3D: Dramatic Damage Reduction

[Evil Dr. Grignard]

Hello,

I'm looking for how you all describe damage reduction in game? I've got an encounter coming up with a creature that has very high DR (15/bronze) and low HP.

I like to describe the action in my game and I'm drawing a blank as to what I should say for DR beyond the obvious, " your attacks aren't seeming to have any effect."

I've looked online for any resources and came up with ziltch.

cheers,
Dr. G.

 

[SiderisAnon]

It depends on the damage reduction itself. Some can be described as the damage doing little or nothing; some as damage that isn't a lasting effect. For instance:

Your mace smashes into the creature's arm with solid force, yet there is little effect.

You sword slams into the torso solidy, but barely breaks the skin.

Your arrows bounce off of the creature's hide, barely doing more than scratching the surface.

vs

You mace smashes into the creature's arm, crushing bone. However, the creature flexes the limb and you can see most of the damage is already restored.

You sword slams into the torso solidy, but the wounds quickly close leaving only cuts that barely break the skin.

Your arrows strike the creature's hide, but are almost immediately pushed back out. The remaining wounds are barely doing more than scratching the surface.



Just make sure you describe things in a way that says the creature is shrugging off most/all of the damage, not that they are completely impossible to hurt. Also make clear that anyone who has a weapon that is hurting the creature, such as a magic spell or a magic weapon that overcomes the DR, is doing full damage to the creature.

 

[Evil Dr. Grignard]

Thanks!,

That is sort of what I have been doing already, but another thought I had is adding more quasi-magical description. E.g.

The arrow lodges firmly in the creatures chest, the beast raises it face to meet your gaze. At the same time it snaps the offending arrow shaft off leaving the head firmly in place.

[So far normal, right?]

The creatures black lips curl back into what could pass for a smile as the remains of the arrow lodged in its chest is lit by a dark light of evil flame and falls to dust...

Does anyone use this tactic or something like it? I've also used similar ideas when describing weapons, for example a frost weapon that sends a shock of frost blue light up from the weapon through the wielder's arms and out of the weilder's eyes.

It has no effect beyond the visable and the players were interested and confussed by it all.

ciao,
Dr. G.

 

[SiderisAnon]

That's a great description and certainly appropriate to DR. My only suggestion would be to save it for the big bad or some important/interesting opponent. It may just be how I choose monsters, but I tend to see a lot of DR, so I'd want to save the really cool description for a really cool opponent. Otherwise it would get overused.

Honestly, in my game, if I used that intense of a description, the players would pull out every stop they had on that monster out of fear of what it might do to them.

I realize the distinction might be a bit arbitrary; I'm just talking gut feeling here.

 

[Evil Dr. Grignard]

Thanks!

I was afraid that the same thing would happen if I started using vivid descriptions, but my PC are for lack of a better word - dense. One of them took on 15 goblins by himself. Nearly died in the process, got a friend killed in the battle even, but didn't slow him down at all. Maybe that's just it, maybe the PC's need to TPK a few times to understand...

Thanks for the thoughts.
Dr. G

 

[Moogleproof]

You mace smashes into the creature's arm, crushing bone. However, the creature flexes the limb and you can see most of the damage is already restored.

You sword slams into the torso solidy, but the wounds quickly close leaving only cuts that barely break the skin.

Your arrows strike the creature's hide, but are almost immediately pushed back out. The remaining wounds are barely doing more than scratching the surface.

I've noticed that if my players feel they are in a pinch, they might slip into meta-gaming a bit, and were I to use these kinds of descriptions, I'd need to wary that my players won't mix damage reduction with regeneration. Of course, there's nothing wrong with them making a few good blows trying to overcome the regeneration to realise that it's actually damage reduction.

It's good fluff, the sort I like, but the most meta-gaming gamists out there might get offended that they've wasted precious seconds of damage-dealing and blame you for it, but don't worry, they would deserve it. I find comments the likes of "My character would've seen through that. He would've known what to do from the start just by looking at the opponent."
Guess what? You don't even need to show up anymore, your perfect character already saved the multiverse seven times between the sessions so I've run out of adventures.

Uh, I might have slipped into ranting and venting a bit, sorry. But really, from your fluff I would say you'll have no trouble.

PS: I also like to sometimes describe how the attacks affected (or didn't affect) the monster mentally:

You arrow hits the demon squarely in the chest. His torso tilts back a little, but his speed isn't hampered a bit and he still stares you in the eyes, determined to rip you apart, and keeps his stride as he is getting closer to you.

 

[Evil Dr. Grignard]

Sweet.

The mental angle is one I never thought of. I agree that the PC's can frustrate with that sort of meta thinking, but that's a rant for another post... Probably one I'll start in a week or so

ciao,
Dr.G

 

[SiderisAnon]

If the player says, "My character would know that," I respond with, "What skill do you want to roll?"

If the character doesn't have some kind of skill that would tell them that, I can default to a base perception or Int/Wis check to be able to take the time and notice that the damage simply isn't effective. However, if they're "taking time", they're taking an action.