What does DR look like?

[Voadam]

So,

I've been wondering - what does it look like if you hit a creature with DR against your weapon.

A few ideas include
- weapon passes through harmlessly
- weapon bounces off
- weapon appears to wound creature, but wounds immediately heal

I would like to be able to describe these sort of different results to my players, but I'd like to have a plan for it - eg, maybe if it's have DR versus silver it passes through, while DR versus Holy may just heal immediately.

Any ideas/suggestions?

Duncan

All of them can be confused with other mechanical descriptions.

Passing through, incorporeal
Bouncing off, natural armor
Healing, fast healing, regeneration

Go with what seems right for the creature, although "doesn't cut as deeply as you expect, it seems to be tougher than normal flesh." Works pretty well.

 

[Duncan Haldane]

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far.

I do realise that passing through would look like Incorporeal, and insta-heal like regen/fast healing; My players are generally good enough to realise that I am describing beyond the base rules.

I was hoping to formulate some kind of structured response, so perhaps the same type of DR has similar visible results.

Oh, and as to the poster who said that some DRs should be regen/fast healing instead of DR, consider that regen occurs on the victim's turn. Changing to regen would mean that players can gang up in one round and attempt to damage as much as possible before the next turn's regen. DR means they never took the (value of the DR) damage in the first place.

Duncan (oh, and consider this a friendly *bump*)

 

[Anabstercorian]

Some quick 'blurbs' you can use.

Fast healing DR, total absorbtion of damage:

"Trying to cut this thing is like trying to cut water - the wound you make heals before the sword is out of the wound, so that your blow has no effect."

Partial absorbtion of damage:

"As you finish the cut, the wound heals lightning-quick, but not completely, so that your blow has only a partial effect."

 

[Saeviomagy]

MY personal plan:

DR piercing, slashing or bludgeoning is usually easy to describe "your weapon thuds into the zombie with a wet squish, crushing it's windpipe. The creature seems to ignore this fact, although at least you can't hear it going 'braaaaiiins' all the time anymore"

DR adamantine is easy "the sword strikes hard but clangs off the tough body of the creature - you get the impression that attacking stone with a steel longsword isn't going to be easy"

DR silver is just total lack of effect, and minor regeneration "the blade cuts deep, but the beast seems unaffected. Before your eyes the wound seals itself again"

DR cold iron is probably the weapon passes straight through, like the creature is not entirely there.

DR magic/alignment is going to be a colour-coded flash. Blue for magic, white for evil, red for good, and if I ever use lawful or chaotic I'll work something out. Chaotic would probably be "the weapon has no effect - you get the impression that it is just not SUPPOSED to break this creature's skin". Lawful would be "as your weapon strikes the creature, an area of flesh twists and leaps in a random haze and the weapon passes straight through".

Combinations are expressed as... combinations. A cold iron and good DR would come across as a red flash partly deflects the blow, and the bits that do make contact pass through the creature, like it's not entirely there.

 

[Incenjucar]

The main issue to consider is that DR can be bypassed by heavier damage.

It makes regenerative DR make much less sense, unless the creature's healing cells burn out if exposed to air for too long (as with a deeper cut)

 

[Ry]

I think this problem is a small facet of a larger one, namely: What does hitpoint-based damage look like?

 

[Duncan Haldane]

I think this problem is a small facet of a larger one, namely: What does hitpoint-based damage look like?

Actually, that's a very good point.

Older editions talked about hit points being abstract, representing one's luck at dodging blows, etc. As one's hit points got lower the luck was running out, and the big hit was coming soon.

And there is the endless problem of people assuming that one to-hit role means that the recipient is only being hit once - that may work for large, heavy weapons, but since lighter weapons may be thrust,swung many times to the large weapon's one swing, it doesn't really apply... except that we know the use of ammunition, we know how often to apply bonus damage, etc.

I'll have to think about this a bit more...

Duncan

 

[Saeviomagy]

The main issue to consider is that DR can be bypassed by heavier damage.

It makes regenerative DR make much less sense, unless the creature's healing cells burn out if exposed to air for too long (as with a deeper cut)

Why? You cut yourself shallowly, you end up with a totally healed wound.

You cut yourself to the bone, you end up with a scar.

So - you pass the DR and the creature's wounds heal somewhat, but leave masses of scar tissue that are obviously impeding it.

 

[Umbran]

In the Core Rules, hit point damage is not necessarily actual physical damage to the creature's body. Hit points are an abstract covering a lot of different things, many of them not visible. So, there doesn't need to be a visible effect when DR is encountered.

 

[Ry]

In the Core Rules, hit point damage is not necessarily actual physical damage to the creature's body. Hit points are an abstract covering a lot of different things, many of them not visible. So, there doesn't need to be a visible effect when DR is encountered.

But that's not much of a help, really - as with my comment about hitpoints, the issue is "How can we describe it?" rather than... "How can we not describe it?"

I suppose we could just say "He takes 10 damage" but that doesn't really jive with a lot of playstyles (i.e. those where we try to describe events dramatically and use the rules to provide structure to those descriptions).