Camarath said:
IMO Damage is clearly defined as "a decrease in hit points, an ability score, or other aspects of a character".
PHB 3.5 page 307
"Deal Damage: Cause Damage to a target with a successful attack. How much damage is dealt is usually expressed in terms of dice (fore example, 2d6+4) and may have a situational modifier as well. However damage dealt by a weapon or spell does not necessarily equal damage taken by the target, because the target may have special defenses that negate some or all of the damage."
I am not sure how this definition is inconsistent with the DR rules. You deal damage then apply Damage Reduction or Energy Resistance and then the target takes the remaining damage. At this point the target actually suffers a decrease in hit points or damage. As I see it if you deal damage less than the targets Damage Reduction then the target would not suffer a decrease in hit points so there would be no damage.
The Def for DR States: "DAMAGE REDUCTION
Some magic creatures have the supernatural ability to instantly heal damage from weapons or to ignore blows altogether as though they were invulnerable.
The numerical part of a creature’s damage reduction is the amount of hit points the creature ignores from normal attacks. Usually, a certain type of weapon can overcome this reduction. This information is separated from the damage reduction number by a slash. Damage reduction may be overcome by special materials, by magic weapons (any weapon with a +1 or higher enhancement bonus, not counting the enhancement from masterwork quality), certain types of weapons (such as slashing or bludgeoning), and weapons imbued with an alignment. If a dash follows the slash then the damage reduction is effective against any attack that does not ignore damage reduction.
Ammunition fired from a projectile weapon with an enhancement bonus of +1 or higher is treated as a magic weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. Similarly, ammunition fired from a projectile weapon with an alignment gains the alignment of that projectile weapon (in addition to any alignment it may already have).
Whenever damage reduction completely negates the damage from an attack, it also negates most special effects that accompany the attack, such as injury type poison, a monk’s stunning, and injury type disease. Damage reduction does not negate touch attacks, energy damage dealt along with an attack, or energy drains. Nor does it affect poisons or diseases delivered by inhalation, ingestion, or contact.
Attacks that deal no damage because of the target’s damage reduction do not disrupt spells.
Spells, spell-like abilities, and energy attacks (even nonmagical fire) ignore damage reduction.
Sometimes damage reduction is instant healing. Sometimes damage reduction represents the creature’s tough hide or body,. In either case, characters can see that conventional attacks don’t work."
Explination: If a creature has damage reduction from more than one source, the two forms of damage reduction do not stack. Instead, the creature gets the benefit of the best damage reduction in a given situation."
this definition is inconsistent with the def for both deal/take damage deal damage varies from take damage because of special defences-- DR, but the DR entry says that DR modifies Damage delt, not damage taken. they cannot both be correct, thus it is a pure judgment call by the dm.
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