Damage Resistance

Cost: [5/level]

DR redirects here, but can also refer to Determined Ready

see also see Injury Tolerance variant Damage Reduction from Powers for divisors

Damage Resistance or DR is an physical exotic advantage where your body itself has a Damage Resistance score.^[1] Damage resistance works subtractively--for instance, 10 piercing damage against DR 5 would equal 5 damage getting through.

Special Enhancements[]

Absorption (+100%): Inflicted damage can be absorbed and used to enhance your abilities.
Force Field (+20%): DR takes the form of a field projected a short distance from the body.
Hardened (+20%/level): Each level of Hardened reduces the armor divisor of an attack by one step. These steps are, in order: “ignores DR,” 100, 10, 5, 3, 2, and 1 (no divisor).
Reflection: DR “bounces back” any damage it stops at the attacker.
Malediction-Proof (+50%, +0% if only against Maledictions) Must be taken with a power source limitation (such as psi). Normally damage from Malediction bypasses DR.^[2]

Sometimes SWITCHABLE is free[]

Thaumatology: Chinese Elemental Powers p 10

If there is no drawback, being switchable is a 0% special effect.

This applies, for example, to Damage Resistance, which can be either always on or switchable for the same point cost.

(However, Damage Resistance with Can’t Wear Armor is inconvenient, so making it Switchable is an enhancement.)

See Switchable (pp. 17-18) for more

This isn't entirely true though: having DR is inconvenient if you want to avoid hurting people (though that's not a risk with flexible DR) or if you want to be able to suffer harm (to blend in) or get afflicted.

Can't Wear Armor works better as a disadvantage if it always applies anyway, then it could be a temporary disadvantage if it could be avoided.

CEP 17 also notes how switchability let's specify unconsciosness effects (on, off, same) as 0pt feature, yet still gives -5% while conscious limitations. This presumably removes the option for the ability to stay on (or switch itself on) when falling unconscious, meaning the only default is "switches off when unconscious" as FREE, so the -5% must be for ready>concentrate.

other limitations which make Switchable cost[]

pg 26 "Skin of Earth" does not have Cannot Wear armor. Instead it merely has a nuisance effect. Somehow even though that's -5% it's worth charging +10% for switchable even though the net effect is a +10%.

Maybe instead you should just have to buy switchable for "not limitation" to bloat the value of switchable? That's simpler. That's like a -10% mitigator for limitations basically.

pg 28 Immobility also charges for switchable on resistant to knockback, perhaps because there are times you want to be knocked around (useful to switch it off) but moreso because it multiplies mass.

but then it costs hourly FP[]

"Using a switchable ability costs 1 FP/hour. This rate of fatigue does not count as a limitation"

this probably applies to ALL switchable abilities but it would probably be more balanced if it only applied to "free switchable" ones.

This helps understand "default state" for ghosts.

Humans turning insubstantial pay the FP/hour when insubstantial

Ghosts turning substantial pay the FP/hour when substantial

Reversion clarifies different.

This might apply to Shapeshifting, unclear.

Visible vs No Signature[]

PK has applied both modifiers to DR in supplements:

Armor of Faith uses the No Signature (+20%) enhancement^[3]^[4] "This is not obvious – the attacks just seem to do less damage than they should."
Force Dome from July 2016's PAWS (pg 6) uses the Visible -10% limitation: "conjures a translucent dome"

Both are DR which are enhanced with the Force Field modifier.

This has led to uncertainty regarding what the basic state of DR is meant to be: visible or invisible.

- -

Monster Hunters Power-Ups 1 pg 9 under Push-Ups Make You Bulletproof (which buys No Signature for Force Field DR) notes:

skin isn’t any tougher or stranger looking; if you do get shot and your DR makes the difference, it just looks like a graze or miss

"Adding “No Signature” to DR hides the force-field effect as well as allowing potentially straight shots to seem nothing more than a graze

Special Limitations[]

Ablative (-80%): DR stops damage once.
Can’t Wear Armor {-40%}
Directional (-20% for front; -40% for everywhere else); -40%): DR only protects against attacks from one direction.
Flexible (-20%): DR is not rigid and has no effect on blunt trauma.
Limited (varies): Your DR applies only to certain attack forms or damage types.
Partial DR only protects a specific hit location (see article for notes)
Semi-Ablative (-20%): When an attack strikes semi-ablative DR, every 10 points of basic damage rolled removes one point of DR, regardless of whether the attack penetrates DR. Cannot be combined with ablative
Tough Skin (-40%): DR is merely tough skin; it includes Flexible.

