Question about Stoneskin behavior when stacking with existing DR greater than 10.

[Sircowdog]

OK, here is the situation:

A monster has DR 15/Cold Iron. A 12th level caster places stoneskin on this monster, giving it DR 10/Adamantite with 120 stoneskin hitpoints. A fighter attacking the monster with the Penetrating Strike using a +2 Mithral Elven Curve Blade.

How is this attack resolved? DR generally doesn't stack, only using the higher value. However, penetrating strike would ignore the first 5 points of DR. The weapon is neither Cold Iron or Adamantite, or carrying a +3 or greater enhancement bonus. So the DR 15/Cold Iron would reduce the damage from this Curveblade by 10.

Would the Stoneskin hitpoints not ever lose any value since the DR/15 Cold Iron is the better DR? Or would penetrating strike also effect the stoneskin DR, causing the Stoneskin to only absorb 5 instead of 10 hitpoints? Or would the DR/15 Cold Iron still take effect AND the stoneskin would absorb 10 hitpoints per hit?

This strikes me as a fairly unique situation, but I'm interested to know how stoneskin behaves when cast on a target that has a DR greater than 10.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

[The Saltmarsh 6]

Interesting question i think which ever DR is most effective would be used so for most attacks the DR 15 would be used
Unless the attack is made with a cold iron weapon in which case the DR 10 stone skin would take effect
At least that's how i would play it but I'm open for comments

[Gauss]

In the example you gave you use the DR15/Cold Iron.

If the weapon bypassed Adamantine you use the DR15/Cold Iron and do not subtract anything from the stoneskin.
If the weapon bypassed the Cold Iron you use the DR10/Adamantine and subtract the appropriate amount from the Stoneskin.

Basically, you check the weapon then use the best against that weapon.

Note: this will rub some people wrong because they will think of the Stoneskin as being on the 'outside' of the person. However that would be flavor. The mechanics are to take the best at the moment.

- Gauss

[Chemlak]

General rule: Resolve effects to the defender's advantage.

In this case, not wearing down the Stoneskin is to the defender's advantage, and the DR 15/Cold Iron allows that to happen. So it does.

[Matthew Downie]

Chemlak wrote:

General rule: Resolve effects to the defender's advantage.

What makes that a general rule? With Resist Energy & Protection From Energy, the Protection HP buffer is lost first without RE helping, which is to the benefit of the attacker.

[Skylancer4]

It is actually stated in the rules. Punch 'damage reduction' into the PRD seach.

[Gauss]

Here is the rule regarding overlapping DR.

CRB p562 Damage Reduction section wrote:

If a creature has damage reduction from more than one source, the two forms of damage reduction do not stack. Instead, the creature gets the benefit of the best damage reduction in a given situation.

- Gauss

[Sircowdog]

The kicker to this problem is the Penetrating Strikes feat, which is reducing the effectiveness of DR by 5. The Cold Iron would still be the better DR, stopping the first 10 points of each attack.

The GM running the game is using the 'flavor' part of stoneskin being on the outside of the creature, and will still absorb damage. But we called the game before it became an issue(this was at the VERY end of the gaming session). Everyone agreed that it was somewhat of a strange situation, so I figured I'd ask the pros here what they thought.

[Gauss]

In the case of Penetrating Strike you would have to get past DR10/Cold Iron and DR5/Adamantine.

If you have a Cold Iron Weapon you still have DR5/Adamantine to get past.

If you have an Adamantine Weapon you still have DR10/Cold Iron to get past.

If your GM is apply BOTH DR15/Cold Iron AND DR10/Adamantine (DR25 effectively) point out page 562 where it states that only the better of the two is applied.

- Gauss

[Prawn]

Gauss is the the boss.

[Gauss]

Prawn: I am not, if I were I would have put 'is applying' instead of 'is apply'. God I hate it when I notice my typos too late to fix them.

- Gauss