How should I interpret this situation?

[Jon_Dahl]

The players ran into lycanthropes. They had a hard time beating them. Their characters and players were fully aware that they needed silver weapons if they wanted to bypass their DR.

The players and their characters are fully aware that they afford to buy silver weapons, they know where to buy them and they know that purchasing them is easy and consumes minimal gametime.

Later on, they encounter bearded devils. Their DR/silver causes them problems and one of the PCs dies.

Pretty soon I'm going to have more lycanthropes and they still don't have any silver weapons. What to do?

[ArcturusV]

Been a while since I messed with them. But wasn't Lycanthrope DR "Silver OR Magic", or am I thinking of an older version? I seem to recall that was the case. If so having a teammate who can cast Magic Weapon/Magic Fang for your beatsticks fixes that problem. Though not the devils.

Thing is... did they KNOW this was going to be the situation? I mean there's a world of difference from wandering around the woods and at night we get a random encounter with a Lycanthrope/bearded devil, versus actually hunting them down. If they are actively hunting them down I don't understand the reluctance to get effective weapons. If it's just a random fluke as far as the players are concerned... well these things happen sometimes. If they can figure out that they are coming, or where they are, before an encounter starts you'd think they'd try to bypass them somehow given their inability to be effective against them.

[AuraTwilight]

If they know what to do to overcome this obstacle and refuse to do it, there's really nothing you can do. Let them face the consequences of their actions.

[Jon_Dahl]

If it's just a random fluke

It was a random fluke, but at the moment they faced the lycanthropes, they were aware of the DR.

[Amnestic]

It was a random fluke, but at the moment they faced the lycanthropes, they were aware of the DR.

Do they know they're going to be encountering more lycanthropes in the future? If the first was a random encounter and the bearded devil sounds kinda random too...does it serve the plot at all? If not, while the expenditure for silver weapons may be minimal they may still view it as an unnecessary one. "Oh, we've had our lycanthrope random encounter - the DM, won't give us another one, best save my money for Magic Item X, Y and Z." They may be wrong with this, but that might be their thought process on it.

[nedz]

What happened to the old silver piece in a sling trick ?
Or are they really that careful with their cash ?

They probably want to spend their money on something else; but this is poor play.

[Ernir]

Personally, I just make snide comments about the players' strategy and tactics when they thoroughly mess up an encounter that should have been easier. :smalltongue:

Seriously, it works.

[Kesnit]

If not, while the expenditure for silver weapons may be minimal they may still view it as an unnecessary one. "Oh, we've had our lycanthrope random encounter - the DM, won't give us another one, best save my money for Magic Item X, Y and Z." They may be wrong with this, but that might be their thought process on it.

^This.

There's a lot of special materials that bypass certain DR. It's possible the players are thinking "if we buy silver weapons, we'll run into a fey. If we then buy cold iron, next we'll meet something with DR/adamantine." At some point, they'll be running around with a stack of weapons, each for a certain creature type. And they'd have to keep all the weapons up-to-date, which can really suck down WBL.

[Lorsa]

There are two possibilities here:

1. You simply like lycanthropes as monsters to fight and want the PCs to fight them fair and square. Then all you need to do is to drop story-hints that there are lycanthropes around and hope that they figure it out themselves. You can't expect them to prepare for something they don't know is coming but if their characters do know what is waiting it's another story.

2. You bring up monsters with DR that the players can't combat to make it more difficult for them. As stated, some players will think that no matter their preparation, the DM will find a way to make it all worth nothing anyway. If you want monsters to have DR, you'll find monsters that have DR no matter what weapons they've bought. If you don't then you'll use other monsters. In this case, there's very little the players can do about their challenges.

The real case might be #1 but the players might think it's #2. Talk to them about how they think and explain to them how you work.

[Telonius]

In-character solution: they meet somebody who warns them about further lycanthropes (a peasant complaining about werewolves, maybe). Or, they find some as loot. Maybe brigands who have to defend against werewolves as well as lawmen, or find a dead body that was obviously attacked by a werewolf, still armed with a silver weapon. Or it's even possible that the sub-boss lycanthrope might have some silver weapons, as a means of keeping order in the ranks.

OOC solution: Tell the players straight out that it would really be in their interests to get some silver weapons.

[Psyren]

Is this 3.5 or PF? Remember that in Pathfinder, +3 or greater weapons do automatically bypass silver/cold iron DR as if they were made from the proper material. +4 or better bypass adamantine, and +5 bypasses alignment.

You could use this to have a little fun with the melee. If they don't take the hint and get some silver weapons, you could have the best fighter find a +3 sword of some kind - with a fun little addition. A teensy curse is a small price to pay for this kind of effectiveness, I'm sure he'd agree.