Overcoming DR and extra dice dealing different damage types.

[Wolfswift]

Hey, so I'm playing an Elemental Ascetic Kineticist and I'm doing Kinetic Fist to add some kinetic blast damage onto all my unarmed strikes. I just gained a access to a second element and I'm considering a blast that deals slashing damage to get around zombie DR we keep facing, but now I'm wondering if dealing any slashing damage means either all my non energy unarmed strike damage is now considered bludgeoning/slashing or if any slashing damage being dealt to the zombie negates it's DR for the whole attack or if I have to track how much damage is bludgeoning and how much is slashing for which hits DR and which doesn't or whatnot.

I feel like most DRs are clear in that if the weapon meets the requirement the DR is ignored, but not often can one deal some weapon damage and some extra bludgeoning/slashing/piercing damage that did not come from the weapon. I suppose the situation could also apply to say a creature with DR 10/Adamantine and I'm using Adamantine Handwraps, but my kinetic fist is adding extra slashing damage that I suppose didn't come from my weapon?

I wanna say I'm inclined to believe it's like Regeneration and any damage of the requisite type shuts down the DR for the whole attack, but I'm not entirely sure. I suppose if the jury's still out by my next game I'll just ask my GM to rule on it. He's just been kinda stressed lately and I'd like to know if there's some kind of hard proof or official ruling somewhere on how this works to not make my GM have to think too hard on this. Personal head cannon and theories are also appreciated for aiding in easing a GM ruling later.

[Kurald Galain]

I wanna say I'm inclined to believe it's like Regeneration and any damage of the requisite type shuts down the DR for the whole attack, but I'm not entirely sure.

It does not. This situation is similar to wielding a flaming sword: you'll deal slashing and fire damage, and some creatures may be resistant to either or both, and these resistances (if any) are dealt with separately. Just because you deal non-fire damage (the slashing) doesn't shut down a creature's fire resistance, and just because you deal non-slashing damage (the fire) doesn't shut down a creature's DR. HTH.

[Wolfswift]

It does not. This situation is similar to wielding a flaming sword: you'll deal slashing and fire damage, and some creatures may be resistant to either or both, and these resistances (if any) are dealt with separately. Just because you deal non-fire damage (the slashing) doesn't shut down a creature's fire resistance, and just because you deal non-slashing damage (the fire) doesn't shut down a creature's DR. HTH.

I can understand that potentially being the case. I know that is clearly how it works with the various energy resistances, I've dealt with fire resist plenty as fire has been my primary element from the start, but I'm not entirely sure about DR being the same. Can you site this ruling?

[Kurald Galain]

I cannot cite a rule of damage of one type "shutting down" resistance to damage of another type, because there is no such rule.

[KillianHawkeye]

The text of Kinetic Fist states that your natural weapons or unarmed strike deal "additional damage" based on your kinetic blast damage dice, and that "this damage is of the same type as your kinetic blast’s damage." The ability does not mention DR in any way.

Even if you use a kinetic blast which deals a physical damage type, treating is as separate from your unarmed attack damage is less confusing and more consistent not only with the way other kinetic blasts work but also with how additional damage works in general. DR also is never "shut down" the way regeneration is, so that's a bad comparison. Kurald has it correct.

[Jack_Simth]

A target has dr 5/adamantine. Becor DR, your club deals 6 bludgeoning, and the attached kinetic blast deals 6 slashing. How much damage does the target take? Why?

[Wolfswift]

A target has dr 5/adamantine. Becor DR, your club deals 6 bludgeoning, and the attached kinetic blast deals 6 slashing. How much damage does the target take? Why?

Well that's 12 damage, if the club is not adamantine, which it was not stated to be, 5 gets ignored & 7 gets through. Because DR doesn't apply separately to every part of one bulk of damage from an attack. In that hypothetical situation, the DR has already done it's job reducing 5 of the incoming damage on said hypothetical club's 6 damage, leaving 1 bludgeoning damage and 6 slashing damage. In this situation, their being different weapon damage types (bludgeoning/slashing/piercing) is irrelevant seeing as that DR has nothing to do with bludgeoning or slashing. DR applies once per attack made against it, I can't find a rule to site for that, but I know that's the allure of two-handed fighting over two-weapon fighting, big hits means more damage gets through against DR than many smaller hits each being separately reduced by it.

Follow-up question: Suppose that club was instead adamantine handwraps, so that Kinetic Fist works here. The unarmed strike with the adamantine handwraps deals 6 bludgeoning damage and an earth blast tacked on with kinetic fist deals 6 slashing. Does it deal the full 12 damage because the handwraps were adamantine and so all damage in the unarmed strike was adamantine damage? Or does it deal 7 damage because the bludgeoning damage from the unarmed strike was adamantine but the earth blast was not and therefore all adamantine bludgeoning damage from the actual attack fully gets through bypassing the DR, but the non adamantine earth blast's slashing damage meets the DR and is reduced to 1?

Does using an adamantine weapon make all weapon damage types from an attack with it be treated as adamantine for the purposes of overcoming DR, even if some of said weapon damage came from a different source tacked on by another ability?

[Jack_Simth]

You're missing the point of the question.

If it's all treated as one attack when DR obviously fully applies, why would you think it wouldn't be treated as one attack in other situations?

I know your question. I can't actually give you a proper unambiguously RAW answer: to the best of my knowledge, it's not addressed. Best I can do is get you thinking, so you can pose the question to your DM.

[Wolfswift]

Right. I'm at least 75% sure having extra weapon damage that is slashing added won't make the bludgeoning damage of my unarmed strike be bludgeoning and slashing nor does dealing any slashing damage at all disable DR #/Slashing and thus it's not as effective as I might have hoped, but! I am now curious if an adamantine bludgeoning weapon having extra blugeoning or slashing damage or what have you added to it by another ability would count those damage dice as adamantine as well or not. If not, then I think I might be better off going with a different energy type.

To be honest, this'd actually been about choosing Air Blast or not all along, there's a third party wild talent called Wind Blade that makes the bludgeoning damage of air blast deal bludgeoning and slashing damage and I wasn't sure if getting that or just basic Air Blast we're either one capable of being more effective than Electric Blast.