Damage Reduction

Damage Reduction (DR) is a measure of how much damage a character can absorb before losing hit points. The DR value is subtracted from each incoming hit, to a minimum of zero damage received. If you have a DR 10 and get hit for 9 points of damage, you take no damage at all. If you have a DR 10 and get hit for 15 points of damage, you only take 5 points of damage. DR applies only to physical weapon damage, although there is a similar concept of Resist Energy that applies to energy/elemental damage from spells, enchanted weapons, and traps.

Passive DR is visible on your character sheet, or as buffs in your buff bar. Multiple DR entries may be listed on your sheet; only the highest one which is not bypassed by a particular attack's properties (like Adamantine) applies. The actual DR used against an attack is reported in the combat log as final/net damage dealt followed by damage reduced.

Player characters (but not monsters, apparently) gain "Active DR" when they actively block by holding down the shift key. Active DR is displayed as "Blocking DR" in your inventory sheet. Passive DR is visible on the character sheet or as buffs in your buff bar. Multiple DR entries will be listed, and only the highest one which is not bypassed by a particular attack's properties (like Adamantine) applies.

Any Passive DR (from the single, highest applicable source) stacks with Active DR when actively blocking.

Passive DR Sources
Passive DR can be provided from many sources, including:
 * Warforged Adamantine Body, Improved DR Feats, or Warforged Improved DR enhancements (DR/Adamantine)
 * Barbarians get +1 DR/- at levels 2, 5, 8, 11, 14 and a +1 Enhancement available at levels 3 and 7
 * Adamantine Armor DR/- (1 from shields or light armor, 2 from medium armor, and 3 from heavy armor)
 * Ironskin Chant (DR5/-) song from Warchanter Bard.
 * The Stoneskin spell (DR 10/Adamantine), Angelskin spell (DR5/Evil)
 * Magical items of Invulnerability (DR 5/Magic), or of Axeblock, Hammerblock, and Spearblock
 * Certain named items, like the Bloodrage Symbiont (DR5/-) or Golden Greaves (DR3/-)

These passive DR sources do not stack with each other; only the highest DR not overcome by the attack type is taken into account. But, if one type of DR is bypassed, a lower value DR from a different source can apply.

Any Passive DR (from the single highest, applicable source) stacks with Active DR when actively blocking. Passive DR that is bypassed is removed from the calculation.

Examples

 * Example 1 - A Warforged Fighter has Adamantine Body and DR6/Adamantine and also has the temporary Ironskin Chant song DR5/- from a Bard in the party.
 * He is hit with an Adamantine attack/weapon, which bypasses his DR6/Adamantine. But, he receives DR5/- from the Ironskin Chant.


 * Example 2 - The same Warforged Fighter is buffed with the Stoneskin spell.
 * The higher DR10/Adamantine replaces his own DR6/Adamantine until it runs out.

DR Aspects
While Active DR applies universally to all weapon physical damage and prevents special attack/effect damage, Passive DR may be bypassed by the properties of a particular attack. Some forms of DR are vulnerable to materials (like Adamantine or Silver), alignments (like Chaos or Good), or just "magic". In this case, the property which bypasses that DR is listed after the number on the character sheet, in the form of "DR 6/Adamantine" or "DR 5/Evil". If there is no property which can bypass the DR, a "-" is listed instead.

Monster DR
DDO includes monsters with Damage Reduction. Monster DR may require specific material, damage types, and/or alignment to bypass the DR and deal full damage. Additionally, some monsters are vulnerable to magic weapons only. Any weapon with at least a +1 magical enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls overcomes the damage reduction of these monsters. For bypassing DR in DDO, material types are adamantine, byeshk, cold iron, flametouched iron, and silver. Damage types are bludgeoning, piercing, slashing. And alignment are Law, Chaos, Good, Evil. A Transmuting weapon is enchanted to mimic all material/damage/alignment types and can bypass any DR that can be bypassed (but not DR/-).

Some examples include:
 * Bearded Devils and Orthons (devils) reqire Good Aligned or Silver weapons
 * Clay Golems require Bludgeoning and Adamantine weapons
 * Eladrins require Cold Iron weapons
 * Flesh Renders (demons) require Good Aligned and Cold Iron weapons
 * Ghostly Skeletons require Good Aligned weapons
 * Iron Golems and Flesh Golems require Adamantine weapons
 * Rakshasas require Good Aligned and Piercing weapons
 * Skeletons require Bludgeoning weapons
 * Vampires require Silver weapons
 * Zombies require Slashing weapons