Damage Resistance for Good and Evil

[zoroaster100]

Although in general I like the new damage resistance rules for D&D3.5, one thing that bothers me is that some evil creatures with damage resistance cannot damage each other effectively since they generally lack the ability to have their natural or other weapons count as "good" attacks to overcome damage resistance. I was thinking of combining damage resistance __/evil and __/good into one form of damage resistance. That way any weapon, creature or other effect that can overcome evil or good damage resistance can also overcome the other. Are there any major problems or balance issues with this change that I should anticipate?

 

[Staffan]

Another thing you could try is to allow outsiders with the "corner" alignments (LE, CE, CG, LG) to be affected by weapons of both their opposing alignments. So, devils would have DR "X/silver or good or chaotic", "X/good or chaotic", or X/silver and (good or chaotic)" depending on power level. This would allow demons and devils to hurt one another.

 

[Michael Morris]

Creatures with a DR ability always have the ability to strike others with the same DR ability.

 

[Cheiromancer]

I think that, given the nature of fiends, a built-in deterrance to direct aggression would be very helpful. Since they can't fight each other directly, they have to cooperate- or at least compete in more devious kinds of ways.

If they could easily destroy their fellows, it is hard to explain why they haven't all slaughtered each other already.

 

[nameless]

Creatures with a DR ability always have the ability to strike others with the same DR ability.

Not in 3.5.

 

[CronoDekar]

What nameless said -- that rule only applies to creatures with DR magic or epic.

I can't think of any balance issues in particular, since for most parties it's rare that they'd fight both good and evil outsiders. The main issue I see is the flavor issue -- is it alignment DR, and if not, what is it? Also, (depending on how you deal with the issue) you've got to deal with holy weapons being able to bypass celestials' DR and unholy weapons being able to bypass demons' DR. It would work to make it some natural resistance that outsiders have the capability to have.

I like what Cheiromancer said, and that makes it very tempting for fiends to make people weilding holy blades into their thralls. If you don't care to go that route, the one I've always been doing is to just ignore the issue altogether -- demons and devils have a way of hurting each other, but since that's not a focal point to the campaign I don't have to bother developing a mechanic for it. If the Blood War (or any other outsider conflict) is significant in your game though, this option probably wouldn't be good for you.

 

[zoroaster100]

Thanks for the comments. Balance was my main concern, but I don't see any major balance problem at this point (if there is, I'm hoping someone will point it out). As far as flavor, personally I prefer the idea that a powerful evil character with an unholy weapon can affect powerful fiends just as a powerful good character with a holy weapon can. I think of the good or evil resistance as divine resistance or spiritual resistance. This way any powerful spiritual force, good or evil, can affect a powerful spiritual creature like an angel or fiend, under this house rule.