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Message: <blockquote data-quote="two" data-source="post: 1783044" data-attributes="member: 9002">Work with me hereOk work with me here.  Because the more I think about it, the more balanced it seems.  I don't mean "mook" as in "an easy fight" I simply mean, not the BBEG.  PC's die in non-boss fights too, you know.I'm on record as stating I think it's a bad idea to let this be applied to ranged weapon or ammo.  10 arrows of this would be too useful for the price.  That said --Is it balanced applied to a melee weapon?Work with me.  Tell me where my reasoning fails, because I think it's pretty straightforward.Assumption 1:  An EMC weapon is too expensive to keep in a golfbag exclusively for boss fights, at levels 15 and below.  Levels above 15 are dealt with seperately.Assumption2:  An EMC weapon if owned will be used as a primary melee weapon (particularly since, barring player knowledge of monsters, most PC's won't be able to tell if a monster has SR or not).Assumption3:  An EMC weapon will be of the +1 EMC variety. It's far too expensive to buy a +5 weapon equivalent at levels below 15.Assumption4:  Most monsters with SR have damage reduction.  A +1 EMC weapon will not get through alignment DR.  Thus this requires an action on the part of the cleric to "align" the weapon pre-fight or, more likely, the +1 EMC weapon will be used as is.Assumption5:  A typical configuration for a +4 weapon that might be bought instead of the +1 EMC would be +1 Holy and X, where X is Fire, Sonic, Bane, Wounding, whatever.  Holy grants the weapon the all-useful good alignment.Assumption6:  Most high SR monsters are evil.  In fact, 95% of them are, and nearly all have DR/good or DR/good + X.  Only major exception:  DRAGONS (see below for special note on dragons) which have DR X/Magic.Now, once these assumptions are accepted as reasonably typical, there are a lot of interesting results.The +1 EMC weapon is really hurting against anything with DR.  How is the +1 EMC used to get past DR 10/good?  Have the cleric12 waste an action before every battle?  The net result here is the +1 EMC fighter doing 10 or 15 less damage per hit due to DR, which if it is not penetrated would not trigger the SR drop (correct?)?  If the Cleric does decide to align the weapon before each battle, more power to him.  It's not worth having your cleric spending an action to achieve this, particularly as the levels go up.As a result only of the DR penetration difficulties, the +1 Holy Wounding weapon, for example, if going to do significantly greater damage per hit, something on the order of 20 or 25 more per hit, depending on DR and other factors.So the loss in damage/actions is significant (an action being getting the +1 EMC weapon aligned).Add to this the following:1)  An EMC weapon is most useful at lower levels, when even SR15 is a hindrance.  However, it's not affordable until levels 8-10, at which point SR15 monsters are not much of an issue.2)  At level 10, when a fighter might have an +1 EMC weapon, typical monster SR's are 15-20 (Hezrou is SR19, CR11, DR 10/good).  It's not unlikely that wizards will penetrate "tough monster" SR's without any help, but they might fail.  EMC slightly useful.3)  At levels 13+, SR seems to jump much more rapily than PC levels, and a +1 EMC weapon would be useful in lowering moster SR's to auto hit levels.Now, what sorts of battles will make an EMC weapon shine?Well, 90% of monsters have negligable or no SR at levels below 15.  So EMC does nothing special in these cases.When up against 5 (a small group) of moderate SR monsters, an EMC weapon helps lower the SR of one to nil.  Perhaps two, but this is iffy.  Useful, but possibly not as efficient as simply killing the SR monsers quickly with a better weapon.  Depends.1 high SR monster and 2 NPC monster pals.  If the melee guy can get to the high SR monster fast, and the spellcasters can cast spells on it that they usually would not, very useful.  Assumes the other monsters are not in the way/hurting the casters, etc.  Could be a factor, or not.1 solitary high SR monster.EMC is great.  Throw it at the monster, then the spellcasters pound.Noteworthy here is Dragons.  It seems to me that an EMC weapon is not particularly stellar vs. demons, devils, undead, creepy crawly things with DR/good, etc.But it would be great against a dragon.  One full round, drop that SR by 15, and boom...that's a big help.Or is it?Getting a full attack on a dragon is, well, asking for it.  Lowering the dragon's SR does not, after all, do any real damage...it allows damage (possibly) to be done.  Aren't there lots of spells that don't allow SR anyway?  Doesn't a dragon have great saves even if SR is penetrated?  Is this really a dragon killer?  It's certainly an enabler...To sum, at levels 15 and below, the EMC weapon does a lot less damage, has trouble penetrating alignment, and may never really "shine" unless the GM throws a lot of single high-DR foes at you.  (which are rare/non-existant at levels below 10).So, what about high levels?By level 17, a wizard can get past uber SR if needed via no-SR spells, or the all-powerful Shapechange.  The higher you go,the more options are available.  Frankly, if you don't want to roll a SR check as a high level wizard/socerer, you don't have to -- and will still have excellent combat options.  You won't be able to do your standard schtick, but...too bad.  On those rare occasions when you find yourself confronted by a dragon, turn into a Beholder or something.Epic?  I don't know.  I assume SR gets crazy high... but wizards can create no-SR spells...and cast more of them...Is this such a big deal?Can't a party kill a high-SR monster anyway just be altering their spell selection a little? (for the 1 combat in 50 when such a situation rears its head?)</blockquote>

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