Wraiths and DR?

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Does damage resistance apply to the hp damage (1d4) cause by a wraith's incorporeal touch attack?

Intuitively I would think not, but I can't find any rules to back it up.

If DR applies and negates all of the (1d4) damage, does that mean the (1d6) Con loss does not occur?

Normally special effects don't occur if the damage that accompanies them is fully negated by DR (e.g., poison). However, the Con Drain description makes it sound like it's the touch and not the damage that causes the Con drain (i.e., they're seperate effects that share only the touch attack roll).

From the SRD:

Constitution Drain (Su): Living creatures hit by a wraith’s incorporeal touch attack must succeed on a DC 14 Fortitude save or take 1d6 points of Constitution drain. The save DC is Charisma-based. On each such successful attack, the wraith gains 5 temporary hit points.

Damage Reduction (Ex or Su): A creature with this special quality ignores damage from most weapons and natural attacks. Wounds heal immediately, or the weapon bounces off harmlessly (in either case, the opponent knows the attack was ineffective). The creature takes normal damage from energy attacks (even nonmagical ones), spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities. A certain kind of weapon can sometimes damage the creature normally, as noted below.

 

[Stalker0]

I would actually say yes to both. DR applies to the wraith's attack, and if the DR negates the damage it negates the con drain.

Many creatures do secondary attacks like poison, but they are not described as "secondary" they are just apart of the attack. A wraith's drain is the same.

 

[pawsplay]

The creature takes normal damage from energy attacks (even nonmagical ones), spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities

It's right there.

Negating the damage would not negate the drain anyway, because it specifically says the drain occurs if the wraith hits, not if it causes damage.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Whoops! My bad, I missed that.

So DR applies to the incorporeal touch attack but not to the Con drain?

 

[pawsplay]

I'd still say no. It applies to "most" weapons, but not all, and excludes spell-like abilities, supernatural abilities, and so forth. While not explicitly described as such, the incorporeal touch looks like an energy attack that does damage of no particular type or negative energy. In any case, incorporeal touch attacks exclude worn and natural armor, which would include adamantine armor... it would be strange if, by ignoring natural armor, it didn't also ignore creature DR.

I cannot, however, find a description of what kind of attack or ability an incorporeal touch is. I would ordinarily assume it is a negative energy attack, but nothing in the wraith description says that explicitly.

 

[frankthedm]

I would actually say yes to both. DR applies to the wraith's attack, and if the DR negates the damage it negates the con drain.

Many creatures do secondary attacks like poison, but they are not described as "secondary" they are just apart of the attack. A wraith's drain is the same.

Nope. A wall of stone won't stop the wraith's attack, nither will the barbarian's thick skin. If you need actual rules... the fact the attack is a touch attack lets the wraith bypass it. DR won't stop energy drains either. Mummy rot still kicks off as well, though mummys are usually strong enough their slam go through the DR anyhow.

DAMAGE REDUCTION
Some magic creatures have the supernatural ability to instantly heal damage from weapons or to ignore blows altogether as though they were invulnerable.

The numerical part of a creature’s damage reduction is the amount of hit points the creature ignores from normal attacks. Usually, a certain type of weapon can overcome this reduction. This information is separated from the damage reduction number by a slash. Damage reduction may be overcome by special materials, by magic weapons (any weapon with a +1 or higher enhancement bonus, not counting the enhancement from masterwork quality), certain types of weapons (such as slashing or bludgeoning), and weapons imbued with an alignment. If a dash follows the slash then the damage reduction is effective against any attack that does not ignore damage reduction.

Ammunition fired from a projectile weapon with an enhancement bonus of +1 or higher is treated as a magic weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. Similarly, ammunition fired from a projectile weapon with an alignment gains the alignment of that projectile weapon (in addition to any alignment it may already have).

Whenever damage reduction completely negates the damage from an attack, it also negates most special effects that accompany the attack, such as injury type poison, a monk’s stunning, and injury type disease. Damage reduction does not negate touch attacks, energy damage dealt along with an attack, or energy drains. Nor does it affect poisons or diseases delivered by inhalation, ingestion, or contact.

Attacks that deal no damage because of the targetÂ’s damage reduction do not disrupt spells.

Spells, spell-like abilities, and energy attacks (even nonmagical fire) ignore damage reduction.

Sometimes damage reduction is instant healing. Sometimes damage reduction represents the creature’s tough hide or body,. In either case, characters can see that conventional attacks don’t work.

If a creature has damage reduction from more than one source, the two forms of damage reduction do not stack. Instead, the creature gets the benefit of the best damage reduction in a given situation.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Whenever damage reduction completely negates the damage from an attack, it also negates most special effects that accompany the attack, such as injury type poison, a monk’s stunning, and injury type disease. Damage reduction does not negate touch attacks, energy damage dealt along with an attack, or energy drains. Nor does it affect poisons or diseases delivered by inhalation, ingestion, or contact.

Of course, the question then is "Is an incorporeal touch attack a touch attack?" For example, an incorporeal touch attack does not ignore an armor bonus from a force effect. If it were, in fact, a touch attack, it would ignore the armor bonus no matter what its source.

So it may be that the clause "Damage reduction does not negate touch attacks" is not applicable to incorporeal touch attacks, since incorporeal touch attacks are not, in fact, touch attacks...

-Hyp.

 

[pawsplay]

This is the closest thing to help from the incorporeal section:

An incorporeal creature’s attacks pass through (ignore) natural armor, armor, and shields, although deflection bonuses and force effects (such as mage armor) work normally against it.

Nothing about DR.