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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kinematics" data-source="post: 7354372" data-attributes="member: 6932123">My own (biased) approach would be that standard +1/+2/+3 weapons simply don't do magic damage.  Treat them as exceptionally well-crafted weapons instead.  A weapon needs to have some magical effect on top of its base physical properties in order for the physical damage to bypass normal resistance.A longsword: Resisted normally.A +1 longsword: Resisted normally.A Flame Tongue: Not resisted.A longsword with Magic Weapon applied to it: Not resisted.A longsword with Holy Weapon applied to it: Not resisted.A longsword used with Booming Blade or Green Flame Blade: Not resisted.A silvered longsword: Not resisted against certain monster types.It's still relatively reasonable to bypass resistances, but it costs resources (spell slots, concentration, etc).  For permanent access, the weapon should be explicitly magical (eg: Flame Tongue), not just, "Has a bonus to hit and damage".  Then treat 'does magical damage' as a property in place of a +1, when handing out loot.  So you can have a Sparkly Magic Short Sword, or a Short Sword +1.  The first bypasses resistances, which is huge when you need it, but not that commonly called for; while the second does better against normal creatures, which is very nice most of the time, but doesn't help you against certain nasty monsters.DEFCON 1's ideas of degrees of magical power in a weapon (silver can hold some magic power, mythril can hold more, and adamantine are just dripping with power, and each are thus effective against higher tiers of resistant monsters) really does solidify the idea.  You can separate out the idea of "magic damage" from "mechanical bonuses".  So you can have a +3 sword, but if it's made of iron, it's still worthless against that werewolf.</blockquote>

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