Lycanthropes - As tough as it gets (a rant against 3.5 DR).

[Calico_Jack73]

Recently in a campaign I play in the party had to face a Werewolf. It was the first time since we've been playing 3.5 that we faced one. Imagine our alarm when we found out to our dismay that ONLY silver weapons get by it's DR. We are a low level party... I was kind of counting on my Druid's Shilleligh to be able to damage it. The days of Enchanted Weapons OR Silver working were gone to our horror. I got to thinking... with 3.5's DR rules you could have a +5 Vorpal Holy Lawful (etc, etc) Uber Sword and as long as it didn't have a bit of silver in it the Werewolf's DR would always lower the damage. No matter how uber the weapon as long as there is no silver the Lycanthrope gets it's DR. Now I know it sounds like I am picking on Lycanthropes but actually it is against 3.5 DR in general. Just out of curiosity, do many of you folks out there use the old rules and allow enchanted weapons to bypass DR or have most of you embraced the new rules.

 

[thalmin]

Watch out how you handle this, the DR for most monsters was lowered when the DR rules changed. Changing one without the other will seriously weaken the creatures.
I like the 3.5 DR rules, giving more flavor to various encounters, but this change has often been discussed/argued on these boards.

 

[XO]

IMO, 3e DR rules were fine ; 3.5 DR rules are unpalatable

 

[FireLance]

Even a low-level party ought to be able to get their hands on a silvered short sword (30 gp), a silvered dagger (22 gp) or silvered ammunition (+2 gp per piece). But that's besides the point.

Natural lycanthropes do get hefty DR (15/silver). As such, as a DM, I would avoid throwing one at a party that was unprepared. Unless of course, they had some chance of damaging or neutralizing it, e.g. spells, acid, alchemist's fire, Power Attack with two-handed weapons, etc.

 

[Li Shenron]

Recently in a campaign I play in the party had to face a Werewolf. It was the first time since we've been playing 3.5 that we faced one. Imagine our alarm when we found out to our dismay that ONLY silver weapons get by it's DR. We are a low level party... I was kind of counting on my Druid's Shilleligh to be able to damage it. The days of Enchanted Weapons OR Silver working were gone to our horror. I got to thinking... with 3.5's DR rules you could have a +5 Vorpal Holy Lawful (etc, etc) Uber Sword and as long as it didn't have a bit of silver in it the Werewolf's DR would always lower the damage. No matter how uber the weapon as long as there is no silver the Lycanthrope gets it's DR. Now I know it sounds like I am picking on Lycanthropes but actually it is against 3.5 DR in general. Just out of curiosity, do many of you folks out there use the old rules and allow enchanted weapons to bypass DR or have most of you embraced the new rules.

Well, in 3.0 werewolves already had DR vs silver, but any magic weapon was able to bypass it. Not that we had very many encounters with lycanthropes, but - unless you were still level 1-2 - definitely their DR was always completely useless. Absolutely no need to have a silver weapon after a couple of levels. At least now there is a reason to fear a few creatures more than before.

 

[Brother MacLaren]

Remember the cheesy 1980's movie "The Monster Squad"? Early in the movie, the characters debate the various ways one could kill a werewolf. Late in the movie, a guy blows up the Wolfman with a stick of dynamite. The Wolfman's various parts pull together and he's back on his feet. Another character shoots it with a silver bullet (from melting down his mother's silverware, I think) and announces "There's only *one* way to kill a werewolf."

That's the point of 3.5 DR, and I do like it. Regeneration is even worse; pit fiend not only has DR, it regenerates any damage that has punched through the DR rather than bypassed it.

 

[Dog Moon]

I like the 3.5 version of DR. It makes things a little more interesting (giving them flavor). It also makes creatures a little bit more difficult to defeat since they might not necessarily have that specific type of weapon. Also, I don't like having to make my sword +5 eventually since I like being able to put various abilities on my weapons. There is a thing I think on Monte Cook's website about the 'golf bag syndrome' (a.k.a. having a different weapon for each metal and whatnot), so they made and optional list so the player could either have the correct metal or a high enough + on his weapon. Don't know if you want this or not, but I guess you could check it out:

http://www.montecook.com/dmonly.html

 

[Ashardalon]

Natural lycanthropes do get hefty DR (15/silver). As such, as a DM, I would avoid throwing one at a party that was unprepared.

10/silver, actually. A bit easier to defeat.

 

[Darklone]

I like the 3.5 DR as well.

Natural lycanthropes are usually too hefty for low level parties.

 

[Mystery Man]

with 3.5's DR rules you could have a +5 Vorpal Holy Lawful (etc, etc) Uber Sword and as long as it didn't have a bit of silver in it the Werewolf's DR would always lower the damage. No matter how uber the weapon as long as there is no silver the Lycanthrope gets it's DR.

But, by the time you're appropriately high enough in level to wield one of these, a werewolf out of the box isn't even going to hit you. Just FYI. And you most like be doing at least 30 damage a round if you don't crit or smite.