Only to avoid broken bones, (-80%)^[5]
DR Doesn't Give Protection
Visible: this -10% limitation is applied in GURPS Sorcery: Protection and Warning Spells pg 6 for Force Dome and pg 14 for Utter Dome. It is defined as "translucent". July 2016 by PK.
Partial is for hit locations.
- Partial, Bow (-40%)^[6] is allowed under Bow Fencer instead of buying it for oneself.
Only on parries

Note: there is a problem with the pricing of the skull's innate DR as it is done in Thin Skull. "Tough Skin" is used to reflect the idea that the DR doesn't protect against contact agents, but the -40% inclusion of Flexible creates a problem for the Hurting Yourself rules.

MA124's Harsh Realism for Unarmed Fighters rule for Striking Bone actually describes the skull as "tougher than this suggests". Meaning it counts as HARD DR 3 for purposes of Hurting Yourself for people who strike it.

The impact of "flexible" on blunt trauma basically doesn't exist unless wearing a helmet with 3 or more DR (to stop 5 damage, otherwise 1 penetrates and does not apply)

Variant: Protecting Against Dice[]

page 24 of GURPS Thaumatology: Sorcery has the example of Reverse Missiles allow DR 7 to simply protect against 2d without needing to roll.

The rule cited for allowing this per B269, which is where Modifying Dice + Adds is found.

Flat damage is required to be converted into dice, this is designed to work with All or Nothing.

This is also done with Missile Shield on page 7 of GURPS Sorcery: Protection and Warning Spells

Armor as Dice existed as a concept on the forums too.

Features[]

GURPS Sorcery: Protection and Warning Spells 6/14 Notes:

“Does not damage those colliding with it” is a 0-point special effect of DR with Affects Others, Area Effect, and Force Field.
As a special effect, this forms a hemispherical dome, not a cylinder.

Eyes[]

Although it says "By default, natural DR does not protect your eyes (or windows, if you are a vehicle)" http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/faq/FAQ4-3.html#SS3.4.2.24 mentions an exception:

Normally, Face DR does include eyes (when hit at a -9 penalty). However, normally, people target Slits, which are basically Chinks in Armor on the eyes (-10). Helmets which include the eye hit location specifically are not subject to the Chinks vulnerability over the eyes, and protect at the listed Eye DR instead.

This may just refer to "Force Field" + "Limited, Face" though. Body armor effectively functions like a force field since it prevents 'touch' attacks to the flesh underneath and can protect clothing worn under it.

Nictitating Membrane exists for this purpose.

Chinks in Armor[]

No guideline is given for chinkless armor until Low-Tech which talks about Flexible armor lacking chinks, however non-flexible armor (like in GURPS Psionic Powers, Astral Armor) is explicitly described as chinkless.

FAQ[]

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/faq/FAQ4-3.html#SS3.4.2.24

3.4.2.24 What are the details of targeting eyes on an armored face? Does Face DR protect the eyes? What about slits/chinks? Okay, here's a very terse version of Kromm's ruling:

Normally, Face DR does include eyes (when hit at a -9 penalty). However, normally, people target Slits, which are basically Chinks in Armor on the eyes (-10). Helmets which include the eye hit location specifically are not subject to the Chinks vulnerability over the eyes, and protect at the listed Eye DR instead.

Quotes[]

Kromm[]

2007 http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?p=479362

Damage Resistance is normally "always on," per the first paragraph of Turning Advantages Off and On (p. B34). It has no crippling bulk or appearance issues by default, so "it never inconveniences you."

There's little value to being able to switch DR on and off. You must still add Switchable, +10% if you wish to do that, though. Presumably, if you want such a feature, you have ways of making it useful. You can balance that cost with Nuisance Effect and so on to get DR at +0% that's funny-looking or bulky when on, out of the way when off. This isn't a net drawback, because once again, it has its uses. If nothing else, it's really annoying to have to subtract DR from the HT rolls for beneficial Afflictions, or to turn aside hypodermics when you need to be immunized against plagues!

Finally, you can take limitations that shut down or reduce the availability of your DR. These are most often such things as Accessibility and Uncontrollable. If you have a drawback like that, then you don't need Switchable as well.

The "no appearance issues" is contradicted by PK in 2011 in Monster Hunters, but affirmed in 2016 by PK in PAWS

http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=479511&postcount=12

DR that conks out if you're not conscious is definitely DR with Accessibility. I'd peg it at -10%, really. You're not going to be doing much fighting unless you're awake . . . and if you're not awake, there's 1,001 ways to kill you that DR can't prevent, starting with suffocation and driving a knife into your eyeball.

2011 per roguebfl post http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=1191489&postcount=36

No, I'm saying that DR with Force Field is switchable by default. Note that MOST advantages are! You only need Switchable for the ones priced down for inconvenience, like Invisibility. Since DR with Force Field is inconvenient in ways that DR without is not, it's switchable as part of the package.