Scaling DR?

[13_CBS]

Ok, so judging by general opinions on the armour DR variant and just DR in general, it seems that 10 or so DR early on is too broken, while the same DR value later on is extremely weak.

If that's the case...how would you scale DR? For example, how much DR is appropriate for levels 1-3, 4-6, 7-10, etc.?

I do realize that the amount of damage dealt by characters and monsters vary from DM to DM, but I'm wondering if we could figure out a comfortable scaling system here, to figure out where the dividing line between "useless amount of DR" and "broken amount of DR" is.

[Azerian Kelimon]

At level 5 or lower, I'd say 5/magic is reasonable. Not more, not less. it makes nonmagical attacks weaker, which is the whole point of DR. From 6 to 10, 10/material is good, since it lowers the damage of most attacks. 11 to 15, 15/alignment is a nice block which requires resource expenditure (well, so so. with Holy, you handle most enemies). And from there onwards, 20/- or higher is the name of the game. If you can break it, it's bad, except for /epic before level 21.

[TheSteelRat]

I'd say the most obvious thing to base it off of would be power attack + common weapon damage, including things like magic weapons as character wealth increases. ToB also messes this up, and spell damage completely ignores this. Generally speaking, caster classes are able to do 1d6/level or better for most spells outside of level 1 for energy types. Archers are more vulnerable to DR because they can't power attack, so even a low DR can be a big bonus against ranged enemies.

[Azerian Kelimon]

Aah, but there's actually a version of Power Attack for archers. I can't find it, but it exists in a splatbook.

[Thrawn183]

I would totally love to hear about this power attack for archers.... If only I could stop drooling...

[AtomicKitKat]

I would totally love to hear about this power attack for archers.... If only I could stop drooling...

Brutal Throw into Power Throw Feat Chain, Complete Adventurer. At least, I think that's the order.

DR is so-so. It's king below about level 10, not really relevant beyond that(mainly because of things like Forcecage and Cloudkill). If you cannot get DR X/-, consider stacking 2 materials-based DR. Iron+Adamantine, or Silver+Iron, etc. Barring certain cheesy weapon enhancements that can bypass "all damage reduction", or alternatively say they can change their materials type(I don't think it's supposed to be able to be 2 materials at once), you will always reduce all incoming damage.

[Person_Man]

I think that AtomicKitKat is right. At low-mid levels, DR rocks. But eventually normal attacks stop being a real factor in my games, and PCs are basically only killed by critical hits or magic. DR is pretty ineffective against both.

[Saph]

I dunno, DR is pretty handy even around the mid- to high-levels. My character survived one battle at level 11 due to the DR 10/adamantine from her heart of earth spell - it meant I was taking 15 damage per hit instead of 25. Makes a big difference when you get full attacked.

- Saph