Elemental Forms and SS/Premo

[Wytchee]

How do spells like Stoneskin and Premonition interact with the damage soak and immunity provided by druid elemental forms?

Is damage soaked up before or after Premonition takes the hit?

Is Premonition worth casting if you already have 19/- DR?

Thanks.

[msterswrdsmn]

...Yeah, this is going to take a minute to explain. Gimme a sec....

Edit

Okay. There are 3 types of damage resistances
-Damage Resistance (a number/-)
-Damage Reduction (a number/an enchantment number)
-Damage Immunity (a % value)

Each will stack with other sources of damage reducing types, but won't stack with each other. For example, Monk DR of 20/+1 WILL stack on top of epic damage reduction (9/-), but won't stack with say, ghostly visage (5/+1)

For this reason, premonition is worth casting if you already had a base of 19/- DR, as it will come out to being able to block the first 49 points of damage as long as premonition is up, assuming the damage isn't coming from some source with a high enough enchantment value to bypass premonition. Damage immunity will further increase the blocked damage amount; I think the order was damage immunity was factored in first, then damage reduction, then damage resistance.

Things that spells like premonition will stack with are Dwarven Defender Dr, Barbarian DR, epic DR feats, and damage immunity from armor/gear. I DONT think they stack with Monk DR

As for the three damage reduction spells (premontion, greater stoneskin, stoneskin) you can have all three up at once, as all three are from different spell schools. The nwn engine will start draining charges from the highest level spell avaliable, then once that wears off, will start draining from the next highest one. I -think-. I haven't played a character thats used all 3 at once since Ryang.

I have no idea what kind of damage resistance elemental forms have, so i cant really comment on that.

[Wytchee]

Dang, thanks a lot for the thorough explanation! Makes much more sense now.

[Dredi]

One additional point.
Multiple points of Damage Reduction do stack - but only the highest value effects any given attack. Multiple spells allows the highest spell to drain first and then the next spell kicks in once its exhausted.

Its worth noting as well that damage reduction and resistance are two different things, but damage reduction can also be unblockable. (Barbarian Damage Reduction is just that, 1/- and is not considered as damage resistance)

The main difference between damage reduction and damage resistance is that damage reduction ONLY effects physical damage and damage resistance ONLY effects 1 type of damage (Fire, Slashing, Bludgeoning, Magical, Positive, etc) further damage resistance can NEVER be overcome while damage reduction can SOMETIMES be overcome with high + weapons.

In your example, someone with a +5 weapon, such as from greater magic weapon or greater magic fang would be able to bypass premonition entirely, but not bypass your base DR of 19/- but you could not get +49 DR