Damage Reduction & Weapons -- Rock, Paper, Scissors

Magile · Post by **Magile** » Fri May 09, 2008 5:27 am

Heya,

I'm just curious if anyone has a list as to what weapon material can defeat what damage reduction, and if they could post it/PM me the information. Adamantite beats out all, as far as I know, and I am aware of Cold-steel, Dark-steel, Silver, stuff like that. If anyone can post or at least inform me about it, it'd be greatly appreciated. Also, if there's an enhancement type that beats out said DR, please post that as well.

The DR/Weapon system confuses me greatly.

Grand Fromage · Post by **Grand Fromage** » Fri May 09, 2008 5:47 am

I think the way it works is you have something like "+2/cold steel" as a DR, and that means you need either a +2 weapon or a cold steel one to defeat it. So adamantine would be worthless unless it were +2, but a cold steel sword doesn't need any enhancement.

I think.

kmj2587 · Post by **kmj2587** » Fri May 09, 2008 6:15 am

The SRD says this about Damage Reduction:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilit ... eReduction

I believe the +# system of DR from 3.0 has been completely removed in 3.5

I've seen the following:
#/magic - Requires a weapon with an enhancement bonus of at least +1.

#/epic - Requires a weapon with an enhancement bonus of at least +6.

#/adamantine - Requires a weapon made of adamantine. The weapon does not need to be enchanted.

#/good, evil, law, or chaos - Requires an aligned weapon. This is not included in NwN2 to my knowledge

#/silver - DR on lycanthropes. Bypassed by having a weapon silvered. The weapon does not need to be enchanted.

#/cold iron - DR on fey. Bypassed by having a weapon made of cold iron. The weapon does not need to be enchanted.

An enchanted weapon will not pierce DR that requires a specific material, and a weapon made of a special material will not necessarily pierce DR that requires an enchantment. However, a +1 adamantine weapon will go a long way toward killing a whole lot of things.

Mithral items do not pierce any DR unless enchanted and have no special properties aside from reduced weight.

Dark steel is not in the SRD, so I am not entirely sure what to make of it. Its sole use in the game seems to be adding electrical damage without an enchantment.

Edit: It may also be worth noting that armor and weapons made of special materials are considered to be of masterwork quality.

Zelknolf · Post by **Zelknolf** » Fri May 09, 2008 6:35 am

Grand Fromage wrote:I think the way it works is you have something like "+2/cold steel" as a DR, and that means you need either a +2 weapon or a cold steel one to defeat it. So adamantine would be worthless unless it were +2, but a cold steel sword doesn't need any enhancement.

I think.

Damage reduction is labeled overtly by the kind of material that overcomes it. This is close, but you'll get things like "10/silver," meaning that you either have a silver weapon or your opponent takes 10 less damage. If you have a steel sword +5, it means bupkis (excepting, of course, that you do 5 more points of damage and stand a very reasonable chance at doing the 10+ it takes to inflict a wound)

There are some that are vulnerable only to magic weapons (i.e. "10/magic") and there your adamantine sword means bupkis unless it also happens to have an enhancement bonus. I'm not sure if NWN2 does the "multiple vulnerabilities" gig or the "epic damage reduction" thing. I can barely make the toolset run, let alone tinker with it meaningfully, so if someone can expand on that, it'd be spiffy.

There are patterns to it, though. Want silver for (weaker) devils, lycanthropes, or undead, cold iron for (weaker) demons and fey, and adamantine for bigassed monsters. Want magic weapons for funky stuff; want aligned weapons for bigassed extraplanar stuff.

dergon darkhelm · Post by **dergon darkhelm** » Fri May 09, 2008 11:01 am

Hence fighters carrying what has become known as the "3.5 golf bag" of weapons.

"Hmmm. *sizes up the monster*. I think I'll use my cold iron longsword on this. No wait, silver .........or maybe I should use my blessed one.....I'lll just go with my driver."

BAH! Say I. One of the things that got worse 3.0 -3.5.

Akivaria · Post by **Akivaria** » Fri May 09, 2008 11:23 am

PG'ers.

ThinkTank · Post by **ThinkTank** » Fri May 09, 2008 12:03 pm

Fighters should carry a reach weapon, a melee weapon, a grappleing light weapon, a back up melee weapon, light armor to sleep in and a ranged weapon. After all, all they do is hit things with stuff, so they might aswell have alot of stuff to pick from.

SwordSaintMusashi · Post by **SwordSaintMusashi** » Fri May 09, 2008 1:56 pm

There's also damage type damage reductions.

For instance, skeletons have DR 5/Bludgeoning, meaning you need to hit them with a hammer, mace, foot, head, etc or else your damage is reduced by 5.

Likewise, zombies have DR 5/Slashing, which means you need a longsword, scimitar, razorblade, etc.

Or save the money and buy a Shadowstriking wepaon (+3 Enchantment, bypasses any damage reduction that is not /damage type, /epic or /-).

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Fri May 09, 2008 1:57 pm

dergon darkhelm wrote:Hence fighters carrying what has become known as the "3.5 golf bag" of weapons.

"Hmmm. *sizes up the monster*. I think I'll use my cold iron longsword on this. No wait, silver .........or maybe I should use my blessed one.....I'lll just go with my driver."

BAH! Say I. One of the things that got worse 3.0 -3.5.

So Knights have Caddies now instead of Esquires?

Mulu · Post by **Mulu** » Fri May 09, 2008 2:04 pm

Reminds me of first edition.

wvincenti · Post by **wvincenti** » Fri May 09, 2008 4:43 pm

Swift wrote:
dergon darkhelm wrote:Hence fighters carrying what has become known as the "3.5 golf bag" of weapons.

"Hmmm. *sizes up the monster*. I think I'll use my cold iron longsword on this. No wait, silver .........or maybe I should use my blessed one.....I'lll just go with my driver."

BAH! Say I. One of the things that got worse 3.0 -3.5.
So Knights have Caddies now instead of Esquires?

A pack mule would be useful too.

-Bill

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Fri May 09, 2008 5:11 pm

Raises an interesting point, actually - adamantine in NWN2 is rather different to in PHP, where IIRC its primary effect is against "hardness" - the natural, physical DR of objects.

(really useful for a master of sundering, but that means little in NWN2)

Zelknolf · Post by **Zelknolf** » Fri May 09, 2008 5:41 pm

Mayhem wrote:Raises an interesting point, actually - adamantine in NWN2 is rather different to in PHP, where IIRC its primary effect is against "hardness" - the natural, physical DR of objects.

(really useful for a master of sundering, but that means little in NWN2)

That's adamantine's primary use against objects. It still has such delightful uses as breaking golems, poking through stoneskin, and messing up various abberations (intellect devourer, anyone?).

Munmun · Post by **Munmun** » Sat May 10, 2008 2:38 am

Adamantine is the wizard killer because it totally negates stoneskin.

In fact every type of DR has something to negate it except for Barbarian DR.

KavaKura · Post by **KavaKura** » Sat May 10, 2008 7:54 pm

ThinkTank wrote:Fighters should carry a reach weapon, a melee weapon, a grappleing light weapon, a back up melee weapon, light armor to sleep in and a ranged weapon. After all, all they do is hit things with stuff, so they might aswell have alot of stuff to pick from.

Pfft, what kind of unprepared fighter doesn't have three ranged weapons of each damage type?