Solars too weak?

[ruleslawyer]

Yes. This is DR that actually has some teeth.

If you know you're going to face a Pit Fiend or Balor, you can take steps to get your hands on weapons to beat his DR. If you're facing a Solar, you need an EPIC weapon to beat DR. In most games, epic weapons are hard to come by ... For all intensive purposes, this is DR #/-.

That is a huge imporvement from the old DR that all 15th level parties could ignore with a simple 3rd/4th level spell.

My issue wasn't with the word "improvement"; it was with the word "huge."

And no, this is not DR #/- for anywhere near all intents and purposes (that's what you meant, right?), since you're talking a CR 23 creature here. Anything facing such a creature should be able to come up with a +4 good outsider bane weapon, or GMW one up. While it is true that a 19th-level party (level = 3.0 CR) will have a harder time inflicting full damage on the 3.5 solar, the fact is that the 3.0 solar would have decimated such a party anyway. The 3.5 solar is a CR 23 creature; as such, a party that can take it on without losing a significant chunk of resources probably has a +6 weapon and the align weapon spell, or a +4 angelbane weapon.

As Hyp pointed out, the required epic evil weapon both bypasses the solar's DR and its regeneration, making the regen effectively worse than the 3.0 solar's fast healing unless you're not attacking it with weapons (or it casts favor of Ilmater ).

 

[James McMurray]

Just to clarify for those of us plaing the home-game: Favor of Ilmater does not make a creature with regen immune to damage that canot bypass regen. Instead it negates the Favor's immunity to nonlethal portion.

 

[jgsugden]

A couple notes from a certain evil cleric with some experience in this area.

Some DMs may not call a good outsider bane +4 weapon an epic weapon. It may not be 100% correct under the rules, but this is one of those areas DMs would feel fairly comfortable making a house rule.

A GMW to raise the weapon to +4 needs to come from a 16th level caster.

A solar is pretty bright. If it recognizes that it is being damaged by real damage, it can Sunder that weapon or otherwise incapacitate the wielder with any of its powerful abilities. Even if 1 or 2 foes can penetrate epic DR, The rest will not. In practical play, this is a devastating ability in most games. It can be worked around, but only with extensive expense and proper planning ... which are not performed as often as they are assumed on these boards.

I've seen Solars in play in a few games. The Epic DR is a *very* nice ability.