Improving a Dragon's DR

[Empirate]

Could you just go back to 3e's version of DR*? Something like DR 20/+3. This doesn't mess around with the DR, but it does make the PCs choose how they want their magic attacks. In 3.5 I've always seen players keep a +1 weapon and add as much magic as possible to the thing. It becomes a +1 flaming, shocking, icyburst, holy, sundering mace. If you change DR to require a more powerful enchantment (+3/+4+/5) then you can seriously bump up some of the DR capabilities.


* NOTE: I never played 3.0 so I don't know if I have it right, if this isn't the 3e method of handling DR I think it still works.

Actually, people did the same in 3.0. Their party's Cleric just kept a few Greater Magic Weapons ready each morning.

Straight enhancement bonuses are too easy to emulate, and too expensive to buy, compared to spiffy weapon enchantments like Holy, Magebane, Collision, Valorous, Splitting...

 

[ksbsnowowl]

I run a 3.5 game, but fairly extensively house-rule things back to 3.0 (polymorph line of spells, magical DR, can power attack with light weapons, keen and improved critical stack)

It hasn't been an issue. I use the 3.5 amount of reduction for the damage reduction, but the "magic" part of DR x/magic is converted to the 3.0 counterpart (ie - DR 10/+1, or DR 15/+5, or even DR 15/+7 up in the epic levels).

I only apply the above to DR/Magic. If the 3.5 stats have a material that overcomes the DR, I just leave it as the material.

The one thing I haven't reinstated from 3.0 was the fact that in 3.0 arrows themselves had to be magical to overcome DR. A normal arrow fired from a +5 longbow didn't overcome DR at all. But, in 3.0 the enhancement bonus from the bow and any enhancement bonus from an arrow stacked.

 

[green slime]

The one thing I haven't reinstated from 3.0 was the fact that in 3.0 arrows themselves had to be magical to overcome DR. A normal arrow fired from a +5 longbow didn't overcome DR at all. But, in 3.0 the enhancement bonus from the bow and any enhancement bonus from an arrow stacked.

I kept that, and kept arrow enchantment and bow enchantments stacking.

 

[ksbsnowowl]

Yeah, one of the reasons Archers just plain RULED in 3.0

Buy the Wizard a 3rd level Pearl of Power, and have him give you 50 magical arrows each day.

 

[airwalkrr]

All dragons have Epic DR in my campaigns. Additionally, a dragon bane weapon will bypass their DR.

 

[Razjah]

All dragons have Epic DR in my campaigns. Additionally, a dragon bane weapon will bypass their DR.

I really like that idea. I'm stealing that for anytime a dragon comes into my campaigns. This is also pretty awesome to use in E6.

 

[ksbsnowowl]

Indeed, that is a fairly decent fix for a purely 3.5 game.

 

[nijineko]

One of the things that has bugged me for a while is that while dragons get DR/X Magic, by the time you are facing a dragon with DR you almost always have a magical weapon. It kinda makes it a "why bother".

Does anyone have any suggestions on improving the damage reduction of a dragon?

Cover the entire area/adventurers in an antimagic field? Sunder their gear? Or just ignore any attempts at DR and just stomp the adventurers into a gooey paste?

once the dragon hits epic, then the dr likewise becomes magic and epic, iirc. that happens around the 21st hd, i believe.

 

[Jester David]

Make it a lycanthope.

 

[Mon]

All dragons have Epic DR in my campaigns. Additionally, a dragon bane weapon will bypass their DR.

We do this as well, although we scale it from "x/Magic" for younger dragons, to "x/Bane" for older dragons, and "x/Bane and Epic" for CR 21+ dragons. In fact, bane weapons always bypass DR for the appropriate creature except in the case of Epic beings.

It's worked like a charm for many years now...although technically we haven't played pure 3.5 for a long time we still use this for Pathfinder.