Damage Reduction

[geekintheground]

what kind of impact would changing it so that DR applied to the total instead of per hit have? it seems it would boost all mundanes, making TWF and archery at least a little more viable. but im sure there are plenty of flaws, so could you guys educate me?

[bekeleven]

changing it so that DR applied to the total instead of per hit
The total? As in it's just extra HP?

Or do you mean per full attack? Per round?

[Qc Storm]

what kind of impact would changing it so that DR applied to the total instead of per hit have? it seems it would boost all mundanes, making TWF and archery at least a little more viable. but im sure there are plenty of flaws, so could you guys educate me?

DR would become an afterthought, mostly.

[yougi]

Pathfinder has Clustered Shots (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/clustered-shots-combat), which does that for archery. I don't think I've seen one for TWF, however.

[Red Fel]

Applying DR to the total damage taken from a single attacker, as opposed to a single attack, would reduce its effectiveness. Consider the following.

Meet Tanky McEvilPants. Tanky is very proud of his DR 2/--, and uses it to terrorize villages for fun and profit. But enter Captain Goodness, with a BAB +15/+10/+5, who wants to put a stop to Tanky's evil ways. Captain Goodness, being painfully Lawful and therefore irritatingly consistent, possesses a Magical MacGuffin that allows him to deal precisely six damage on every attack.

So, Captain Goodness deals 6 damage, three times, one for each of his iterative attacks. Under ordinary rules, with DR applying to each strike, Tanky takes 6-2=4 damage per hit, or 12 damage total.

But suddenly, reality shifts, and the rules of DR are rewritten! Now, the DR applies to the entire attack, instead of each individual hit. Thus, Captain Goodness deals 6x3=18 damage, reduced by 2 from DR, or 16 damage total. Yes, thanks to Reality Rewrites, Tanky McEvilPants will be thwarted that much sooner, and will be on his way to Badguy Prison, where he will learn that DR doesn't protect you from emotional scarring.

All levity aside, the problem with TWF isn't just the reduced damage, but the reduced to-hit. Even if you got rid of some of the DR effect, you would still suffer from the to-hit reduction. At higher levels, your damage should be enough to overcome most simple DR anyway; it's your BAB and to-hit that needs the boost.

Tl;dr: This offers a mild balm to melees, but no big benefit to TWF.

[geekintheground]

i see. thanks guys!

[Grod_The_Giant]

It gets substantially worse-- taking 15-20 damage off an attack routine is way more useful than taking off 5. If you want to change DR like that, I'd double all printed values.

[Namfuak]

You could alternatively apply DR after all damage is resolved times the number of iteratives that land. For Red's example, this would mean Tanky takes 18-6 damage as per usual from Mr. THW. However, in the case of being attacked by Mr. TWF whodeals 3 damage per hit, he would take (assuming all attacks hit) 18-6 damage, as opposed to the 6 he would normally take. So, the two-handed user is not gaining damage*, while the TWFer is being approximately equally affected by DR.

*Under the general assumption that they are less effected by DR because they trigger it fewer times while dealing the same amount of raw damage as a TWFer. I realize that in practice this only fixes one of many problems causing the damage disparity between THF and TWF

[geekintheground]

You could alternatively apply DR after all damage is resolved times the number of iteratives that land. For Red's example, this would mean Tanky takes 18-6 damage as per usual from Mr. THW. However, in the case of being attacked by Mr. TWF whodeals 3 damage per hit, he would take (assuming all attacks hit) 18-6 damage, as opposed to the 6 he would normally take. So, the two-handed user is not gaining damage*, while the TWFer is being approximately equally affected by DR.

*Under the general assumption that they are less effected by DR because they trigger it fewer times while dealing the same amount of raw damage as a TWFer. I realize that in practice this only fixes one of many problems causing the damage disparity between THF and TWF

i like it!

[Grod_The_Giant]

You could alternatively apply DR after all damage is resolved times the number of iteratives that land. For Red's example, this would mean Tanky takes 18-6 damage as per usual from Mr. THW. However, in the case of being attacked by Mr. TWF whodeals 3 damage per hit, he would take (assuming all attacks hit) 18-6 damage, as opposed to the 6 he would normally take. So, the two-handed user is not gaining damage*, while the TWFer is being approximately equally affected by DR.
How is this different than normal?

[geekintheground]

How is this different than normal?

the DR wouldnt apply to a TWF's off-hand attacks (if i understood correctly), just his normal iteratives.

[Namfuak]

the DR wouldnt apply to a TWF's off-hand attacks (if i understood correctly), just his normal iteratives.

On second thought it would be easier to just apply DR * 1/2 of the attacks that hit to the total damage, so things like switching targets and missing are easier to deal with, but this is the original idea.

[Raezeman]

if you have problem with damage reduction, consider the feat 'sense weakness' (draconomicon). It's requirements are combat expertise, weapon focus and an INT score of 13. It's effect is that it let's you ignore up to 5 points of damage reduction or hardness when using the weapon of your weapon focus.