Damage Reduction and Sneak Attack damage

[Altamont Ravenard]

Situation:

A rogue with a normal weapon surprises a crittable creature with DR 10/magic. The rogue attacks and deals 5 points of damage with his sword, and 10 points of damage from his sneak attack.

Does the creature suffer:
a) no damage, because its DR absorbed the regular attack, and since the regular attack did not penetrate DR, sneak attack damage doesn't count
or
b) 5 damage, because sneak attack damage counts as regular damage for DR
?

Thanks in advance.

AR

 

[DaveMage]

The way I interpret it, the answer is "b". 5 points of damage.

 

[Black Knight Irios]

If the monster is subject to SA, then you don't deal 5 damage with your weapon and 10 damage with your SA. You simply deal flat 15 damage, and from this value you subtract the DR value.
So it would be answer b) in your example!

 

[Derren]

Yes, its b.

Imo that is stupid and unlogical, but that is how it works.

 

[sledged]

Yes, its b.

Imo that is stupid and unlogical, but that is how it works.

What's your line of reason for it being "stupid and unlogical"?

 

[Derren]

When you can't even pierce the hide (or otherwise do damage) which is represented by the normal weapon damage, how can you hit a vital spot to deal extra damage?

 

[Black Knight Irios]

When you can't even pierce the hide (or otherwise do damage) which is represented by the normal weapon damage, how can you hit a vital spot to deal extra damage?

This is what SA is all about, hitting where it hurts the most.

 

[sledged]

When you can't even pierce the hide (or otherwise do damage) which is represented by the normal weapon damage, how can you hit a vital spot to deal extra damage?

DR doesn't necessarily mean you don't pierce the hide. A barbarian's DR is described as being able to "shrug off some amount of injury from each blow or attack." In the barbarian's case, damage was done but instantly healed/negated/ignored/whatever. The DMG description of DR says "Some magic creatures have the supernatural ability to instantly heal damage from weapons or to ignore blows altogether as though they were invulnerable." You can't heal if you haven't been injured.

That being said, there are definitely cases where a creature's DR is due to the resiliency of its hide. In such cases, one could arguably house rule that if the base damage is completely negated (including damage bonuses), then any extra die rolls due to SA are negated as well, but that shouldn't apply to all cases of DR.

 

[UltimaGabe]

The thing is, no matter how tough someone's skin is, there are always weak spots. Not a being exists that has perfectly evenly distributed natural armor, or it wouldn't be able to move very well. Rogues pick out points that are weaker than others- hence, Sneak Attack. It didn't do as much damage as it would have done- so even its weak points still had tougher skin- but he was still able to pierce a vital point.

 

[Derren]

But natural armore and thick skin represents AC, not DR.

DR is extremly fast healing or very strong armor that you can't bypass unless you are strong enough or have the right weapon.