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Mechanically, in regards to damage reduction from a class and resistances from a race, would those stack?

For example, a Tiefling [fiendish resistances of 5/ (electricity, cold, and fire) has a class ability that would grant damage reduction 2/adamantium] and gets hit by a spell-storing non-adamantine weapon for the sake of example a short sword with a stored spell of shocking grasp.

IE: effectively a +1 sword (+2 with spell storing) hits the character for 1d6 + 1 (for being a +1 weapon) + STR or DEX if using weapon finesse (for the sake of argument, let's say +3) + 1d6 electricity from the shocking grasp.

Additionally let's say the attack rolled max damage on the 2 d6 rolls:

6 (weapon) + 1 (weapon enhancement) + 3 (character bonus to either STR or Dex) + 6 electricity damage. 10 physical damage and 6 electrical damage.

In what order would you start applying damage reduction and or resistances for a total to apply to the above described Tiefling?

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    \$\begingroup\$ The way you write resistances in your question, "fiendish resistances of 5/ (electricity, cold, and fire)", is similar to how damage reduction is written, such as "DR 5/silver", but you actually mean the exact opposite. In DR, the thing after the slash is what the DR does not apply to. In Resistances, commonly written "Resistances: fire, cold, electricity 5", the resistance only applies to the named element. \$\endgroup\$
    – MrLemon
    Commented Dec 3, 2014 at 12:58

2 Answers 2

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No, DR and resistances do not stack.

DR only protects against the physical damage type. Resistances apply to other damages types, like fire, acid, electricity and so on. There is no overlap between damage types.

In your example, with 10 physical + 6 electricity damage:

  • A monster with DR 5/- would receive 5 physical and 6 electricity damage.
  • A monster with DR 20/- and electricity resistance 5 would receive 0 physical and 1 electricity damage.
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The order you use to apply resistances and damage reduction doesn't matter.

In your example, the tiefling is hit for 16 total damage, 10 physical and 6 electric. The adamantium DR takes off 2 points from the physical (leaving 8). The fiendish electrical resistance takes off 5 points from the shocking grasp effect (leaving 1). Ultimately, that tiefling only takes 9 points of damage (and might want to drink a potion of cure light wounds soon!).

The key point here is that you look at each damage type separately for DR/resistances/etc. before taking it off the target's HP.

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