maneuverable).

[Jack Zander]

At low levels, yes. But it gets to be a worse and worse trade off with each level you gain.

[Infernalbargain]

Go invulnerable rager barbarian and take stalwart (which explicitly stacks with barb).

[Keneth]

it has to actually be permanently enhanced as a +4 weapon.
Or at least temporarily augmented with something other than GMW. Or augmented with GMW and then covered with another ability that makes it work like a normal magic weapon. :smallwink:

Anyway, DR is generally a good thing, when faced with the choice between more AC and more DR, it's usually the better choice. Does this mean it's worth taking adamantine armor over mithral? Probably not. If you've got a reasonably decent AC and a high enough Dex score, then wearing mithral armor will on average mitigate 15% of all damage. Adamantine on the other hand will reduce the damage from all physical attacks by 3, which starts off somewhat decent but gets progressively worse. As mentioned, Invulnerable Rager is the only one who really pulls it off with any great efficacy.

[grarrrg]

...As mentioned, Invulnerable Rager is the only one who really pulls it off with any great efficacy.

I propose for Second Place the Inquisitor (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/inquisitor).

Their Judgment Ability can give them DR/[alignment] that scales with level.
At level 20 it gives DR 5/[align], this doesn't seem like much BUT...

Starting at 8th level and Inquisitor can use TWO Judgment effects.
And at 16th THREE Judgment effects.

Slap on the AC boost (+5 or +10 vs. Crit Confirms) and Fast Healing (+7hp/Round) and you become fairly hard to take down.

At 17th level they can boost one of their Judgment effects by 5 Inquisitor levels worth (typically a +1 or +2 boost).

The feat Judgment Surge (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/judgment-) boost all of your Judgments by 3-levels worth, but only once per day.

Dwarves (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/core-races/dwarf) can also choose "+1/2 Inquisitor level for the effect of one judgement".

Between all of these, all 3 active Judgments are at level 23 minimum (class+feat), one gets another +5 (class), and you can spread another +10 levels worth around (Dwarf).

So at level 20 you could have...
Fast Healing 9 (24 level)
+7AC and another +7AC vs. Crit Confirm (30)
DR 7/[align] (30)

Or maybe
Fast Healing 13 (36 level)
+6AC and another +6AC vs. Crit Confirm (25)
DR 5/[align] (23)

Whatever floats your boat.