combining variant rules?

[Veven1290]

I am thinking about running an E6 campaign but i also want to use it as an opportunity to test some variant rules I've been curious about.

Two that i like seem to conflict a bit and I am curious how you enworlders would handle it as a DM.

Using the "Armor as DR" variant and the "Damage Conversion" variant, how do you think damage would be allocated?

lets say a fighter with no Dex mod is wearing full plate armor. Under "Armor as DR" he has an AC of 14 and DR 4/-. The "Damage Conversion" rule has armor converting it's AC bonus worth of damage into non-lethal damage.

If this fighter gets hit for 10 damage, what happens? here are a couple options i have come up with.

A) (this makes very little sense) The +4 armor bonus converts the first 4 points of damage to non-lethal and then the DR does away with said damage completely

B) The first 4 points of damage are converted to non-lethal, the fighter takes the 4 non-lethal damage. The next six points of lethal damage are then reduced to 2 by the DR and the fighter has taken a total of 4 non-lethal and 2 lethal damage.


These variants really were not made with each other in mind but i am just curious how you guys would rule this.

heck, might as well throw the "Defense Bonus" variant in there too

 

[Herzog]

You shouldn't combine those rules.

I'm not familiar with those rules, but I'm assuming both also remove the armor AC from the regular AC (otherwise, you'd have both a high AC and a high DR)

Both do effectively the same: remove the 'AC' amount of damage from the 'real' damage.

One converts it to nonlethal damage, the other does away with it completely.

Which means one will let you fall uncouncious at the same time you would otherwise (with respect to damage taken), (unless you are immune to nonlethal damage, such as a warforged), the other would let you continue to fight.

When comparing both to the 'normal' rules, the conversion rule is more gritty: you get hit more often, but fall down from the same amount of damage.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Apply DR first, then do damage conversion on what remains.

Good luck.

P.S. The Defense Bonus is a fun variant for characters to not wear armor and still be effective. This trifecta could actually make for an interesting decision about whether or not you wear armor.