Explain Damage Reduction

[talus21]

I was reading the rules for Damage Reduction and I don't get it. Can someone put it plainly?

Thanks

[Saph]

Damage Reduction reduces the damage from any hit with a weapon.

If you have Damage Reduction 10/evil and are hit with a greatsword for 19 damage, you take only 9 damage. (19-10=9.)

Damage reduction can be bypassed by the special source of damage listed after the slash. In the case of DR 10/evil, an Evil-aligned weapon would ignore the damage reduction.

That help?

- Saph

[talus21]

So what about spells?

Seems a bit over powered. I would think a magical weapon could over come DR.

[Zanatos777]

Magic weapons bypass many creature's DR. It does not reduce spell damage though.

[Recaiden]

Usually, magic weapons do get through. And it's not too easy for players to get.

It applies per hit, but not to spells.

If it says DR 5/- That means nothing overcomes it, and it simply reduces all damage taken. That's extremely rare though.

The thing after the slash indicates what overcomes the Damage reduction.
The number before the slash is how much damage is taken away.
Say, /wood, /adamantine, /magic, /*alignment*

[Saph]

Seems a bit over powered. I would think a magical weapon could over come DR.

A magic weapon does indeed overcome DR, providing it's DR/magic.

Otherwise, though, you need the special ingredient. Silver weapons against DR/silver, good-aligned weapons against DR/good, etc.

DR is very powerful against sources that do damage in lots of little bits (like an archer). It's not so effective against sources that do damage in big chunks (like a Power Attacking barbarian).

- Saph

[BRC]

So what about spells?

Seems a bit over powered. I would think a magical weapon could over come DR.
The DR of many creatures is in fact bypassed by magic weapons.

Whatever is on the other side of the slash is what bypasses DR. Whether that is a property (Magic, Good, Evil, Lawful, Chaotic), a Material (Adamite, Cold Iron, Silver),or a damage type (Bludgeoning, Slashing, Piercing). Some things have DR/-, which is bypassed by nothing.

It should be noted that DR only effects physical weapon damage. If I attack, lets say, a skeleton with a flaming longsword, it's DR only applies to the D8 weapon damage, the 1d6 fire damage from the flaming property goes through.

[Douglas]

Magic weapons bypass DR/magic. Spells ignore DR of any type entirely unless specifically noted otherwise (specifying a weapon damage type such as slashing qualifies, as there's almost no other reason to do that). It is much more common for spells to have to deal with energy resistance, for example fire resistance reducing the damage from a Fireball.

Any DR that specifies something other than magic as the thing to bypass it requires that specific thing. If you're attacking something with DR/silver, it doesn't matter whether your sword is nonmagical or +50 or anything in between. In order to bypass that DR, you have to have a silver weapon. This is not generally considered overpowered, it's just part of the system and monsters with non-magic DR are usually designed and evaluated with the assumption that their DR will rarely be bypassed. There are some special weapon abilities designed specifically to help bypass more types of DR, but it's a tradeoff - do you spend your money on that, or on abilities that increase damage in general?

[theMycon]

Two common confusions:
DR n/- means "I resist n points of damage from any weapon." There are a few things that say "I pierce DR, period" which I (and most other people) assume to mean it breaks DR/-.
DR does NOT apply to magic*. Energy Resistance applies to magic, and works much the same way. Except it only resists one kind of energy, rather than all-but-one. Similarly, force damage is not affected by DR; however, despite playing for... years and years, I'm still not sure if I could call it "magic" or not.

Similarly, most creatures with DR automatically pierce that kind of DR; meaning a pair of balors can punch eachother out without DR getting in the way. Read the entry for specifics.



*Prepare for a war of word-nitpicking on whether summons, bludgeoning damage from spells, and conjurations are affected by DR. I feel "yes, yes, and rarely" on those issues, but you should use your head and decide for yourself if physical toughness would make it bother you less.

[hewhosaysfish]

Similarly, most creatures with DR automatically pierce that kind of DR; meaning a pair of balors can punch eachother out without DR getting in the way. Read the entry for specifics.

Creatures with DR/magic (or DR/epic) can count their natural weapons as magical (or epic) for the purposes of bypassing DR but I've never been able to find anything that says the same for material or alignment DRs (Although my DM keeps assuming that there is and it bugs me; sure, if a creature is so infused with magic that normal weapons can't harm it them it's claws should count as magical. But why would a werewolves claws be silvery? Or a demon's claws Good!?!)
Is there some bit of the rules on the subject that I've missed?

[Dagren]

Damage reduction can be bypassed by the special source of damage listed after the slash. In the case of DR 10/evil, an Evil-aligned weapon would ignore the damage reduction.Going off topic a bit, that's something that's always bugged me a bit. DR x/evil is typically given to celetials like Solars, right? So let me get this straight: They have this awesome ability that lets them shrug off a ton of physical harm, but it doesn't work on the enemies they'd be most likely to fight? (Hint: A paladin with a Holy Avenger isn't likely to be attacking solars. A blackguard with an unholy reaver? More so.) Same goes for fiends that can only be hurt by good weapons.

