New Feat: DR vs Bludgeoning

[MaN]

Prerequisites: Improved Unarmed Strike, CON 13+
Benefit: Your character gains damage reduction of 3/- versus bludgeoning attacks.
Normal: No DR - too bad for you!
May be taken as fighter bonus feat.
This feat may not be taken more than once.

This feat is meant mainly for monks and fighters. It is supposed to represent the ability that martial artists, boxers, and other bare-knuckle brawlers develop to 'take a punch'.
Guy punches Mike Tyson, Mike feels no pain. Same guy punches me, I feel it. Tyson then pounds the wookie-snot out of said guy, but that's another thread.

Any thoughts? Too powerful? Too weak? Just incredibly stupid? Let me know.

How about a better name for this than DR vs Bludgeoning?

[FlashFire]

I would definitely say that this is too powerful. Perhaps just DR 1 or 2. And remember that a punch is a far different beast than a swing from a mace. Perhaps a feat that gave DR 3 against nonlethal damage from an unarmed strike? It wouldn't have a lot of application in most campaigns, but in a campaign where brawling is common, it could come in handy.

[Chris_Chandler]

Hmmm... I see where you are going with this, but DR 3/- is way too powerful, even if it is only against bludgeoning weapons. You can work this as a feat chain, with Prerequisite as Toughness, not IUS. Think about switching it from lethal damage to non-lethal damage - sort of the flavor you have suggested - Combining the two might make this feat a bit too potent, but it's something to work with.

From normal to Greater

DR 1/- or ignore 3 points of non-lethal damage
DR 2/- or ignore 7 points of non-lethal damage
DR 3/- or ignore 10 points of non-lethal damage.



Call it Take a Punch...

[AtomicKitKat]

Well, there's a feat in Savage Species called "Roll With It" that had a relatively high Con requirement, but allowed you to get DR X/-, and if memory serves, stacked with itself. Try this:

Shrug It Off
Whenever struck by non-lethal damage, you roll Xd2(where X is the number of times you have taken this feat perhaps, or 1d2 for basic, 2d2 for improved, 3d2 for greater), and subtract that from the damage taken.

[Seffbasilisk]

Actually. I would assume hitpoints are what lets you shrug off the blow ;D . It hurts, but you can still fight on. When you're pissed you can ignore the ow, but that fits in with the barbarians DR and the temp hp.

[amanodel]

Yes, the book HP stands for the ability of "takeing the damage".

Mike Tyson has some levels in figher, so if I hit him with my unarmed strike d4-1 or so :) He indeed won't feel pain. But indeed I'll be knocked out when he hits my commoner hit dices with his d4+4. Possibly he even has monk levels, so even d6+4 or d8+4.

[Spuddly]

This feat is meant mainly for monks and fighters. It is supposed to represent the ability that martial artists, boxers, and other bare-knuckle brawlers develop to 'take a punch'.

Hmmm, they can't really take too many more 'real' punches than you or I. That is, they have more HP, so can take an extra few full ons to the face, but that's about it. Very few blows in a boxing match land full on, and when they do, the guy recieving them goes down pretty quick.

However, boxers have the ability not to 'take a punch' but deflect it in such a way as to reduce the damage from it. Roll with it, keep the fists up, move the hit to a less critical piece of the body, etc.

With that said, boxers definitely have some DR, as they can turn a devestating punch into just a bruise rather than a broken rib.

[amanodel]

Yes, they have some nice dodge bonuses. And the defense when they raise both their hand front of their faces shall count as a shield armor bonus :) And they won't get knocked out of hitting thier arms repeatedly.

[Douglas]

Benefit: Your character gains damage reduction of 3/- versus bludgeoning attacks.

There's a name for that type of DR. It's DR 3/piercing or slashing. DR is written as (number)/(what ignores it), not (number)/- vs (what it blocks) in all WotC material I've seen.

3 may seem like a lot, but it only applies to 1 of the 3 weapon damage types, which makes it roughly equivalent to DR 1/- in my opinion. This is sufficiently weaker than Roll With It (DR 2/-) to justify the lower prerequisites, but I don't think it should be allowed as a fighter bonus feat unless it can only be taken once. The sheer number of feats a fighter gets combined with a feat that gives unlimited stacking DR can get out of hand really fast.

