Improving a Dragon's DR

[Matrix Sorcica]

What I did was saying that every plus reduces the DR by 5. So you could bypass DR 20 with a +4 weapon. If you only had a +2 weapon, you'd face DR 10. Can't remember if I upped Dragon DR by 5 - I think so.

Kept the players from having +1 weapons with a myriad of "frost-holy-speed-keen" weapons.

 

[Empirate]

What I did was saying that every plus reduces the DR by 5. So you could bypass DR 20 with a +4 weapon. If you only had a +2 weapon, you'd face DR 10. Can't remember if I upped Dragon DR by 5 - I think so.

Kept the players from having +1 weapons with a myriad of "frost-holy-speed-keen" weapons.

To reiterate, +1 frost holy speed keen is still the better way to spend your money, since the Greater Magic Weapon spell still completely obviates the need for higher "plus" enchantments.

 

[airwalkrr]

To reiterate, +1 frost holy speed keen is still the better way to spend your money, since the Greater Magic Weapon spell still completely obviates the need for higher "plus" enchantments.

And this is exactly why, in my campaign, greater magic weapon (and magic vestment for that matter) only last for 1 minute/level.

 

[Empirate]

And this is exactly why, in my campaign, greater magic weapon (and magic vestment for that matter) only last for 1 minute/level.

What, so the fighter types don't get nice things? Now they also have to deal with a dragon's DR, where the casters have nothing to worry about.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

To reiterate, +1 frost holy speed keen is still the better way to spend your money, since the Greater Magic Weapon spell still completely obviates the need for higher "plus" enchantments.

Yeah I know. It's not that playtested

At least, it's a resource the casters have to spend - albeit a small one (and most likely just party resources anyway).

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

I always understood the DR x/magic of many powerful monsters to be more of a fluff thing. It basically says: "you need to be a PC to attack this monster". Non-heroic attacks on a dragon just won't cut it (literally).

Yup, this is one of the game's dirty little secrets that the DMG doesn't tell you. DR is by and large meant to be overcome by the PCs.

What I did was saying that every plus reduces the DR by 5. So you could bypass DR 20 with a +4 weapon. If you only had a +2 weapon, you'd face DR 10. Can't remember if I upped Dragon DR by 5 - I think so.

I was about to say "I once found a brilliant DR variant on ENworld..." but you beat me to it! My guideline for the DR value is 5 per 4 CRs.

(Yeah I know +1 weapons are still the better option; the brilliance of this variant is that it eliminates the binary nature of DR.)

 

[airwalkrr]

What, so the fighter types don't get nice things? Now they also have to deal with a dragon's DR, where the casters have nothing to worry about.

It's called spell resistance. Ask the wizard and druid in my party about it sometime.

 

[Empirate]

It's called spell resistance. Ask the wizard and druid in my party about it sometime.

And what houserules, pray tell, have you introduced to make SR harder to overcome? You know, so the mundanes are not the only ones who are presented with arbitrary stuff to make their job harder?

Besides, SR is really easy to either ignore (many very good spells allow no SR) or overcome (Assay Resistance spell, among others).

 

[airwalkrr]

And what houserules, pray tell, have you introduced to make SR harder to overcome? You know, so the mundanes are not the only ones who are presented with arbitrary stuff to make their job harder?

Besides, SR is really easy to either ignore (many very good spells allow no SR) or overcome (Assay Resistance spell, among others).

I don't allow everything under the sun in my games. My players can use the three core rulebooks and the Eberron Campaign Setting. Assay Spell Resistance is overpowered and I don't allow it. I also generally nerf a lot of conjuration spells that bypass spell resistance because that little change from 3.0 to 3.5 really defeated the whole purpose of spell resistance in the first place.

Besides, you are missing the point. This conversation is about dragons. Dragons are just incredibly tough opponents on all levels. I don't pull punches with dragons in respect to any type of character. In fact, because they can fly so quickly and are generally quite mobile, the spellcaster is usually the first to get munched. Overcoming spell resistance is generally the least of your worries when you are trapped inside a dragon's maw.

 

[ksbsnowowl]

Interesting. I hadn't realized that conjuration spells in 3.0 didn't generally overcome SR.