Creatures with DR/magic (or DR/epic) can count their natural weapons as magical (or epic) for the purposes of bypassing DR but I've never been able to find anything that says the same for material or alignment DRs (Although my DM keeps assuming that there is and it bugs me; sure, if a creature is so infused with magic that normal weapons can't harm it them it's claws should count as magical. But why would a werewolves claws be silvery? Or a demon's claws Good!?!)
Is there some bit of the rules on the subject that I've missed?I've never come across anything, but similarly to what I said above, it doesn't make much sense to have DR that works on everybody but your main enemies, so ruling that there's also a vulnerability to their own type circumvents that a bit, as in it's no longer everybody but your enemy, there are other exceptions.

[Glimbur]

Going off topic a bit, that's something that's always bugged me a bit. DR x/evil is typically given to celetials like Solars, right? So let me get this straight: They have this awesome ability that lets them shrug off a ton of physical harm, but it doesn't work on the enemies they'd be most likely to fight? (Hint: A paladin with a Holy Avenger isn't likely to be attacking solars. A blackguard with an unholy reaver? More so.) Same goes for fiends that can only be hurt by good weapons.
I've never come across anything, but similarly to what I said above, it doesn't make much sense to have DR that works on everybody but your main enemies, so ruling that there's also a vulnerability to their own type circumvents that a bit, as in it's no longer everybody but your enemy, there are other exceptions.

You've got your chicken and egg backwards. Angels are tough things, but Demons and Devils are so antithetical to them that they can hurt them better. Same way in reverse. You don't choose what breaks your DR, your enemies adapted to get through it. Or that's what makes sense to me, anyway.

[Dagren]

You've got your chicken and egg backwards. Angels are tough things, but Demons and Devils are so antithetical to them that they can hurt them better. Same way in reverse. You don't choose what breaks your DR, your enemies adapted to get through it. Or that's what makes sense to me, anyway.Yeah, that's pretty much the only way that I can think of it making sense too. Still has the same effect though, that your DR works on everything except things you'd really want it to work on.

[pingcode20]

Notably, however, DR doesn't do jack against energy damage, regardless of its magical status - that has to be covered by Energy Resistance.

So take someone with DR 5/-.

They get attacked with a lit torch, getting hit for the maximum of 3 bludgeoning damage + 1 fire.

Thanks to DR, all three points of bludgeoning get negated, and they take no bludgeoning damage. However, Fire damage is not resisted by DR, and the person still takes 1 point of damage from the fire.

[Talic]

Now, let's say that torch is wielded two handed by a 32 strength fighter, using leap attack and power attacking for 5. Now he takes 3 (max base damage) + 16 (Str x 1.5) +20 (1 for 2 power attack, +100% for leap attack), or 39 damage, +1 fire.

DR knocks off 5 points, and he takes 34 damage, +1 fire damage.

[Devils_Advocate]

Creatures with DR/magic (or DR/epic) can count their natural weapons as magical (or epic) for the purposes of bypassing DR but I've never been able to find anything that says the same for material or alignment DRs (Although my DM keeps assuming that there is and it bugs me; sure, if a creature is so infused with magic that normal weapons can't harm it them it's claws should count as magical. But why would a werewolves claws be silvery? Or a demon's claws Good!?!)
Is there some bit of the rules on the subject that I've missed?

Some monsters are vulnerable to chaotic-, evil-, good-, or lawful-aligned weapons. When a cleric casts align weapon, affected weapons might gain one or more of these properties, and certain magic weapons have these properties as well. A creature with an alignment subtype (chaotic, evil, good, or lawful) can overcome this type of damage reduction with its natural weapons and weapons it wields as if the weapons or natural weapons had an alignment (or alignments) that match the subtype(s) of the creature.
Technically, your DM has it wrong. A demon's weapons function as evil and chaotic, not good and lawful.

That said, his way makes sense for the same basic reason you give above. If a creature is hard enough to have DR/Adamantine, it's hard enough to punch through DR/Adamantine. That's less of a stretch than your "infused with magic" made-up mumbo-jumbo. But if you are willing to buy anti-everything-without-an-enhancement bonus magic overcoming itself, then why would you have any more problem with anti-everything-but-silver magic overcoming itself?

It also make sense from the adaptation perspective discussed above: Demons and devils are mostly gonna be fighting each other, so it makes more sense for them to be adapted to overcome fiendish damage reduction than celestial. Their weapons working against Good in particular doesn't make much sense no matter how you slice it; Evil as a whole is self-destructive both in principle and practice, because it turns individuals against each other.