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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack Simth" data-source="post: 4173170" data-attributes="member: 29252">A couple of notes...Armor as DR:Does a couple of things.1) Makes two-handed weapons even more attractive for Power Attack - when converting AC to DR, the variant does it on a one-for-one basis - so the double power attack you get with a two-handed weapon is free damage, compared to normal.  Your opponent has DR 4/- and an AC of 18, rather than an AC of 22 and no DR?  If you Power Attack for 4, you're looking at the same roll to hit as you would against the AC of 22, but you've got 8 points of bonus damage... 4 of which is lost to the DR.  Net effect?  You're dealing more damage per hit, with the same hit rate.  This makes reasonably built melee opponents more deadly, not less.2) Makes single, large attacks more attractive compared to lots of little attacks.  This is because DR applies on a per-hit basis; vs. DR 4/-, 2d6+10 averages 17 damage, of which 13 penetrates DR, where as two hits of 1d6+5 each averages 8.5 damage per hit, or 17 damage for both ... of 9 penetrates the DR (because both hits soaked the DR).  This makes classes and combat methods designed around a lot of attacks less effective (most notably, the Monk and two-weapon fighters).  There's an exception for cases where you've got a lot of extra damage that applies on a per-hit basis (rogue vs. Sneak Attackable target, ranger vs. favored enemy, stat damage from Wounding weapons or a rogue's Crippling Strike, and so on), but for the most part, it makes single, large attacks much better than more, smaller attacks, by a lot.As for your Gestalt pairings....Ninja and Swordsage can rock pretty hard, especially paired with something that's Wisdom-based, such as a Druid or Cleric (Wis to AC, Wis powering most their abilities).  The Soulknife is much harder to do that with - all the Soulknife really has going for it in gestalt is the d10 hit die and two good saves.  The "free" magic weapon helps somewhat, but it's not all that grand compared to what a Cleric can do with, say, Greater Magic Weapon.  The Dragon Shaman and Warlock face similar issues.</blockquote>

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