Barbarian Rage Powers question

[jrepra]

Hello everyone. I just had a recent question when looking through the barbarian rage powers. The powers in question are as follows:

Undead Blood, Greater: While raging, the barbarian gains cold resistance 10, as well as DR 10/- against non lethal damage.

Guarded Life: While raging, if the barbarian is reduced below 0 hit points, 1 hit point of lethal damage per barbarian level is converted to nonlethal damage. If the barbarian is at negative hit points due to lethal damage, she immediately stabilizes.

Guarded Life, Greater: When using the guarded life rage power, 1 additional hit point of lethal damage per barbarian level is converted to nonlethal damage. A barbarian must have the guarded life rage power and be at least 6th level before selecting this rage power.

My question is, would these two (three if you include the upgraded guarded life) abilities work together at the same time? Such as in this example:

Level 10 barbarian is at 9 hp. A low level enemy fires a crossbow, hitting and dealing exactly 10 damage. due to guarded life, the piercing damage would instead become nonlethal damage ( up to 20 points of damage) since it's just enough to push past the 0 health threshold. Due to it being nonlethal damage, it then has to bypass the damage reduction of 10/- for nonlethal damage, nullifying the crossbow bolt damage entirely.

[shadowkras]

No, the damage dealt was lethal, it was then converted from lethal to non-lethal. DR was already applied (none).

If we replace this crossbow attack by a unarmed or sap attack, then he would first reduce 10 damage, then taker is left. He would recover from these wounds much faster than normally.

Say, some ogre hit him for 20 non-lethal damage with a punch, he would take 10 damage, drop bellow 0 hit points, then immediately stabilize.

[Rysky]

I'd allow on the case that it's still damage that's being applied, the type of damage just happened to be changed.

[Tyrant Lizard King]

jrepra wrote:

My question is, would these two (three if you include the upgraded guarded life) abilities work together at the same time? Such as in this example:

Level 10 barbarian is at 9 hp. A low level enemy fires a crossbow, hitting and dealing exactly 10 damage. due to guarded life, the piercing damage would instead become nonlethal damage ( up to 20 points of damage) since it's just enough to push past the 0 health threshold. Due to it being nonlethal damage, it then has to bypass the damage reduction of 10/- for nonlethal damage, nullifying the crossbow bolt damage entirely.

I believe that you have this correct. DR affects damage applied to you. Your rage power converts part of the lethal damage applied by an attack into nonlethal damage applied by the attack.

However, keep in mind that nonlethal damage that exceeds your current hit points knocks you unconscious and equal to current hit points you are staggered. Raging Vitality is one that works well with this because normally your rage ends when you fall unconscious.

These guarded life rage powers are exceptionally useful to a character that is immune to nonlethal damage.