DR and Ability Damage

[Zonemaster]

Hi all,
I did a quick search of the forum and couldn't find an old thread about this problem,
so excuse me if it was mentioned before.

Does Damage Reduction prevent Ability Damage from natural sources ?

I know that DR prevents physical damage from weapons and not from spells,
spell-like abilities, or energy attacks.
But lets say a Roper attacks a Night Hag (DR 10/magic & cold iron) ---
would the Roper's natural strength damage attack be able to affect the Hag ?

My interpretation is that the strength damage would be prevented the same way other
physical damage would be prevented. Especially since the Roper's attacks are not
considered magical (i.e. the Roper does not have a DR rating on its own). Make sense ?

Thanks,
Z.

 

[Hypersmurf]

The roper's strands make a touch attack, and touch attacks are not negated by DR. The Weakness [Ex] ability would affect the Hag as normal.

-Hyp.

 

[Zonemaster]

The roper's strands make a touch attack, and touch attacks are not negated by DR. The Weakness [Ex] ability would affect the Hag as normal.

-Hyp.

Thanks for the reply, Hypersmurf, but as I understand it DR does not negate a touch attack
only the damage associated with it. I do believe the Hag would be affected by the STR
draining ability, I just wanted to know if I can deduct 10 pts from that damage as well.

 

[Coredump]

Thanks for the reply, Hypersmurf, but as I understand it DR does not negate a touch attack
only the damage associated with it. I do believe the Hag would be affected by the STR
draining ability, I just wanted to know if I can deduct 10 pts from that damage as well.

No. DR affects physical damage. The ability drain would work normally.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Thanks for the reply, Hypersmurf, but as I understand it DR does not negate a touch attack
only the damage associated with it. I do believe the Hag would be affected by the STR
draining ability, I just wanted to know if I can deduct 10 pts from that damage as well.

"The numerical part of a creature’s damage reduction is the amount of hit points the creature ignores from normal attacks."

Str damage is not hit points.

-Hyp.