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<blockquote data-quote="Merkuri" data-source="post: 3408716" data-attributes="member: 41321">Our DM usually indicates to us that the creature has damage reduction or immunities with description.&nbsp; Sometimes he'll drop an OOC comment telling us exactly what it is, but most of the time we have to make an educated guess on the mechanics behind why our weapons aren't very effective.&nbsp; I know one time we mis-read his signs.&nbsp; He told us a character's arrow went right through a monster in gaseous form with no apparent harm, so we assumed it was immune to arrows and/or physical attacks, and proceeded to take it down laboriously with the few magic attacks we had at the time.&nbsp; It turns out that the arrow had simply missed (attack roll was not higher than the creature's AC).&nbsp; The DM asked us later why we stopped shooting at it.&nbsp; I guess he didn't realize his description could've been taken to mean the creature had immunity to our arrows.I see nothing wrong with describing certain things in terms of OOC mechanics, especially when such a thing would be obvious to the characters but would be hard to explain in-character.&nbsp; A character hacking at a monster covered in stone scales would probably realize pretty fast that only his strongest attacks seem to be damaging it, so I see no harm in telling the party &quot;It has damage reduction&quot; or even &quot;It has damage reduction 5.&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Merkuri, post: 3408716, member: 41321"] Our DM usually indicates to us that the creature has damage reduction or immunities with description. Sometimes he'll drop an OOC comment telling us exactly what it is, but most of the time we have to make an educated guess on the mechanics behind why our weapons aren't very effective. I know one time we mis-read his signs. He told us a character's arrow went right through a monster in gaseous form with no apparent harm, so we assumed it was immune to arrows and/or physical attacks, and proceeded to take it down laboriously with the few magic attacks we had at the time. It turns out that the arrow had simply missed (attack roll was not higher than the creature's AC). The DM asked us later why we stopped shooting at it. I guess he didn't realize his description could've been taken to mean the creature had immunity to our arrows. I see nothing wrong with describing certain things in terms of OOC mechanics, especially when such a thing would be obvious to the characters but would be hard to explain in-character. A character hacking at a monster covered in stone scales would probably realize pretty fast that only his strongest attacks seem to be damaging it, so I see no harm in telling the party "It has damage reduction" or even "It has damage reduction 5." [/QUOTE]

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