Under what circumstances does DR protect against spell damage?

[ruleslawyer]

Barbarian DR

Pielorinho: See the PHB Glossary, p.277.

Roughly paraphrased:
"Barbarians have damage reduction as a class feature, but theirs is a special kind that negates damage from any source."

[Edit: Wrong page cited. Apologies and thanks to kreynolds for finding the old thread!]

 

[Pielorinho]

Re: Barbarian DR

Pielorinho: See the PHB Glossary, p.279.

Roughly paraphrased:
"Barbarians have damage reduction as a class feature, but theirs is a special kind that negates damage from any source."

Cool! I'll take a look at it tonight. We've not played high-level D&D yet, so it's not been an issue for us.

Thanks for the heads-up, kreynolds, and the cite, ruleslawyer!

Daniel

 

[kreynolds]

Re: Re: Barbarian DR

Thanks for the heads-up, kreynolds, and the cite, ruleslawyer!

Don't thank me. It's all ruleslawyer. Here's the old thread.

And here's the reply I got back from CS...

Does a barbarian's DR help against energy attacks and spells? The glossary in the PH says "Barbarians have damage reduction as a class feature, but theirs is a special type that negates set amount from any source."

Does "any source" just mean magic weapons? Or does it also include spells and energy attacks?

Thanks for your help.

Yes, the damage reduction applies to magic weapons.

But does it also apply to spells and energy attacks?

Damage reduction applies to any attacks that cause damage to the character, including most spells that cause damage.

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[Mordane76]

Then... Barbarian DR rules! Thanks for the cite!

 

[Iku Rex]

Re: Barbarian DR

Pielorinho: See the PHB Glossary, p.279.

Roughly paraphrased:
"Barbarians have damage reduction as a class feature, but theirs is a special kind that negates damage from any source."

Yupp. They should have given barbarian "damage reduction" a different name. It's a different kind of ability (extraordinary, not supernatural) and it doesn't work the same way as supernatural DR.

 

[kreynolds]

Re: Re: Barbarian DR

Yupp. They should have given barbarian "damage reduction" a different name.

Definately. How about Toughness...crap, nevermind. Ooo...Bullwark of Defense...damn, not that one either. Ahah! How about Great Fortitude...aww this sucks!

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Resiliency. That's the ticket. Fits quite nicely with MotW.

 

[Spatzimaus]

I just call it "Hardness", since it follows the same basic rules that object hardness does. Well, more or less, anyway.

Besides, "Hardness 1" and "DR 30/+1" clearly stack, as they're two different things, but people always asked how DR 1/- stacked with DR 30/+1.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Actually, that's a problem with calling barbarian DR something else; it overlaps with, rather than stacking with, "normal" DR, at least according to D&Dg. Grr...

 

[Mahali]

Mainly because CS is a bunch of crack monkies. But hey, if you can munchkin your DM into letting your barbarian DR reduce damage from spells more power to ya.

 

[Pielorinho]

Mainly because CS is a bunch of crack monkies. But hey, if you can munchkin your DM into letting your barbarian DR reduce damage from spells more power to ya.

Mahali, it'd be a harder sell to my DM if the PHb didn't explicitly spell it out. I was a skeptic until I read that passage. I know when I DM, I wouldn't have too hard a time granting an 11th-level barbarian 1 point off of every spell that hits her.

Daniel