Hardness vs Damage Reduction

[Plato's Nephew]

In the game I'm running, one of my players built a construct using the Animated Object rules. The construct (Mr. Tik-tok) has the 'Metal' special ability, and as such, sports a hardness rating. During a recent battle, Mr. Tik-tok was the subject of a spell that gave it DR 10. The monster it was fighting by-passed the DR, another player said that the monster still wasn't doing damage as it still had to contest with the hardness. I ruled that Mr. Tik-tok would have either DR or hardness, at the very least, only the most protective would apply, as they both do the the same thing. This caused some consternation amongst the players, and myself.

I guess what I'd like to know is what is the relationship between DR and hardness? Does one trump another? Can a creature have both, and if so, do they overlap or stack? Please help.

[Abraham spalding]

Hardness is like DR with universal energy resistance thrown in. In addition energy damage is halved before Hardness is applied.

An object can have energy resistance and it can also have DR -- they both apply with hardness (as they are not the samething).

In the case of an animated object with DR 10/- and hardness 8/- (for random number) a melee attack would lose 10 points from DR and then 8 points from hardness. If it was carrying an energy damage effect too then that would be halved and then hardness would be subtracted from it as well.

[Kierato]

Depending on the energy damage and the creature/object affected

Core Rulebook wrote:

Energy Attacks

Energy attacks deal half damage to most objects. Divide the damage by 2 before applying the object's hardness. Some energy types might be particularly effective against certain objects, subject to GM discretion. For example, fire might do full damage against parchment, cloth, and other objects that burn easily. Sonic might do full damage against glass and crystal objects.

bold is mine.

[Oliver McShade]

Depending on the energy damage and the creature/object affected

Core Rulebook wrote:

Energy Attacks

Energy attacks deal half damage to most objects. Divide the damage by 2 before applying the object's hardness. Some energy types might be particularly effective against certain objects, subject to GM discretion. For example, fire might do full damage against parchment, cloth, and other objects that burn easily. Sonic might do full damage against glass and crystal objects.

[Ravingdork]

I asked this question before too and I too would like to have an official answer on the matter.

I had a sorcerer who would often use the statue AND stoneskin spells at the same time, but sadly, my GM ruled that they didn't stack.

[Father Dagon]

Bit of thread-rez here, as I had a recent scenario similar to the OP's - an Animated Object with Hardness 10, that I'd like to upgrade with some Acid Resistance. Hardness isn't *quite* the same thing as ER, but it covers some of the same ground. Would this boost the overall effectiveness of the energy resistance a la different bonus types stacking, or would it overlap?

[Drachasor]

You should just start a new thread rather than rezzing an old one. This thread was last active almost THREE YEARS AGO.

But yeah, by RAW ER and Hardness will both work independently. ER reduces the damage, then Hardness reduces what is left. Works the same with DR.

Note that Animated Objects aren't objects anymore. They are creatures. Elemental damage is not halved against creatures. Similarly, they shouldn't have Weakness to any damage type (by default anyhow).