How much AC is DR 5/- worth?

[John Q. Mayhem]

How much AC is DR 5/- "worth?" I'm changing the 3.5 barbarian into a dervish-style warrior, using UAs Whirling Frenzy, and I want to switch out the DR for a dodge bonus to AC. I've already changed the hit die to d8 and added a +1 to +4 AC progression.

 

[Gort]

Depends who you're fighting, I guess.

Think of it in terms of power attack. If the enemy has a two-handed weapon, then DR 5/- is only worth 2.5 points of attack. If one-handed, it's worth 5.

IMO, DR is nice, but I prefer AC.

 

[Philip]

How much AC is DR 5/- "worth?" I'm changing the 3.5 barbarian into a dervish-style warrior, using UAs Whirling Frenzy, and I want to switch out the DR for a dodge bonus to AC. I've already changed the hit die to d8 and added a +1 to +4 AC progression.

Think of it as a permanently active and not dispellable effect that gives all enemies -5 to damage on regular melee and ranged attacks when attacking you. Probably worth a lot.

 

[Scion]

A whole lot in some ways, not much in others. They do almost completely different things really.

Why are you getting rid of the DR? you have already cut their hd down by 2 steps and given them a couple of points of ac.. depending on the campaign that may or may not be compensation ::shrugs::

The problem here is that some shifts are not enough, and others are way too much. None of which really seem right.

If it had to be done I'd probably wind up giving a +7 or +8 total.

+2 for the first -1, and then +1, then +2, +1, +2.

But really, leaving the dr is probably better for flavor and balance reasons

 

[Black Knight Irios]

Maybe you just should take some level in the dervish PC presented in Complete Warrior. You can still use a Barbarian with Whirling Frenzy.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I have neither CW nor the cash to get it, so that's out. I didn't think that being Just That Tough that you could shrug off the blows of mere mortals fit the flavour of a lightly-armed desert warrior. Think Fremen rather than Mathias. I'm leaning towards +4 more. I'm trying to balance with AUs Unfettered, BTW.

 

[aurin777]

DR 5/- is equal to +3 ac... 5/- is the same as the invonurability (sp) ability on armors from the DMG.
~~Brandon

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Alright. I had just thought of that when I read your reply, incidentally. How much AC is 20 HP worth?

 

[Rashak Mani]

DR 5/- is very hard to get !! No way its worth only 3 AC !

Against high attacks 3 AC can mean very little... against multiple not so strong attacks DR 5 can be gold !

 

[Elric]

You should note that AC and DR are very different, so comparing magic items might not work well. +1 Armor of Invulnerability costs the same as +4 Armor. But if you want +4 AC worth of bonuses, you could get +2 Armor, a +1 Ring of Deflection and a +1 Amulet of Natural Armor for 8k, while the armor would be 16k. This would make it seem like DR 5/- should be worth more than +3 AC.

However, when they apply (so not against fireballs or something), both DR and AC scale concave up in power. The more AC (DR) you have, the more powerful the next increase in AC (DR) is. It does not seem possible to get an amount of DR so large that enemies simply cannot hurt you (their damage far outpaces AC), while it is possible to get an AC so high that most enemies cannot hit you.

If you really want to know how much AC the DR is worth, build a sample character with DR and run the damage/round calculators from a couple of different enemies who he is likely to fight. Then, see how much AC you have to give him to keep the damage about the same after you take away his DR. Unfortunately, this could change at different levels.