Monte Cook's Solution to the 'Golf Bag' Syndrome

[Merlion]

But from the way people were talking before the release, EVERY weapon-wielding character would absolutely have to have a "golf bag" of weapons to be remotely effective.

And obvously, that isnt the case.

And I think even more "average" combatants are going to be able to bypass the lower DR ratings. No, they arent going to do their usual amount of damage, but they will do damage.


And, even for those that do go into the "golf bag" thing, I dont see how its a problem. Its just a play style. As Elder Basilisk says, some characters carry around an assortment of weapons for other reasons anyway.

 

[Aaron2]

My Ftr 1/Wiz 10/Eldritch Knight 2/Spellsword 1? Adamantine Guisarme of wounding, Cold Iron arrows, silvered light flail, and an undead bane longsword (soon to be undead bane, ghost touch)
A friend's Bbn/Ftr/Holy Liberator/Exotic Weaponmaster? Holy Cold Iron spiked chain, an adamantine ghost touch spiked chain, and a +3 small returning dragonbane spear.
My Ftr2/Clr 1/Mnk2? Silver longsword, cold iron longsword, Cold iron lance, silvered spiked gauntlet, a bunch of javalins, a kukri, a dagger, shuriken, etc and oil of bless weapon. She'd have a normal steel +1 longsword too if she could afford it.
My Clr 10? +1 normal steel greatsword, silvered spiked gauntlet, cold iron crossbow bolts and dagger.
My friend's monk 7? Adamantine kama, silvered other monk weapon, cold iron monk weapon.
My Ftr 2/Bbn 3/Clr 3? Greater Masterwork Tralian Hammer, Greater masterwork silver gladius, fervidite dagger, sarishan steel greater masterwork longsword, +1 gladius

Yikes. Now what are we going to do about the golfbag of character classes problem!?


Aaron

 

[JoeGKushner]

I like the different weapons are needed to overcome DR. This makes a nice touch in a campaign setting like L5R where Jade is very precious.

Heck, sometimes it's good to have monsters that can't be heavily effected. Even Strombringer didn't have any power over the undead in some of Michael Moorcock's fiction.

And it just don't get more powerful than Strombringer.

 

[rkanodia]

I mentioned my variant idea in another thread on the topic, but I think I have a more concise way to explain it.

In English: The closer your weapon matches the characteristics required to break a DR, the more damage you deal. If it's Damage reduction 10/magic and silver, and you have a silver weapon, you ignore five points of DR. If it's magic, you ignore five points of DR. If it's both, you ignore all the DR.


In technical terms: When you see Damage Reduction X/Y AND Z, treat it as though it read:
DR (X/2)/Y AND Z
DR X/Y OR Z

so, DR 10/magic and silver becomes
DR 5/magic and silver
DR 10/magic or silver

There are some mid- to high-level monsters that have rather specific damage reduction requirements, to the point where I'd probably accuse any player actually carrying one to be a metagamer, unless he'd fought that type of monster before, or researched it in-game. Give em a break, let em try out a few things and see what's working. And if the monster still proves too tough, they can always run and come back with a +3 nerding styrofoam mallet of LARPing or whatever.

 

[BSF]

*sigh* I have a player whose PC's consistently carry multiple weapons. I wish I were making it up, but his current character carries the following.

3 javelins
short spear
trident
mace
Probably some sort of sword
net
assorted daggers

This character is travelling light so far. His last character was worse. I'll go from memory on the things I know the last character was carrying.
(3.0 game)
3 javelins
short spear
morningstar
light mace
long sword
shord sword
bow & arrows
crossbow & bolts
4 daggers
great axe
and a few others I think I am missing.

So, I see at least one golf bag type PC a campaign. The odd thing is that none of these weapons is used to bypass any specific DR. In fact, the long sword for the 3.0 campaign character was +3 Sure Striking (plus a few other things).

Macbeth is in the current campaign. His character carries two weapons. One is his cool Mithril Nagamaki, the other is a wooden Nagmaki that he uses for subdual damage when he doesn't want to kill. Several of the other PC's have a ranged weapon and a melee weapon. Aside from the one player, I don't really see the golf bag syndrome. That may change as they go up in levels, get money, etc. We will see.

I like the 3.5 DR rules. They are cool and workable and make DR a little more interesting. I don't want the PC's to have the one trump card all the time. I want them to encounter something and see the DR reducing their effectiveness and force them to rethink their plan. The DR levels have been reduced so that a good hit will still do damage. Fighters and raging barbarians will probably be able to do damage, even if they cannot bypass DR. Other characters might not. *shrug* I see that as a good thing as it shows how effective a highly skilled combatant might be.

 

[Tetsubo]

Ditto - I've been running 3.5 exclusively since it was released, and not a golf bag to be found.

Instead, DR actually means something other than "get the Greater Magic Weapon spell ready!"

HH, could you email me? tetsubo@comcast.net

Thanks.

 

[Gez]

Now that I think about it, here's a better way to trump all DR with magic within 3.5.

Make weapon enchantments (nyah, SKR!) that emulates special materials. Each is worth a +1 bonus.

So, rather than having a +5 weapon in order to be able to hit everything, you could have a +1 weapon with the enhancement of unholy (total equivalent bonus of +2), mock silver (total bonus of +3), mock cold-iron (total bonus of +4) and mock adamantine (total bonus of +5).

It's not the most efficient weapon you can make, but at least it will help you against nearly everything. (Why unholy? Because archons, guardinals and eladrins need "Evil and something else", while the fiends need "Good or something else". If you don't think you'll be battling celestials, you can get a holy one.)