Barbarian natural damage resistance

[Stygian Overlord]

Do Barbarians get to add their class damage resistance to the DR from armor they wear? Is it halved if paired with armor? Can armor Piercing reduce the Barbarian class DR?

 

[bjorntfh]

Yes, noand yes. It's not Primal Armor so it is subject to AP, it does stack with all others and it's not halved if you wear armor.

 

[Stygian Overlord]

What the heck is Primal armor? Even in the Bestiary section it says that monster and animal DR is handled like regular armor. I don't remember seeing Primal armor anywhere, do you have a page number?

 

[bjorntfh]

The only place you'll find Primal Armor is in Raven's Rules for Sorcery: it functions constantly and isn't subject to penetration, but only one spell grants it (Mage Armor) and it caps out at 4. It's basically armor made of force.

 

[Stygian Overlord]

So....back to Barbarian Class Damage Reduction...

I see in the King Conan writeup in RoK that it is added into his armor DR. It doesn't appear to be reduced at all when it is added to the armor (In that writeup).

I am going to assume that it can be reduced by an attackers AP though.

 

[Netherek]

Under Armour and Damage Reduction in the Combat section:

Certain Creature have an innate DR due to thick skin, scales, etc. This is treated as armour with regard to penetration in all respects unless specifically noted in the creatures statistics.

As I have not seen Barbarian DR as treated differently in any NPC or under the class descriptions, it would appear that it is treated like armour. That is how I apply it. Just look at King Conan, his DR is listed as +2 natural. Nothing defining it as something unusual.

 

[argo]

Barbarian DR is Natural Armor

Natural Armor stacks with regular Armor and follows all the same rules as regular armor with regards to AP and finesse.

I don't even know where the "halve natural armor when paired with regular armor" thing came from. Are you confusing this with some Unearthed Arcana rule? (I seem to recall something along those lines ...)

Hope that helps.

 

[Stygian Overlord]

That came from the layering armor part of the equipment chapter. I wish I could give you the quote I am thinking of but I do all my posting from work. Like I said though, King Conan doesn't seem to have his natural DR cut in half so I am guessing that you don't cut it.

This whole discussion came up because one of my players thinks that barbarian DR is somehow different and cannot be reduced by AP. Personally I think he is being mislead by what is essentially flavor text in the barbarian DR description, but I was wondering if other people have come to the same conclusions.

 

[geordiekimbo]

The way it works to me is the whole of the armour DR is used against the attacks..Barbarians natural armour is not figured into it seperately.

King Conan has a DR of 14 (10 for plate, +2 for helm,+2 for natural armour) so this figure is used as is for purposes of anyone attempting to get through his armour with a weapon.

It looks to me as though its an additional modifier added to armour (in the same way as a helm), or can be used by itself if necessary when no other armour is worn.

 

[Raven Blackwell]

That came from the layering armor part of the equipment chapter. I wish I could give you the quote I am thinking of but I do all my posting from work. Like I said though, King Conan doesn't seem to have his natural DR cut in half so I am guessing that you don't cut it.

This whole discussion came up because one of my players thinks that barbarian DR is somehow different and cannot be reduced by AP. Personally I think he is being mislead by what is essentially flavor text in the barbarian DR description, but I was wondering if other people have come to the same conclusions.

I agree that it can be pentrated. The whole 'Primal Armor' concept was something unrelated- just a way to desginate DR given by magical means.

 

[argo]

That came from the layering armor part of the equipment chapter. I wish I could give you the quote I am thinking of but I do all my posting from work. Like I said though, King Conan doesn't seem to have his natural DR cut in half so I am guessing that you don't cut it.

Ah, except that that is not acutally a "rule". Or rather what I am trying to say is that there is no rule that can be phrased as "layering an armor with DRx and an armor with DRy results in DR(x+1/2y)" or anything to that effect. Rather the rule of layering armor is that each specific combination of two armors is treated as a new kind of armor with its own entry on the equipment list.

Make sense?

This whole discussion came up because one of my players thinks that barbarian DR is somehow different and cannot be reduced by AP. Personally I think he is being mislead by what is essentially flavor text in the barbarian DR description, but I was wondering if other people have come to the same conclusions.

You are right. Natural Armor is treated just like normal armor for purposes of piercing it with AP and bypassing it with finesse.

Hope that helps.