Damage Reduction and Acid

[orcmonk220]

Hiya
If a player throws a vial of acid at an Iron Cobra (DR 5/adamantine I believe), and he rolls a 4 on the damage, does it still affect the creature? I was under the impression that DR only affected weapons, but the acid is treated as a splash weapon, so I'm unsure.

So, to summerise, is a thrown vial of acid affected by Damage Reduction? Yes or No?

 

[Tiberius]

Energy damage (acid, fire, sonic, lightning, cold) and spell damage bypass DR.

 

[irdeggman]

No.

Acid is treated as form of energy and DR does not apply to energy attacks.

Damage Reduction (Ex or Su): A creature with this special quality ignores damage from most weapons and natural attacks. Wounds heal immediately, or the weapon bounces off harmlessly (in either case, the opponent knows the attack was ineffective). The creature takes normal damage from energy attacks (even nonmagical ones), spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities. A certain kind of weapon can sometimes damage the creature normally, as noted below.

Resistance to Energy (Ex): A creature with this special quality ignores some damage of the indicated type each time it takes damage of that kind (commonly acid, cold, fire, or electricity). The entry indicates the amount and type of damage ignored.

Now if the flask itself did any damage then the DR would apply but since the flask does not and instead it is the contents (which in this case is acid). . . .

Look at it this way - would DR apply to alchemical fire?

 

[lukelightning]

One strange thing is that a vial of acid does virtually no damage to a sword (hardness 10), but does full damage to an iron golem.

 

[UltimaGabe]

The reason for that is because hardness, although apparently similar, is fundamentally different than damage reduction.

Another difference to notice is that Fire and Electricity deal half damage to the longsword, and cold attacks deal one-quarter damage to it, purely by virtue of it being an object with hardness. A golem, though seemingly similar, is not an object, and therefore can't have hardness- so the object and hardness rules don't apply.

There's quite a few differences between creatures, like golems, and objects. Hardness is one of the most obvious. It entails quite a bit more than you'd think.

 

[3d6]

The only things affected by damage reduction are attacks with weapons and natural weapons, so acid gets through DR just fine.

 

[lukelightning]

The reason for that is because hardness, although apparently similar, is fundamentally different than damage reduction.

Yeah, but I just think it's strange that a regular lump of metal can't be hurt by a vial of acid but a big animated lump of metal can.

 

[IcyCool]

Yeah, but I just think it's strange that a regular lump of metal can't be hurt by a vial of acid but a big animated lump of metal can.

That animated lump has to be supple enough to bend and twist.

At any rate, I'm of the opinion that different types of energy should ignore the hardness of different types materials.

 

[Hypersmurf]

A golem, though seemingly similar, is not an object, and therefore can't have hardness...

It's not impossible for a creature to have hardness:

Hardness (Ex): An animated object has the same hardness it had before it was animated.

-Hyp.

 

[EvilGM]

Doesn't acid bypass hardness?