Does anyone else find DR X/magic useless?

[Psion]

Just curious what others have done.

I use the special material/alignment DR rules of 3.5, but I keep the "+" DR, at a default of +1 per 5 points of DR.

 

[Vrecknidj]

Thanks for the information so far. I understand Monte's approach, but I don't quite agree with it. I like the special materials aspect of DR. It's just a cool facet of fiction and mythology that a silver weapon is necessary to hurt a werewolf or that a wooden stake can be used to stop a vampire. So, having some creatures have DR/silver is okay with me. (Though, I admit, there seems no reason why there can't also be DR/gold or DR/tin or DR/aluminum or anything else under the sun.)

Maybe something like Psion's idea will work for me.

DR 5/+1 = DR 0/+2
DR 10/+1 = DR 5/+2 = DR 0/+1
DR 15/+1 = DR 10/+2 = DR 5/+3 = DR 0/+4
DR 20/+1 = DR 15/+2 = DR 10/+3 = DR 5/+4 = DR 0/+5

In other words, a creature with DR 20/magic has DR 20 against anything that isn't magic. Against a +2 enhancement bonus, the effective DR is only 15 (i.e. the extra 1 cuts through 5 points of the DR, as it were). Against a +4 enhancement bonus, the effective DR is only 5. And, a +5 weapon cuts through all the DR.

Dave

 

[Flynn]

Thanks for the information so far. I understand Monte's approach, but I don't quite agree with it. I like the special materials aspect of DR. It's just a cool facet of fiction and mythology that a silver weapon is necessary to hurt a werewolf or that a wooden stake can be used to stop a vampire. So, having some creatures have DR/silver is okay with me. (Though, I admit, there seems no reason why there can't also be DR/gold or DR/tin or DR/aluminum or anything else under the sun.)

Silver was classically seen as a magical metal, so that's probably why. (I've never read a story about having to use aluminum bullets to kill a werewolf.)

You could just as easily identify other substances that fall in that same category for your campaign, and then houserule that creatures with the silver weakness are also susceptible to these other substances. A great example of that would be using jade for silver for an oriental-flavored campaign, or use obsidian for cold iron in an Aztec-flavored setting. In a Shadowrun-like setting, you might use plastics or some modern substance against magical beasts, so show a disparity between technologically created substances and naturally occuring ones.

Just A Suggestion,
Flynn

 

[Quartz]

Under Damage Reduction:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#damageReduction

Thanks. Rather buried, isn't it? Guess I'll have to house-rule that: it makes no sense that even though an Epic feat is required to create the thing, it's not classed as Epic.

 

[Roger]

Just curious what others have done.

Put the DR 15/magic monster into a trapped room that fires dozens of non-magical arrows per round.


Cheers,
Roger

 

[Psion]

Thanks for the information so far. I understand Monte's approach, but I don't quite agree with it. I like the special materials aspect of DR. It's just a cool facet of fiction and mythology that a silver weapon is necessary to hurt a werewolf or that a wooden stake can be used to stop a vampire. So, having some creatures have DR/silver is okay with me. (Though, I admit, there seems no reason why there can't also be DR/gold or DR/tin or DR/aluminum or anything else under the sun.)

Maybe something like Psion's idea will work for me.

DR 5/+1 = DR 0/+2
DR 10/+1 = DR 5/+2 = DR 0/+1
DR 15/+1 = DR 10/+2 = DR 5/+3 = DR 0/+4
DR 20/+1 = DR 15/+2 = DR 10/+3 = DR 5/+4 = DR 0/+5

In other words, a creature with DR 20/magic has DR 20 against anything that isn't magic. Against a +2 enhancement bonus, the effective DR is only 15 (i.e. the extra 1 cuts through 5 points of the DR, as it were). Against a +4 enhancement bonus, the effective DR is only 5. And, a +5 weapon cuts through all the DR.

Wow... that's a lot of tracking. Do you feel like you'll get your return of this rule in pounds of fun? I'd feel that fall befoul S. John Ross's fun/work ratio rule:
http://www.io.com/~sjohn/funwork.htm

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Actually that was Kerrick's post..

As to a lot of tracking, not really. Vrecknidj just laid out all the options instead of putting into sentence form.

The rule is basically:

A +1 weapons can bypass portions of DR X/magic. For each +1 beyond the first, reduce the targets DR X/magic by 5 points.


With those two sentences the Very Old Black Dragon with DR 15/magic highly encourages PC's to use higher plussed weapons. A simple +1 weapon will not be very effective.

The system them encourages straight plusses as valuable while not nerfing the non-plus enhancements. Afterall, a flaming enhancement might have the same basic effect by increasing the weapons damage.

 

[Storyteller01]

I see no mention of that in the SRD. Can you provide a cite?

This isn't quite true though. A +6 enhancement bonus is epic, but a weapon with +5 and X enchantment isn't epic unless it exceeds the +10 total.

 

[Old Gumphrey]

Put the DR 15/magic monster into a trapped room that fires dozens of non-magical arrows per round.


Cheers,
Roger

Or, give it Improved Disarm and have it snatch away the magical weapons and throw them (or use them).

 

[Destil]

DR X/magic isn't totally useless, but I still prefer the old DR X/+X. A big reason is that it gives players a reason to add magic bonuses to their weapons rather than yet another flaming or whatever enchantment.

I agree and I've house ruled it back that way. But a lot of the time I do it like this:

DR 5/+1, 10/+2

So a +1 weapon ignores 5 points of DR, the +2 ignores all 10. I mostly do this for NPCs, since I don't want my players to have to track it (i.e. in my game Stoneskin is sill just 10/+5). All and all it works well if you can track it all.

I've also adopted Monte's suggestion from the above mentioned article with some small changes.

*A +1 weapon overcomes basic magical damage reduction (x/+1).
*A +2 weapon overcomes damage reduction based on damage such as slashing or piercing.
*A +3 weapon overcomes damage reduction based on material type, such as byeshek and silver.
*A +4 weapon overcomes damage reduction based on alignment, such as good or evil.
*A +5 weapon overcomes the most powerful magical wards (x/+5).
*A +6 weapon overcomes epic damage reduction (x/epic).

A magical weapon that has both the above enhancement bonus and the correct properties to overcome damage reduction (such as a +3 byeshek longsword used against an illithid) is treated as if it has an enhancement bonus 1 point higher and deals an extra 1d6 damage (thus such a sword would have a +4 bonus to hit and deal 1d8+4+1d6 damage before strength and other bonuses).