DR magic

[Evil DM]

Hi folks,

I just wonder which monster with DR x / magic is supposed to be protected at Mid-Level and higher.

I hope we somehow agree that the first thing a sword-swinging fighter does is to give his weapon a +1 enhancement bonus.
Furthermore any character who likes to have some cool weapon special ability is forced to first give his weapon a +1 enhancement bonus.

IMO they did a great job with the new DR system compared to the 3rd Edition or lower. To realy have different types of special weapon properties to overcome DR like silver, cold iron, holy, adamantine and so on....

...but DR magic does not make any sense to me at all.

Can someone explain me the concept of DR magic?

Cheers, Evil DM

 

[Infiniti2000]

Can someone explain me the concept of DR magic?

I can't, not really anyways. That's why a common houserule is to allow every +1 enhancement bonus overcome 5 of the DR/magic. Thus, +1 will overcome DR 5/magic and reduce DR 10/magic to DR 5. Monte Cook had a much more complicated system, but I didn't like it. I chose the above and I think it works well enough without requiring any changes in creatures with DR. Obviously, they become a little tougher, but not overly so such that I think any CR would be affected.

 

[Question]

This is precisely why any classes giving you DR10/Magic or similar as its top tier abiltiy fails. EVERY encounter by that point will have magical weapons(unless you start randomly attacking peasants or something).

 

[Slobber Monster]

While I'd tend to put myself in the camp that says DR X/magic is not well thought out, I have seen it matter in play. There are some lower CR opponents with DR - say Mephits for example at CR 3. So it's something low level parties have to account for and spend resources on.

At mid levels it can still matter because while the people who rely on weapons as their primary shtick will have them enchanted, the group's secondary weapons will most likely only be masterwork (i.e. the melee guy's bow or the Wizard's X-bow). So an APL 7 group vs. an EL 7 group of four mephits might have to spend resources to overcome the DR and allow everyone in the group to be effective. This might be in the form of magic weapon spells, attack spells, casting Fly on the melee guy, etc. At any rate they likely can't all just relax and fire away with their el cheapo missile weapon ammo, so DR is a factor.

 

[AuraSeer]

Can someone explain me the concept of DR magic?

It has a big effect whenever there are non-adventurer combatants around.

Magic weapons only seem cheap because adventurers are so amazingly wealthy. A +1 sword is far too expensive to be bought by an average person, or even issued to the average guardsman or soldier. So when a monster with DR/magic shows up, those average guys need to call in an elite unit (if they have one) or the nearest band of adventurers.

That's the foundation of one old standard plot hook, where a messenger busts into the tavern and runs over to the PCs. "Adventurers, come quick! A monster has appeared in the marketplace and started attacking people. When we guards tried to stop it, it killed twenty of our best men. Our swords and arrows barely scratch its hide-- we might as well be hitting it with toothpicks. Please, you have to do something!"

 

[mvincent]

Can someone explain me the concept of DR magic?

DR magic is only supposed to be effective against common folk, hirelings, animal companions, average natural weapons, very low level PC's etc. I do not believe it was intended to protect at all against average PC's.

Example; DR/magic creatures might seem particularly scary and invulnerable to a local village that has plenty of man-power but no magic weapons. However, this is just job security for heroic adventurers.

 

[Stalker0]

For one, DR/magic on a PC is still very worthwhile. Many monsters no longer bypass it. Golems, slaadi, many demons, etc.

For monsters, as said before it creates a gap between adventurers and common militias. Even with a nice army at your disposal, if you don't have the equipment to deal with the threat, you need to call in adventurers.

In addition, intelligent monsters will make the most of their DR. They can disarm or sunder a fighter's weapon, or have a minion dispel the sword. Now their DR kicks in to full.

 

[Infiniti2000]

DR magic is only supposed to be effective against common folk, hirelings, animal companions, average natural weapons, very low level PC's etc. I do not believe it was intended to protect at all against average PC's.

In 3E it was. Monte has spoken on the subject. The 3.5 game designers have not discussed the rationale for DR/Magic.

 

[Cheiromancer]

I kinda like the idea of each +1 enhancement bonus overcoming 5 of the DR/magic.

But then I wonder if, to be consistent, one would have to change the way other kinds of DR work. For instance, how would you handle the vampire's DR 10/silver and magic? It would seem to work out really well to have each component overcome 5 of the DR.

However, suppose you take a lich's DR 15/bludgeoning and magic. Is a +1 mace enough to hurt it, or does it have to be +3 to penetrate the DR completely?

And what about epic DR? Should a +6 sword overcome DR 20/epic as well as a +10 sword does? Or should there be a progressive factor here, too? (maybe each plus above 5 overcomes 10 points of epic DR?)

The idea of each +1 enhancement bonus overcoming 5 of the DR/magic is good, but extending the notion and meshing it with the rules for the other kinds of DR would be a bit of a pain.

 

[Infiniti2000]

The idea of each +1 enhancement bonus overcoming 5 of the DR/magic is good, but extending the notion and meshing it with the rules for the other kinds of DR would be a bit of a pain.

Right, so don't do that.

But, if you check out the link I provided, Monte offered a suggesting on how to do it.