If you had a choice of constantly gaining resistance to any one damage type, but not any others, what would be most likely to be beneficial? (Fire, bludgeoning, slashing, poison, negative, positive and so on)
I second Piercing as the best damage resistance to have.
Excellent and well explained insights so far, thank you.
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I mostly agree with what has been stated here (the physical resistances are the best) but I think fire jumps ahead of evil damage if you are a melee character and someone in your party likes to use fireball (which is pretty common).
I know that in the 5e game that I play a wizard in (and it wouldn't really change if the game was PF2 instead) fire resistance would definitely be the first choice for my fellow party members.
If you had a choice of gaining resistance to any one damage type, but not any others, what would be most likely to be beneficial? (Fire, bludgeoning, slashing, poison, negative, positive and so on)I say Piercing > Slashing > Bludgeoning > Evil > Elemental ( frost/fire typically ).
-The jaw attack deals piercing damage and is the main attack for most creatures, and because so the more likely to hit/crit. This would also give you protection against arrows as well.
-Slashing damage is close, since claws are slashing attacks and having the agile traits they can affor a 3rd hit ( depends your character AC and enemy lvl ofc ). It also gives you protection vs swords and similar weapons, which are pretty common.
-Bludgeoning damage is somehow typical in some adventures ( for example, AoO ), so I think it's worth consider it.
-Evil is going to be more and more common the more the character level up. Keep in mind that the average damage would go from 1d6 to 2d6, resulting in 7 evil damage per round. Being able to have 5 evil resist would do the trick.
-Elemental damage... well, that's the wheel of fortune. I'd probably go with Fire resistance and Cold as secondary one. Electric, Acid and Sonic are too niche damage to be worth investing into them ( IMO ).
-Negative damage... I don't really know. Unless you are fighting against undeads a lot, I think it's not worth it. Keep in mind some heritages give you 1/2 negative energy resistance ( for example, the Vivacious Gnome one ).
You are missing poison, precision, critical hits. There are quite a few other resistances out there. Getting them is harder.
Poison resistance is reasonably available though - probably should rank at the same level as fire.
You are missing poison, precision, critical hits. There are quite a few other resistances out there. Getting them is harder.
Poison resistance is reasonably available though - probably should rank at the same level as fire.
Is poison resistance reasonably available? Other than the Alchemist and Druid feats, how can you get it?
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Is poison resistance reasonably available? Other than the Alchemist and Druid feats, how can you get it?
You are missing poison, precision, critical hits. There are quite a few other resistances out there. Getting them is harder.
Poison resistance is reasonably available though - probably should rank at the same level as fire.
There's some Heritages that can get you Poison resistance like Strong-Blooded Dwarf.
I would argue that Poison resistance is one of the hardest to get. There is no ring of poison resistance, and no spell or potion or alchemical elixir that grants it either. It's either one of about 4 feats or nothing.
I would argue that Poison resistance is one of the hardest to get. There is no ring of poison resistance, and no spell or potion or alchemical elixir that grants it either. It's either one of about 4 feats or nothing.
Fair enough. Though the original question was about effectiveness not availability.
Maybe we should rate poison resistance as an ability higher as it is harder to get alternative protection for.
Bleed resistance would be really nice to get. But I don't think you can.
You can through Physical Resistance.
I would argue that Poison resistance is one of the hardest to get. There is no ring of poison resistance, and no spell or potion or alchemical elixir that grants it either. It's either one of about 4 feats or nothing.Fair enough. Though the original question was about effectiveness not availability.
Maybe we should rate poison resistance as an ability higher as it is harder to get alternative protection for.
I 100% agree.
Bleed resistance would be really nice to get. But I don't think you can.
Not bleed resistance per se, but I believe some ancestry feats will lower the DC of the flat check to stop bleeding. I want to say hobgoblin get one, or maybe dhampir.
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Yes, my next char is going to be a Kobold Dragon Disciple Cosmos Oracle, with Fire, Poison and Physical resistance!
Yes, my next char is going to be a Kobold Dragon Disciple Cosmos Oracle, with Fire, Poison and Physical resistance!
But what does your resistance to getting trapped in a headlock look like?
Yes, my next char is going to be a Kobold Dragon Disciple Cosmos Oracle, with Fire, Poison and Physical resistance!But what does your resistance to getting trapped in a headlock look like?
Fire resistance seems like one of the most relevant types when it comes to wrestling. If someone is nasty, they could have a creature with persistent fire damage wrestle you.
