Alternative Damage Reduction

[Kyamsil]

I don't like the idea of Damage Reduction being absolutely ignored if you got the right magic bonus. I was thinking about giving the damage reduction creature a "hardness" rating equal to its damage reduction/5. So, for example, a gargoyle has a "hardness" rating of 15/5= 3.So, if you have magic weapons of at least +1 enhancement, you only have your damage reduced by 3, if not, the whole damage reduction rating of 15. Not too much, but it helps the creature to be a better challenge for parties who have magic weapons who could supress its damage reduction.

As for creatures with damage reductions bypassable by silver or similar, I would say that instead of "hardness" as such, the hardness rating would be subdual damage instead.

I would also rule that incorporeal beings cannot have a "hardness" by this rule, they are incorporeal after all and that is 50% chance of ignoring the hit altogether (much better than toughness by the way).

Some examples:
Gargoyle, Grick -> Hardness 3
Stone Golem -> Hardness 6
Iron Golem -> Hardness 10 (ouch! this would be tough!)

At least in the case of the golems, it makes sense for 10 is the hardness of metal, and 6 is not the hardness of stone but it comes close (it is 8).

Any comments?

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

I had thought about the same thing, like taking a creature with DR 50/+5 and parsing up the DR somehow.

So, the DR would be:
0 for +5
10 for +4
20 for +3
30 for +2
40 for +1
45 for silver
and 50 for mundane

If I'm not mistaken, that is what your post is saying, right?

 

[Kyamsil]

I had thought about the same thing, like taking a creature with DR 50/+5 and parsing up the DR somehow.

So, the DR would be:
0 for +5
10 for +4
20 for +3
30 for +2
40 for +1
45 for silver
and 50 for mundane

If I'm not mistaken, that is what your post is saying, right?

No, but I have thought about something like this but never got a simple mechanic to do it for all the cases.

The point of my house rule is that even if you have a magic bonus enough to bypass the damage reduction, it is hard to harm some sorts of creatures (namely golems, gargoyles, earth elementals, old dragons and other "tough hide" monsters), so you always have some sort of damage reduction, no matter the bonus you have.

The idea of parsing the amount based on the bonus is something I have been thinking about for some time, but is not that simple.

I didn't want to make the rule into a complex one that requires lots of math to apply.

The better way I was able to find is to divide the amount of damage reduction by 5, and that is the hardness rating for weapons of the required bonus or greater. I also thought of reducing one point of hardness by each bonus exceeding the needed bonus. Also, I liked the idea of weapons not having enough of a bonus, reducing somewhat the amount of damage reduction but not overmuch. I thought of giving each category less to reduce the damage reduction by an amount equal to the hardness for the required bonus. (It is simpler than it seems, really).

Let's see if this would work...

For example, for a gargoyle with Damage Reduction 15/+1:
Mundane 15
Silver 12
+1 3
+2 2
+3 1
+4 or greater nothing

For a Stone Golem 30/+2
Mundane 30
Silver 24
+1 18
+2 6
+3 5
+4 4
+5 3 (So even +5 weapons have a hard time biting the stone)

For an Iron Golem 50/+3 (This is a really tough one)
Mundane 50
Silver 40
+1 30
+2 20
+3 10
+4 9
+5 8

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

Hmmm, its definitely an interesting system, but I think I will stay away from it for the same reason I decided not to use my own.

There's just too much math involved with it to keep game-play fast and smooth.

Of course, your system does actually give PC's a reason to continue to increase the enhancement bonus of their weapons above +3.