Concerning Elemental Damage

I've skimmed over some guides i've found here (namely the game mechanics one); and it got me wondering: the AL against physical damage is stated on the armor (ex: 70 AL gear for a ranger) but when you're hit by one of the four elements (cold, fire, earth, lightning) how is that damage calculated?

does it just take your standard physical AL (add on whatever bonuses if any) and use it against elemental damage?

or is there some other system when it comes to this?

I am under the impression that you have a base armor level with your armor. Most warriors have physical armor bonuses, some other types have elemental damage bonuses, and i know some necro armor has piercing attack bonuses.

So I guess it depends on the armor (if i understood your question)

i think my question was a bit confusing (i tend to do that at times)

lemme try to summarize what i asked. if physical damage is based on the physical AL; then whats the elemental damage based on?

is it somehow based on the physical defense, or does everyone have a standard elemental defense rating?

AFAIK the bonuses to defense are added on top of your base AL. So with Ranger's Drakescale set, I believe they would have (70 base) + (30 vs elements) + (15 vs lightning) = 115 vs lightning.

i was thinking the same thing, but wasnt sure.

If that is true, then rangers have the highest ele defense, even more so then the casters themselves (which is odd in my mind, coming from paper and pencil rpg's, a mage would usually have more defense against spells then a fighter, disregarding racial bonuses :P)

Yep, that's how the armor works.

The reason the mages have lower elemental armor is probably because in the pencil and paper games, mages typically have horrid HP maxes. However HPs are even for all classes here.

well yes they did have a horrid max hp ( go go 1d4 hp) but they had more spell resistance then otehr calsses

anywho, i guess its just particularities