[MrNexx]

Mike Tyson has some levels in figher

Be honest. Barbarian. ;-)

[amanodel]

MrNexx wrote:

Be honest. Barbarian. Wink

Might as well, but the fighter bonus feats can be useful, while raging in a box match can be noneffective, since you become winded :) (maybe the pauses between round are enough to recover?)

Lets say he's Barb 7 Ftr 5? (+Monk 3) ;D

(Hey, going on barbarian, he has the DR again!)

[AtomicKitKat]

MrNexx wrote:

Might as well, but the fighter bonus feats can be useful, while raging in a box match can be noneffective, since you become winded :) (maybe the pauses between round are enough to recover?)

Lets say he's Barb 7 Ftr 5? (+Monk 3) ;D

(Hey, going on barbarian, he has the DR again!)

If you have enough levels in Barbarian, you don't get winded(much, or not at all) after raging. :D

[Spuddly]

Yes, they have some nice dodge bonuses. And the defense when they raise both their hand front of their faces shall count as a shield armor bonus And they won't get knocked out of hitting thier arms repeatedly.

Alright smartypants, what's DR then? Clearly AC and HP have everything covered.

[amanodel]

DR suppopsed to be: Krank fights with evil overlord. evil overlord swings his greatsword and hoping to chop Krank in two pieces. However the blade stops after cutting only half an inch into Krunk's body.
Or anything similar to: you get hit, but you just don't notice the strike (as much). Not so different than HP. But slightly different from AC (which stands for not getting hit at all).

Looking at a wound caused by a certain weapon:
-with high AC: there are no wounds.
-with lot HP: wounds are normal deep, but Boromir can find with even a dozen arrows in his heart.
-with DR: "You talking about these scratces? I fought with a cat."

(Altough personally I don't prefer the D&D solution about wounding and armors.)

[Thomas]

DR means you are either made of something that has a hardness (such as golems are), or you are of such unusual composition and nature (like undead and outsiders) that earthly weapons have less of an effect on you (but enchanted weapons may work better). A barbarian's DR really just means they are so incredibly tough they can't be injured by a lot of things.

The ability of an experienced fighter to take blows is, obviously, hit points, yes.

(And mind you, if you actually hit someone in the head - the temple, the nose, the jaw, or the face - with the knuckles of your bare fist, straight on and hard, they do go down. Boxing matches... well, the gloves are there to protect the opponent as well as your hand, after all. Bruce Lee himself would have gone down if someone'd hit him straight in the head with a fist. The trick is that he wouldn't have stood there and let them.)

[MaN]

There's a name for that type of DR. It's DR 3/piercing or slashing. DR is written as (number)/(what ignores it), not (number)/- vs (what it blocks) in all WotC material I've seen.

Thanks Douglas, had a mental fart I guess. I also forgot to put in that it can only be taken once so it wouldn't stack infinitely. (I'll edit that in.)

From normal to Greater

DR 1/- or ignore 3 points of non-lethal damage
DR 2/- or ignore 7 points of non-lethal damage
DR 3/- or ignore 10 points of non-lethal damage.

Making it a progression would probably be a better idea than just a single feat, thanks for the idea C.C..

'Shrug it Off' and 'Take a Punch' aren't exactly exciting names. Not that I've been doing much better at that aspect of it which is why I'm begging for help. I'm hoping for something more along the lines of 'Vorpal Adamantine Death Skin Power!' which would make my players say, "Cool, I want that feat!"

. . . actually kind of like that name ;)

[idksocrates]

HP isn't having alot of arrows in the heart and keep moving (that's die hard). HP is the ability of a person to turn a large hit into a small one. A sword headed toward the midsection of a low HP person slices into the stomach and spills intestines. A sword headed toward the midsection of a high HP person slices the outside meat of the abdomen, damaging only muscle.

The HP system in Dnd is purposefully abstract, and HP really goes hand in hand with AC. That's why if a system is made where characters get AC bonuses as level increases, often times HP bonuses must also be obliterated.

As for the name of the feat:
Body of Iron?
Brawler?
Thick Skinned?
Homer's Meat Barrier of Brain Protection?

[jdrich]

Tough Hide
Prerequizites: Con 15+, Toughness.
Benefit: You gain DR 3/lethal.
Special: This feat can be taken more than once. Each time it is taken, your DR increases by three for the purposes of this feat.

Leathery Hide
Prerequizites: Con 15+, Toughness, Tough Hide.
Benefit: You gain DR 3/piercing.
Special: This feat can be taken more than once. Each time it is taken, your DR increases by three for the purposes of this feat.