FireLance said:
I dunno, Brown Jenkin. The real change in your suggestion seems to be reducing the duration of greater magic weapon. A magic weapon with a high enough plus would still make DR irrelevant. Moreover, I believe some posters have commented that by the time a party meets a DR creature, it would have enough weapons with a high enough plus so that it's no longer an issue. Giving DR creatures an additional vulnerability on top of that seems to be weakening them further.
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I was trying to deal with the complaints with the current system as I understand them.
1. Current DR is useless because people cast GMW that lasts all day.
By reducing the time of GMW it becomes a combat spell instead of an all day buff. As a combat spell it takes extra slots if you are going to fight more than once a day, and if you are unprepared it slows down combat while you buff. While I can't be sure that a "Transmute Metal" spell or spell family will be implemented (I believe they will), if they do my suggestion will have the same meta-effect. If you believe that GMW as an idea to bypass DR is the broken part, then similarly any "Transmute Metal" spell will be equally broken. I personally feel that a bypass DR spell is ok as long as it is not an all day thing. If you feel there should be no DR bypass spells then house rule them out.
2. Current DR is to high so if you don't have a high enough plus you are worthless.
This sort of contradicts number 1, but we will work under the assumption is correct. By adding special material vulnerabilities any high DR monster can be partialy damaged for only the cost of a special material instead of the high cost of a high plus. By the time you are facing monsters with high plus DRs, you can certainly afford a mundane special material weapon. In the new proposal DRs are lowered so much that any THF of even 1st level can get through ANY DR with a mundane weapon, even that of the Pit Fiend (I am not saying they will live past round 1) which seems wrong to me. I think high level beasties should be immune to normal weapons and this is a common fantasy element. I am responding to the complaint though by allowing anyone to deal limited damage if they know the monsters weakness, again a common fantasy element. If no-one has either a high enough plus, or the right material, then yes the party may be outmatched, but then an option exists that many seem to forget. Retreat and regroup, only now it will be much easier to get ahold of a special material than a high plus, and the pary can go back and fight the challenge when they are ready (as opposed to not being able to afford high plus weapon as it currently stands).
3. Magic weapons trumping special materials in the DR hierarchy causes a loss of flavor that is common in fantasy materials.
This is a valid complaint and I tried to deal with it. I am giving each creature a vulnerability that would match with thier fantasy flavor. These creatures would be able to be damaged by anyone who knows thier weakness and can get ahold of the right weapon. This flavor would be kept at all levels of play. At low levels a party can get ahold of the special materials far easier than they can get ahold of a magic weapon, so the importance of special materials lasts longer. You can bypass DR 5/+1 almost as well with an extra +1d6 of damage if you are using the right special material weapon and can do it at a fraction of the cost. I think this makes special materials a viable option. At mid levels if you run accross a monster with a DR to high to effect with your magic weapons you can still damage it if you know its weakness. This would cut down on the golf bag effect though as your favorite special weapon will work most of the time. At mid and high levels the special materials also come back in as flavor. Sure you may not need them, but if you choose to play with the flavor you can have your +x weapon of special material and do more damage to the bad guy than the person you chooses not to play with the flavor, once again enhancing the value of special materials as part of the fantasy element.
4. There is no incentive in the current system for players to have to quest for a special weapon to defeat a foe.
Yes the new system may encourage going looking for the special weapon to defeat a foe, but the current system does not prevent it. Right now anyone can place a monster that a quest for a special weapon is needed. I feel though that the new system goes to far making a quest seem needed for every Xth encounter. This however is also the flaw that many people see with the new system. Under the new system a golf bag aproach seems to be the easiest solution to this problem. Sure it can be banned from play by the DM, but I feel any rule that relys of the DM arbitrarily banning the easiest solution is broken. You could counter it more subtlely by making the special weapon rare to find, but if you do this often it looses its fun to play the campaign as you are always on a McGuffin hunt. Or you can use it sparingly to make it special, which is no different than what we have now. I feel that this is mostly a DM issue and not a rule issue, but my sugestion will ad a little more of needing to fnd a special weapon, without requiring the extreme of a golf bg to survive in the world.
This may not be a perfect solution (and there probably isn't one that some minority doesn't like) but I think it is a far better system than either the current or proposed ones are.
