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View Full Version : DR, how do you describe it?



Kris Strife
2009-06-18, 11:05 AM
This is entirely a flavor based, out of curiosity question.

I know in the books, it says 'ignores' and 'instantly regenerates' 'x amount of damage due to Damage Reduction'. What I want to know, is how do you describe it?.

paddyfool
2009-06-18, 11:12 AM
Depends on what you're hitting and what the justification is. Some examples:

Barbarian DR 1/-: "You shrug off dire rat's bite as if it were a flea" (dire rats only do 1 damage, and thus can't hurt anything with any DR)

Adamantine full plate DR 3/-: "The blow merely scratches your thick armour".

Werewolf DR 10/silver: "The werewolf seems utterly unconcerned with the blows your (steel) weapons strike. You see them heal almost instantly before your very eyes"

Master_Rahl22
2009-06-18, 11:18 AM
Partly it depends on what kind of creature has the DR, and how you interpret HP. If HP in your campaign is the ability to dodge or make blows only glancing when they might've been fatal, then DR could be that you are just that much more effective and dodging and rolling with the punches. On a skeleton, maybe their DR is just that it's hard to hurt creatures of nothing but bone with a rapier, so they're just kinda getting scratched whereas a mace will crack or shatter bones.

Kaiyanwang
2009-06-18, 11:22 AM
the extraordinary ones ( dr x/- as an example) i describve them this way:

- on targets made of meat, as little injuries that can be ignored

- on targets made of stone or metal, as scratches (I sometimes describe the effect with sparks or something similar)

The supernatural ones like good or evil, I generally speak about injuries that close quickly.

In case of outsiders, I describe them even pierced side to side, but they don't show the pain that can show, say, a devil scratched with an holy silvered weapon.

Mr.Moron
2009-06-18, 11:22 AM
Depends on the nature of the creature.

If someone say, attacks a skeleton (DR/Bludgeoning) with a spear. I'll describe it between thrust right between the ribs and only nicking the sides (poor damage rule, all but negated by the DR), to a great shot that split something in half but didn't hit that wide an area (high damage roll, solid hit in spite of DR).


While the DR/- of a particularly flesh but tough creature, I mights imply say that hitting is like trying to cut through a thick hard block of cheese with a dull knife. If they run up against DR on an armored creature like a giant killer beetle that is totally shutting down physical damage, the attacks literally just bounce off or get entirely deflected the carapace.

Burley
2009-06-18, 11:22 AM
I always said that a warlock/fey/demon's cold iron resistance, is like a magnetic field that cold iron ignores.

Claudius Maximus
2009-06-18, 12:06 PM
I always just ruled that if it has regeneration or fast healing, the DR is instantaneous healing of all or some of the damage from a blow, whereas DR without these traits is just like hardness. I do make exceptions though.


I always said that a warlock/fey/demon's cold iron resistance, is like a magnetic field that cold iron ignores.

How do you handle wooden weapons and natural attacks?

Choco
2009-06-18, 12:14 PM
The game I am running now is using the "armor as DR" variant, so in regards to armor - "While your blow was strong, it seems to be mostly absorbed by <target>'s full plate armor"

If the person/creature itself has the DR - "The mighty blow from your fullblade leaves only a scratch on <target>"

Burley
2009-06-18, 12:23 PM
How do you handle wooden weapons and natural attacks?

James, James, James. It's magic, my friend. Magic.

Devils_Advocate
2009-06-18, 03:47 PM
Right, it's like a magnetic field, but it works on non-metal too.


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 target’s damage reduction do not disrupt spells.
Based on that, I think that "fails to injure" makes more sense than "injury heals". Besides, regenerating wounds works better as fluff for... well, Regeneration. Or Fast Healing. So DR should have its own different fluff to distinguish it from those.