weapon types / DR / hierarchy

[thatwolfguy]

i play a LARP where there is a weapon hierarchy of DR's, for example, if a creature won't take effect from normal weapons, and you have a silver weapon, an iron weapon or a magic weapon, you can effect it - for example, were-creatures which need silver to hit are also effected by magic weapons because magic weapons are presumed to be of better quality than silver. In that system, everything that can be effected by a silver weapon can be effected by a magic weapon.

so what i'm asking is this: is there a hierarchy of weapon types in the D&D system, such that if a monster has a DR of #/slashing, for example, that if you have a magic club, for example, you beat his DR?

any help on this is appreciated.

thanks

dave

[Khantalas]

Nope. No hierarchy in 3.5. There was one in 3.0, but no longer.

[Lòkki Gallansbayne]

No. As I understand it, the only thing that overcomes DR is whatever's after the slash. The closest you get is if you have multiple things ORed together then any one of those things overcomes the DR (e.g. if a monster had DR/silver or magic, then a magic weapon would overcome the DR even if it wasn't silver), but there's no heirarchy to it.

Edit: simu-ninja'd

Although, as the poster above mentioned, back in 3.0 you had DR x/+y instead of DR x/magic, where y was the required enhancement bonus of the weapon and you had to have a +y weapon or higher to beat the DR, but there was no hierarchy as far as damage types/weapon materials/etc were concerned.

[Khantalas]

Actually, magical weapons could overcome DR x / silver in 3.0. Same with x / cold iron.

[Lòkki Gallansbayne]

Could they? Fair enough, I'm remembering things wrong.

[Zherog]

Yeah, in 3.0 a +1 weapon overcame DR X/sliver.

There was no such thing as cold iron in 3.0 though.

[Penguinsushi]

Yeah, in 3.0 a +1 weapon overcame DR X/sliver.

There was no such thing as cold iron in 3.0 though.

Yeah - those were the days. You could buy a +3 weapon and there was very little DR you wouldn't bypass.

If you really want/like the hierarchy, you could always house rule that back in. Treat it like 3.0 where magic overcomes material types. You could even complicate it a little more by saying +1 beats silver, but it takes a +2 to equal cold iron and +3 to equal adamantine. That would probably give you a hierarchical system without skewing the game too much.

I personally like the material/type based DR system 3.5 uses - though I tend to like any rule set where the most powerful/expensive/munchkiny solution isn't necessarily best.

~PS

[Latronis]

so what i'm asking is this: is there a hierarchy of weapon types in the D&D system, such that if a monster has a DR of #/slashing, for example, that if you have a magic club, for example, you beat his DR?

There's also a problem with a hierachy like that.

Things have DR X/Slashing for a reason why would a magical bludgeoning weapon get around their natural resilience to certain types of damage? The magical club already has the advantage againest a natural club as it does more damage and is more likley to harm it.

For material based DR it's not so bad, since things that are immune to everything bar a certain type of material are magically based anyway so the 3.0 version of silver trumps mundane, +1 trumps silver is fine, and has a precedent in fiction, games and other systems but then there's the mechanics behind it, why both with silver at all? might aswell not even have DR X/Silver.

Still i like the material and damage type DR, and sometimes i still use DR X/+1-+5 instead of DR X/magic (but keep the X/Slashing or X/Cold Iron etc as is)

So you could still have a hierachy that way (but i wouldn't have +1 > silver)

Something like
+1 beats magic
+2 beats alchemical silver\cold iron,
+3 beats physical damage type (ie slashing) and adamantium
+4 beats Alignment
+5 gets through all damage reduction

ofc mundane silver\adamantium and mundane weapons of a specific damage type still beat the appropiate the damage reduction.

[AtomicKitKat]

I like stacking multiple DRs myself. Hard to do, but is more or less just as effective as having "And" in your DR.

[Latronis]

the right couple of templates will do it

Or just make **** up

Ok weird looking tiger, say a half-fiend greenbound dire tiger it's got DR 10\Cold Iron and Slashing and Magic and Good

Good thing i carry a holy vorpal coldiron greatsword of Evil outsider bane >_<

[AtomicKitKat]

the right couple of templates will do it

Or just make **** up

Ok weird looking tiger, say a half-fiend greenbound dire tiger it's got DR 10\Cold Iron and Slashing and Magic and Good

Good thing i carry a holy vorpal coldiron greatsword of Evil outsider bane >_<

You think that's bad? Try Lycanthrope Warlock/Green Star Adept 10(weak example, but quickest off the top of my head) Now you need a Silver Cold Iron Adamantite weapon.

[Closet_Skeleton]

You think that's bad? Try Lycanthrope Warlock/Green Star Adept 10(weak example, but quickest off the top of my head) Now you need a Silver Cold Iron Adamantite weapon.

Or you just need to deal more than 10 damage.

[AtomicKitKat]

Or you just need to deal more than 10 damage.

Well, sure, but you're still losing damage. DR X/Hard to bust+Fast Healing/Regen is useful for "survivor" type characters.

[Dhavaer]

Things have DR X/Slashing for a reason why would a magical bludgeoning weapon get around their natural resilience to certain types of damage? The magical club already has the advantage againest a natural club as it does more damage and is more likley to harm it.

3.0 handled it by saying that skeletons (for example) took half damage from non-bludgeoning weapons.

[Latronis]

3.0 handled it by saying that skeletons (for example) took half damage from non-bludgeoning weapons.

Aye that's true, but in 3.5 they now have : DR 5/bludgeoning.

And having the strict hierachy in 3.5 for all damage reduction would mean bringing something like that back(because now matter how magical a dagger a skeleton is just plain hard to stab). And i simply prefer having DR\damage type since there's already a damage reduction system instead of saying this takes less damage from everything thats not this