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General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
Why the change in DR from 3.0 to 3.5
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<blockquote data-quote="Empirate" data-source="post: 5869156" data-attributes="member: 78958"><p>Similarly to Celebrim, I find the absolute DR values in 3.0 were much too high. 3.5 is much more reasonable in that regard. In 3.0, DR could be an all-or-nothing defense: you either did full damage, or none at all. Binary defenses = bad design, like AC or saves. In 3.5, it's more of a "this is either gonna be reasonably easy, or it's gonna be hard, but not impossible" case, which I like better.</p><p></p><p>However, DR x/magic is ridiculous at almost every level (like DR x/+1 was in 3.0). DR x/special material is interesting, but it is in fact really aggravating to put down your +3 Holy Wounding Greatsword, and get out your secondary +1 Mace, only because one is made of Silver, and the other of Cold Iron. Not even high level melee warriors are going to carry multiple level-appropriate weapons. So the melee guy (and game balance) is hurt further by the DR change. Especially when we also consider DR x/slashing etc. Those just put the hurt on even more. And they can be combined with other DRs, into something as hard to overcome as the Rakshasa's DR 15/good AND piercing, which is insanely difficult to overcome with any weapon that's actually good.</p><p></p><p>Finally, when enchantments like metalline and morphing came out, these suddenly replaced other weapon enchants as the go-to enchantments. This resulted in a) fewer really cool, flavorful enchants on your weapon, and b) DR doing less and less at higher levels. Basically, the "must be this tall to fight that monster" mindset had returned. But at least the Greater Magic Weapon doing everything 'problem' has been neutered, right? Well, too bad for Mr. Melee Guy!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Empirate, post: 5869156, member: 78958"] Similarly to Celebrim, I find the absolute DR values in 3.0 were much too high. 3.5 is much more reasonable in that regard. In 3.0, DR could be an all-or-nothing defense: you either did full damage, or none at all. Binary defenses = bad design, like AC or saves. In 3.5, it's more of a "this is either gonna be reasonably easy, or it's gonna be hard, but not impossible" case, which I like better. However, DR x/magic is ridiculous at almost every level (like DR x/+1 was in 3.0). DR x/special material is interesting, but it is in fact really aggravating to put down your +3 Holy Wounding Greatsword, and get out your secondary +1 Mace, only because one is made of Silver, and the other of Cold Iron. Not even high level melee warriors are going to carry multiple level-appropriate weapons. So the melee guy (and game balance) is hurt further by the DR change. Especially when we also consider DR x/slashing etc. Those just put the hurt on even more. And they can be combined with other DRs, into something as hard to overcome as the Rakshasa's DR 15/good AND piercing, which is insanely difficult to overcome with any weapon that's actually good. Finally, when enchantments like metalline and morphing came out, these suddenly replaced other weapon enchants as the go-to enchantments. This resulted in a) fewer really cool, flavorful enchants on your weapon, and b) DR doing less and less at higher levels. Basically, the "must be this tall to fight that monster" mindset had returned. But at least the Greater Magic Weapon doing everything 'problem' has been neutered, right? Well, too bad for Mr. Melee Guy! [/QUOTE]
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Why the change in DR from 3.0 to 3.5
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