Somagu wrote
I'm just grasping at straws here, but could it be that explosive damage can only be reduced to a certain amount? Worth checking, even if briefly.
You may be onto something. I just did a similar test with a veteran kamikaze dwarf, and there was a notable difference between 1 ring (15 res) and 2 rings (30 res), as well as a slight difference between 2 rings (30 res) and all 4 items (85 res).
This seems to be the code where resistance comes into play during the damage calculation:
if(!PenetrateResistance)
Damage -= (BodyPart->GetTotalResistance(Type) >> 1) + RAND() % ((BodyPart->GetTotalResistance(Type) >> 1) + 1);
It looks like it should work fine (damage is reduced by ~50%-100% of the body part's total resistance to that damage type), but looking at those GetTotalResistance() functions leads to a maze of other functions, many of which I can't find definitions for (some of them don't even seem to be declared; is this some sort of magic with the scripts?), so I'm not sure what the hell is going on with those test results.
On an unrelated (but fun) note, I noticed that severed enner beast heads are still animated; ostensibly a bug, but I'd like to imagine that the damned thing is actually still alive, but is rendered harmless without its body (and vocal cords).