[3.5] Maximizing Damage Reduction

[Marriclay]

I was playing an arena PbP game a little while back and my warlock character got into a battle with a tanking character, and the only think that actually saved his life was the fact that he has a very small amount of damage reduction, and I got to thinking how awesome it is to render your enemy useless rather than rip him to shreds

What I'm looking for is a way to bump damage reduction, maybe a build built around nullifying enemy attacks. Can the playground help me out with this? The game is 10th level gestalt, and almost all but the dragon magazines, fiendish codex's, and BoVD, are allowed as sources

[Boci]

Spell compendulum iron guard greater. Iron weapons, even magical ones, pass through you.
For actual DR, roll with it from savage species gives you DR: 2 / - that stacks with itself, but boosting damage reduction to be a main feature is very hard.

[Starbuck_II]

Roll With it is usually banned for being too good. But it is nice.

Improved Damage reduction in Complete Warrior adds +1 to any DR type.

[Tytalus]

An old build of mine from the WotC boards used the UA generic classes to pile on Roll With It feats.

A dwarven generic warrior18/expert1/spellcaster1 gets 19 feats (7 normal, 10 warrior. 2 expert + spellcaster). One of them has to be the prerequisite Toughness, but the rest can be Roll With It feats, netting you a nice DR 36/--.

Of course, you will have no class features to speak of.

It's probably better to start off with the Mineral Warrior template (DR 8/adamantine) and double that (DR 16/adamantine) with 4 Thick-Skinned feats (SS). It's quite decent and the minimal investment allows you to still make something effective out of your character.

[gbprime]

You could get a decent amount of cold iron damage reduction by taking warlock levels and fey heritage feats, then topping off with one or more Thick Skinned feats (Savage Species). If the other half of your gestalt self is an arcane caster, you could also throw in Minor Shapeshift to grant yourself temporary hit points for free each round.

1 - Fey Skin
1 - Fey Heritage
3 - Thick Skinned
6 - Thick Skinned
9 - Minor Shapeshift

So at level 10, you're looking at DR 8 / cold iron, plus the ability to give yourself 10 temporary hit points each round as a free action.

[Marriclay]

It's probably better to start off with the Mineral Warrior template (DR 8/adamantine) and double that (DR 16/adamantine) with 4 Thick-Skinned feats (SS). It's quite decent and the minimal investment allows you to still make something effective out of your character.

where's mineral warrior from?

[Person_Man]

Any ToB class grants access to Stone Dragon maneuvers, which grants various levels of DR/adamantine for 1 round after you hit someone.

Adamantine heavy armor gives you DR 2/-.

Incarnate can get:

• Astral Vembraces: DR 2 + (2 * essentia invested)/magic
• Windcloak: DR 2 + (2 * esssentia invested) vs ranged
• Adamant Pauldrans: DR 1*essentia invested/opposing alignment

At level 10 an Incarnate 3/Anything 7 could invest a maximum of 3 essentia into any 1 soulmeld, +1 more if you invest in a feat, +1 more if you invest in a 25,000ish gp magic item. The Totemist can also get some DR, but it's much worse.

Binder can get scaled DR/- as Pact Augmentations (stackable class ability), which goes up to DR 5/- at 20th level. He can also get:

• Dahlver-nar: Another creature shares 50% of your damage. Will negates.
• Eurynome: 2/Lawful
• Savnok: 1 + 1/4 Binder level/piercing (and magic at BL 13+)
• Ashardolon: 10/cold iron
• Halphax: 10/adamantine
• Arete: DR 5/-
• Zceryll: DR 5/magic (goes up to DR 10/magic with 12 or more HD)

At level 10, your highest DR will come from Dahlver-nar + Arete or Savnok, though I would suggest Zceryll instead, as he also grants SR, Energy Resistance, and unlimited Summoning.

Biofeedback gives you DR 2/ + (PP/3)/- for a max of DR 8/-.

There's also a wide variety of spells that grants DR.

But DR is just the surface. If you're really interested in melee protection, you'll want a combination of DR, vampiric healing, renewable temp hit points, and high Constitution.