Damage Reduction ; Modification

[iwatt]

I like the idea of 3.5 material reduction, but I also liked the idea that better magic weapons cut through better protections.

So I was thinking that maybe somebody has come up with a way to solve this conundrum.

I was thinking for example: a +2 weapon reduces 5 from the damage reduction of cold iron and silver, while a +3 weapon reduces 5 from the DR of adamantine. Increasing the + of the weapon over these thresholod value reduces by an additional 5 the dr rating.

For example:

DR 15/silver v/s +2 -----> DR 10/Silver

or

DR 15/cold Iron v/s +3 -----> DR 5/Cold Iron

or

DR 15/Adamantine v/s +5 --------> DR 0/Adamantine

Opinions? unbalancing?

I just don't like 3.5 proliferation of acid/fire/cold/lightning/keen +1 weapons. Used to be that special abilities were like...special.

Edit Post: corrected the example, thanx.

 

[Arkhandus]

Seems cool to me, and lessens the "golfbag" syndrome of 3.5 D&D. No longer necessary to carry around three or four different weapons of different materials/abilities!

Oh, but your second example should be a +3 weapon, otherwise it'd reduce the DR to 0.

 

[Ferret]

Yeah thats what I thought, anyway I like the idea.

I'm not sure if it takes too much off of the damage to bypass. +2 vs DR 10/silver looks ok, but +3 vs DR 5/cold iron looks unfair. This method makes DR weaker as the magic gets stronger.

You've also got to work out whether a +3 weapon (Or someone using it) could deal 15 points of damage, anway.

 

[iwatt]

Seems cool to me, and lessens the "golfbag" syndrome of 3.5 D&D. No longer necessary to carry around three or four different weapons of different materials/abilities!

Oh, but your second example should be a +3 weapon, otherwise it'd reduce the DR to 0.

That's also one of the issues I wanted to settle, the golfbag syndrome is annoying. Specially when players start asking for custom made items called golfbags....

 

[Nifft]

Maybe have an orthogonal property ("Penetrating +x") which penetrates DR. 5 points of penetration cost the same as +1 enhancement, 10 points of penetration cost the same as +2, etc.

Otherwise, straight enhancement bonuses are too strong (and too boring).

Cheers, -- N

 

[iwatt]

Maybe have an orthogonal property ("Penetrating +x") which penetrates DR. 5 points of penetration cost the same as +1 enhancement, 10 points of penetration cost the same as +2, etc.

Otherwise, straight enhancement bonuses are too strong (and too boring).

Cheers, -- N

The thing is, I think the special abilities were well priced when having an additional +x to the weapon had a meaning. Right now, most players I know would rather have an special abilty on the weapon rather than an enhancement bonus. That makes me think that they' aren't equivalent.

 

[Nifft]

The thing is, I think the special abilities were well priced when having an additional +x to the weapon had a meaning. Right now, most players I know would rather have an special abilty on the weapon rather than an enhancement bonus. That makes me think that they' aren't equivalent.

Some of my players like Keen, even though it's mathematically always worse than a straight enhancement bonus.

Players aren't required to optimize. Doing the optimization by default seems wrong.

-- N