Cheap DR workarounds

[Jowgen]

Inspired by the recent treads about the Transmuting WSA, I was wondering at what other ways there were to cheat your way around DR. I personally believe that hitting harder is the answer to most of D&D's problems, but I'm curious :smalltongue:

So any way, what low level spells, cheap alchemical items (likely delivered via a weapon capsule) and other one-shot gizmos are there for the adenturer who just can't be bothered to go all the way for transmuting? :smallsmile:

[Crake]

Well, silversheen (which i believe can be delivered via a weapon capsule) lets you overcome DR silver. A Morningstar lets you overcome bludgeoning and piercing at the same time. Align weapon lets you overcome any alignment based DR. Give the morningstar the morphing ability and it can become slashing, then you have a weapon that can overcome any kind of S/P/B, Silver, and either cold iron or adamantine, whichever you prefer. Align weapon gives you any alignment based DR, it's a magic weapon so it overcomes that too, leaving you with just the last metal (adamantine or cold iron), and DR/epic and DR/-

All that can be gotten for relatively cheap too.

A +1 morphing morningstar would cost 8000gp, 10,000 if cold iron (assuming you use the 2000gp applied once interpretation of how cold iron works), 11,000 if adamantine. You obviously need to be able to cast align weapon, so a TN cleric would be the best option here (to be able to cast any of the alignments), or perhaps use a magic item of some variety.

If you don't want to rely on a cleric, there's the blessed ability which is +1 to overcome DR/evil, which you could homebrew into the other alignments, for a total of a +6 weapon (+1, morphing blessed, cursed, lawful, chaotic) for 72,000gp that can overcome any DR except DR/[adamantine|cold iron], DR/epic and DR/-


Or just use Transmuting

[Ephemeral_Being]

Best way I can find is Sense Weakness. It's a feat in Draconomicon. You can bypass 5 points of any DR or Hardness. It has two feat requirements, Combat Reflexes and Weapon Focus. And only applies to the weapon you have Focus with. But it works on everything, even Epic.

[A_S]

Mountain Hammer.

[Troacctid]

Mountain Hammer.

See also: Stone Dragon Belt (Mountain Hammer) and/or Devoted Spirit Amulet (Foehammer).

[Firechanter]

Iirc:
* Gauntlets of Arcane Weaponry (or so): Held weapon counts as silver for DR (but no drawbacks);
* Ring of Adamantine Weaponry: weapon counts as Ada; best combined with Cold Iron;
* if Dragon Mag is allowed: special material Oerthblood, can be alloyed so your weapon counts as both Ada and CI;
* Lesser(?) Fiendslayer Crystal, weapon counts as Good-Aligned which is the alignment-DR you'll need 95% of the time.

So ideally, you have an Oerthblood weapon, those gauntlets, the crystal, and everything together costs less than upgrading a weapon from +5 to +6 total bonus, iirc.
AFB right now so some details might be off and I can't give you exact prices.

But it's been a while; last time I played a high level melee I just went for so much damage that I simply didn't have to care.

[Platymus Pus]

Force enchantment.

[Firechanter]

Okay now I got around to looking up the numbers:

- Oerthblood: alloy, bypasses DR/Hardness like Adamantine, doubles Hardness of base metal. Cost +6000 for a weapon, counts as MW _and_ gives +1 Luck bonus to attack [we cut that bit out because it's stupid Dragon Mag power creep]. Alloy with Cold Iron (essentially, +2000GP) for best end results.
Alternatively, Ring of Adamantine Touch also costs 6000 but takes up a slot and doesn't improve Hardness, but is otherwise viable if Dragon Mag is out.
- Lesser Fiendslayer Crystal: 3000GP
- Gauntlets of Weaponry Arcane: any weapon you hold overcomes DR as if made of silver. 6000GP.

So the total price it 6K+2K+3K+6K = 17.000GP to bypass virtually any pre-Epic DR you usually encounter. Plus some extra cost if Ring/Gauntlets need additional properties, YMMV. The odd and rare DR/Law or Chaos can be ad-libbed with Align Weapon.

17K investment is actually cheaper than upgrading a weapon from +4 to +5, or if you want to compare directly to Metalline, from +2 to +4. So the longer the campaign runs and the more other +X bonuses you plan to slap on your weapon, the less favourable Metalline becomes and the more you save on this item combo.
Actually, Metalline is _only_ cheaper if you upgrade a +1 Weapon with only this property and nothing else, and even that only by 1K margin. At that level range you would get much more mileage out of many other enhancements, such as Collision. So in short, Metalline is a terrible, terrible deal.

[Jowgen]

Thank you everyone :smallsmile:

[Firechanter]

Oh, another small point:

Get a Bludgeoning weapon. (B) is the damage type that is least resisted, and therefore best. Avoid Piercing weapons unless you are underwater a lot. Slashing is somewhere in the middle, and you might want a S backup weapon.

[CrazyNoob]

Theres always the Shadow striking enhancement (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCYQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Farchive.wizards.com%2Fdefault.asp %3Fx%3Ddnd%2Fex%2F20060303a%26page%3D7&ei=m-YWVZPXLNbcoATwjoLAAw&usg=AFQjCNG5ZJcrQ45S_HP33tqQ7JktLIPD1g&sig2=CDi_MdUgXIycN9aHs0FP4Q) from ToM. Guess this isn't really a cheaper option, but sure lasts longer.