I think I massively underappreciated all the factors involved in what would be best to get...
What resistance would a high ac melee character like a monk or champion benefit from the most out of fire, poison or electricity?
I'm hoping high ac will help mitigate the need for physical a little.
I think I massively underappreciated all the factors involved in what would be best to get...
What resistance would a high ac melee character like a monk or champion benefit from the most out of fire, poison or electricity?
I'm hoping high ac will help mitigate the need for physical a little.
Out of those 3, definitely fire.
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I think I massively underappreciated all the factors involved in what would be best to get...
What resistance would a high ac melee character like a monk or champion benefit from the most out of fire, poison or electricity?
I'm hoping high ac will help mitigate the need for physical a little.
A Champion will presumably gain physical Resistances from Armor Expertise at level 7 (Presumbaly either Composite Armor or Plate Armor)
Of fire/poison/electricity:
- Fire is easily the most common type energy damage (Burning Hands, Scorching Ray, Fireball, etc.).
- Electricity is still fairly common, but no where near as common as Fire (Shocking Grasp, Lighting Bolt).
- Poison is the least common of these three, but also the hardest resistance to get. Unlike the previous two, it is unlikely to be tied to a Reflex save AoE*, so a champion is probably a little less concerned about it given their great fortitude saves. Monks get some choice on which saves are good for them, so they are a bit more variable...
*There are some Dragon breath weapons that use poison, but again, these are fairly rare...
*There are some Dragon breath weapons that use poison, but again, these are fairly rare...
Green dragon's breath weapon uses a fort save.
I agree w/ Taja. A Champion is probably the one class that has to worry about poison damage the least. Poison often (but not always)comes from an attack. With their high AC and fort saves, a Champion is in the best position to avoid/reduce the poison damage compared to other classes.
On the other hand, the Champion probably has the lowest Dex in the party and the worst Reflex proficiency. Since fire and electricity damage are both more common than poison and most likely to come from a spell or breath weapon or similar effect, fire or electricity resistance would be more valuable to a Champion since they are most likely to a) encounter it and b) fail the save against it.
My Paladin nearly died to Poison, so I tend to have a different point of view.
Poison is a killer. With Persistent Damage they are the 2 main causes of character death.
Poison being nearly always recurrent damage, a resistance, even small, nearly nullifies its effect. Electricity, on the other hand, comes with big bunches of dice, a resistance will reduce the damage from a small percentage.
I'd personally go with Poison as Fire can be easily reduced through a Ring and Electricity is not common enough to be important.
A good fort save is probably a good way to determine if you want poison resistance. But poisonous animals are often ambush predators, which means they might spring on your back line rather than charge the front line.
As a champion, I swagged most of the fort/will saves ( but reflexes ).
My champion has a bad habit of crit-failing his reflex saves.
Rolled a 1 vs. a Cone of Cold, used my hero point and rolled a second natural 1.
As a champion, I swagged most of the fort/will saves ( but reflexes ).My champion has a bad habit of crit-failing his reflex saves.
Rolled a 1 vs. a Cone of Cold, used my hero point and rolled a second natural 1.
That must have hurt!
I got a critical failure on a cone of cold too ( I have the feel it could have been against your same enemy... were you next some kites? ), but never experienced a double 1 on a save ( yet! ).
Anyway, against that Cone of Cold I got 114 damage, fell down from slightly above ( I used my asimar wings and moved 10 feet the last round IIRC ) and got downed and almost died ( got healed after the enemy turn ).
Yeah, same guy. Dropped me in one spell, almost killed me. To add insult to injury, that was my first encounter with that PC because my previous PC had died in the encounter before that, in a warehouse.
I really dislike that encounter. More so than Ralldar, where you're at least in a dungeon and know to be on guard, plus you don't have time pressure, and there's some interesting RP.
But that fight your champions got hosed in? Has zero warning and hits you in the middle of an already challenging gauntlet. That's not where you should put a severe encounter IMO.
And your champion going down is especially rough luck, as their good damage should have made it time to shine.
So people are divided between fire and poison? Interesting, I didn't expect poison to be so dangerous/common.
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So people are divided between fire and poison? Interesting, I didn't expect poison to be so dangerous/common.
The divide is mostly just based on poison resistance being more difficult to get, and on how much more difficult it is to stop ongoing poison damage (as it usually is from an affliction, while fire damage is generally persistent damage which is just a flat check).