Thoughts on Damage Reduction...

[Jackinthegreen]

One house rule I've wondered about is raising SR a bit, but having it be more granular. A caster who loses by 5 or less might do half damage for example, or otherwise have half the effect much like succeeding against a saving throw would. Nerfing some of the caster level bonuses might also be necessary. The problem with this of course is figuring out what the effects would be for spells that don't normally have SR as well as which spells are safe to allow bypassing SR in the first place.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

This is a house rules thought I've been having that grew out of speculation about where DND NEXT might go.

Why should spells overcome DR that isn't magic? Doesn't that just add one more layer of overpowered-ness to Mages?

No.

Wizards have to face spell resistance. There are ways around this, of course (Conjuration spells, for one) but that limits options. A non-caster with the appropriate weapon to cut through DR just doesn't need to worry (unless they get disarmed or their weapon is sundered).

Blaster mages also have to deal with elemental resistance.

Seems to me that a werewolf, for example, should have its DR apply to spells as well. Why not reduce the damage of a fireball that strikes a lycanthrope by 10 points? Fire damage from torches too, for that matter...

Werewolf DR is basically super-fast regeneration. Perhaps magic does "aggravated damage" to them. (In 4e, they simply have regeneration, although that could be because resistance to nonenergy damage is much rarer in 4e.)

Certain creatures (eg fiends) have the best of both worlds - DR, but also SR and elemental resistance. Many higher-level fiends can only be killed by holy silver or holy cold iron weapons, which means even a cleric using Divine Smite cannot kill a pit fiend. You must have a holy weapon. It's a bit easier if you're a paladin, since they have the Holy Sword spell, but a cleric could cast the appropriate spell on a fighter's weapon to do the same thing. In this instance, the noncasters are making out like bandits.

 

[Dandu]

[Content of this post deleted by order of the Inquisition]

 

[Dandu]

but a cleric could cast the appropriate spell on a fighter's weapon to do the same thing.

The spell you are looking for is the second level spell Align Weapon.

Note that a cleric can also cast it on his own weapon, as well as that of anyone else.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Ah, true. I'm so used to 4e I forget about "buff-n-bash" clerics.

 

[Hand of Evil]

This is a house rules thought I've been having that grew out of speculation about where DND NEXT might go.

Why should spells overcome DR that isn't magic? Doesn't that just add one more layer of overpowered-ness to Mages?

Seems to me that a werewolf, for example, should have its DR apply to spells as well. Why not reduce the damage of a fireball that strikes a lycanthrope by 10 points? Fire damage from torches too, for that matter...

Has anyone tried this?

What do y'all think of it as an idea? (Aside from the fact that it'll change CRs.)

-ThaDium

This is a DM call and how he sees his werewolves, as there are many forms. You could have the classic, where only silver and wolfbane affect them or you could have the superman version...silver, magic and mind attacks...the underworld, silver, silver nitrate, physical damage and run along walls and ceilings. Just don't let the changes you make overwhelm your characters, and note that these changes will affect the CR of the creature, balance with an option, like silver causes fear or can act like a zone of protection.

 

[GreyICE]

Nerfing blaster wizards in order to fix spellcasters is... a bit like nerfing quarterstaff damage. It's not really addressing the actual problem.

If you want to nerf caster wizards, allow enemies to make a save against any conditional on them every round.

 

[ThaDium]

Nerfing blaster wizards in order to fix spellcasters is... a bit like nerfing quarterstaff damage. It's not really addressing the actual problem.

If you want to nerf caster wizards, allow enemies to make a save against any conditional on them every round.

I disagree, and here's why: My view is that mages can set up all these conditional effects and deal more damage than fighters, usually at range. I'd like to at least give the fighters the damage niche.

A fighter running around with various weapon types can handle various Drs. That's where this post is coming from.

 

[Dandu]

Sir Winston Churchill once said, "However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results." Now, you seem smitten with the idea of DR applying to magic spells as a means of niche protection for the fighter by nerfing blasting from a theoretical point of view, but I suggest you consider the actual effects on gameplay and run some numbers. I find that decisions made on facts and data work out better in the long run.

I disagree, and here's why: My view is that mages can set up all these conditional effects and deal more damage than fighters, usually at range. I'd like to at least give the fighters the damage niche.

Ah, so the fact that mages have very powerful, potentially broken, and sometimes flat-out broken, spells is not the problem - the problem is when they start to encroach on someone else's niche. The real issue is making sure each party member has a role in the party which no one can take away from them.

Much like modern businesses, then, where both CEOs and janitors are crucial to the success of a company, though, if I may say so, one of these positions is obviously more important than the other. Whereas a CEO may take a month or two of vacation with no ill effects for the company, when the janitor takes even one day off, things quickly fall apart.

A fighter running around with various weapon types can handle various Drs. That's where this post is coming from.

From a practical perspective, he won't be. At higher levels multiple enchanted weapons are expensive as heck. This is one of the many problems with Two Weapon Fighting styles, and I'd expect having more than two weapons to exacerbate the problem. You sink a lot of money into multiple weapons and are forced to choose between having them be powerful or affordable.