PF - Resilient Armor Feat

[Diarmuid]

I'm looking for some opinions and clarifications on how this feat actually works.



Resilient Armor
When you enhance your armor or shield, you gain a measure of damage reduction.

Prerequisite: Divine bond (armor or shield) or sacred armor class feature.

Benefit: While your armor or shield is under the effect of your divine bond or your sacred armor ability, you gain an amount of damage reduction equal to your armor's enhancement bonus (including the bonus from your divine bond or sacred armor) against the first attack to strike you in each round. An adamantine weapon overcomes this damage reduction, but any attack against you made with such a weapon does not count against this effect's duration.


I think the most obvious/literal way to read this is that the Enhancement bonus to AC being provided by the armor is what becomes the DR. That just feels really weak to me, but maybe it's just not really aimed at levels below 10ish when Sacred Armor goes to +2 and you probably have better armor.

Another potential way to read it is that the total enhancement bonus of your armor, Armor Bonus and Enchantments (Glammered +1), Light Fort (+2) etc are all added together.

Anyone have a definitive ruling on how this is supposed to work or just opinions on how they've run it in the past and how well that worked?

[exelsisxax]

Exactly like the feat says, you add enhancement bonus and sacred armor/divine bond bonus, and nothing else. It doesn't matter what special properties you have(unless they have an actual enhancement bonus) or the type of armor, because neither of those are enhancement bonuses or interact with sacred armor/divine bond.

So no, it's not great. But adding your armor bonus to it would make it very good for any martial feat. A 7th level warpriest in plate could trivially get 12 DR/adamant in that case, and paizo overvalues DR where they'd never consider that balanced at all.

[Diarmuid]

I would never consider adding the entire armor bonus, that's clearly not intended. The question was the total enhancement including special properties, or just the actual enhancement bonus itself.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Florian]

It´s "just" the numeric enhancement bonus, not the total sum of enhancements. It´s an ok feat, considering that we talk about class features that 1) allow enhancement of up to +15 total and 2) there're cheap enhancement that give a situational buff to base enhancement under certain conditions (like the one a Paladin can get against a Smite target). Coupled with an Adamantine Full Plate, I think you can expect some DR 10 out of it in the endgame levels.

[Remuko]

Even if it added it all, which clearly doesnt seem to be the intent, I don't think it would be that strong. It says it only applies against the first hit each round. Its not like its always on DR like Barbarian. So even if that warpriest could get DR 12/adamant I think it would be fine. He'd shrug off one weak hit a round from a non adamantine weapon. I don't think thats a big deal at all.

[exelsisxax]

It´s "just" the numeric enhancement bonus, not the total sum of enhancements. It´s an ok feat, considering that we talk about class features that 1) allow enhancement of up to +15 total and 2) there're cheap enhancement that give a situational buff to base enhancement under certain conditions (like the one a Paladin can get against a Smite target). Coupled with an Adamantine Full Plate, I think you can expect some DR 10 out of it in the endgame levels.

DR doesn't stack, so it's not that good either.


Even if it added it all, which clearly doesnt seem to be the intent, I don't think it would be that strong. It says it only applies against the first hit each round. Its not like its always on DR like Barbarian. So even if that warpriest could get DR 12/adamant I think it would be fine. He'd shrug off one weak hit a round from a non adamantine weapon. I don't think thats a big deal at all.

Not overpowered in the real sense of the word, no. But considering feats like combat expertise and stalwart are considered worthwhile and balanced by paizo, we can infer with a high degree of confidence that you wouldn't get the armor bonus based on paizo's bonkers sense of balance alone.

[Diarmuid]

I think I'm going to end up taking it for a character I'm making and see how it goes. The game is converting from 3.5 to PF in the middle of a WotBS run. My previous character was an Ardent who focused on trying to protect others and had a couple tricks for taking their hits.

As we're between modules and just got some gold, I decided to bump my Armor from +1 to +3 (which will go to +4 with Sacred Armor, then to +5 next level) so that will give me 4 (soon to be 5) DR against the first hit each turn.

I justified it to myself by trading out 6HP from FCB for another Bonus Feat and just moving one of the Combat feats I had taken into that slot. I'm not sure how well it's going to play out, but I'm aiming for a pretty decent AC for our optimization level so hoping to avoid many hits, but also utilizing In Harm's Way and other feats along those lines to take some hits for my allies so having a way to mitigate that damage will be good. If nothing else, maybe it will help me be more mobile and not worry about AoO's as much. If it comes up twice in a given combat, I feel it will have "paid for itself" by mitigating 8 dmg where it cost my 6 HP. I know that's not a total fair trade, but it helps me sleep at night =).

I kind of figured it was intended to be just the numberical enhancement bonus, but thought it couldnt hurt to ask and maybe I'd be pleasantly surprised.

Thanks all!

[SangoProduction]

If you take the feat, for one reason or another, get a spell which gives you artificial enhancement modifiers, like Magic Vestment. Of course, then you're still paying for a 20 CL spell for 5 temporary HP vs weapon damage per round.

[EldritchWeaver]

I think I'm going to end up taking it for a character I'm making and see how it goes. The game is converting from 3.5 to PF in the middle of a WotBS run. My previous character was an Ardent who focused on trying to protect others and had a couple tricks for taking their hits.

Not sure if your GM would ok it, but Spheres of Might (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com) has a number of options to make your tank more tanky. If you are already converting, then this doesn't increase the effort that much.

[SangoProduction]

Not sure if your GM would ok it, but Spheres of Might (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com) has a number of options to make your tank more tanky. If you are already converting, then this doesn't increase the effort that much.

Oh, that's right! Yeah. The Berserker sphere (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/berserker#toc0) does grant 3+BAB temporary hit points every round, without needing to invest in an armor bonus, just to make it work (and that protect against spell damage). You can get Berserking and Brutal Strike for just one feat, Extra Combat Talent (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/practitioner-feats#toc6).

And what's more? Resilient Armor is technically DR, even if it's only for a single attack in a round. So it can be stacked, if so desired.

Alternatively, to stack DR with Berserker, you could take the Shield sphere (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/shield#toc0) and Interposing Shield (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/shield#toc11), for one feat each, which not only negates the armor penalty from Berserker, but also grants you DR from 2 to 7 at level 20. Not great, especially since you now use a shield, but it's better than the 1 to 5 that Resilient Armor grants. Oh, and you can use it multiple times in a round, if you find a way to get more AoOs.