Damage reduction and creature attacks


Rules Questions


If a monster has damage reduction, how does this work against attacks from creatures, other monsters, or falling into a spiked pit? Can a summoned creature strike a monster that has DR that requires a certain alignment, or magical plus, or whatever? If a Demon, (or whatever), needs a holy weapon to be able to strike and damage it, does this mean a Dragon can do it no harm? There must be a rule that addresses this issue, but I have been unable to locate it...


Lord Orion wrote:
If a monster has damage reduction, how does this work against attacks from creatures, other monsters, or falling into a spiked pit? Can a summoned creature strike a monster that has DR that requires a certain alignment, or magical plus, or whatever? If a Demon, (or whatever), needs a holy weapon to be able to strike and damage it, does this mean a Dragon can do it no harm? There must be a rule that addresses this issue, but I have been unable to locate it...

It doesn't appear to give a damage type to falling but I feel making it bludgeoning is reasonable. (It's the impact, regardless of what you fall on.) the 'spike' is piercing. So treat each set of damage individually.

For example, if a skeleton falls down a pit then it would take full damage from the fall, and -5 from the spikes.

Creatures with dr/magic treat their natural weapons as magic. Creatures that have an alignment descriptor (such as evil) treat their natural weapons as that type.

So in your example a dragon (who didn't cast a spell on themselves) would do less damage against a demon with its natural attacks.

Also if you have an enhancement bonus to your weapon it may overcome certain types of damage reduction. (+3 for cold iron/silver, +4 for adamantine, +5 for alignment based, +6 for epic.)

Here are some links to help
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/rules-for-monsters/universal-monster-rules #TOC-Damage-Reduction-Ex-or-Su-

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/special-abilities#TOC-Damage-Reductio n


Lord Orion wrote:
If a monster has damage reduction, how does this work against attacks from creatures, other monsters, or falling into a spiked pit? Can a summoned creature strike a monster that has DR that requires a certain alignment, or magical plus, or whatever? If a Demon, (or whatever), needs a holy weapon to be able to strike and damage it, does this mean a Dragon can do it no harm? There must be a rule that addresses this issue, but I have been unable to locate it...

A monster that, itself, has DR X/magic counts as having magic natural weapons. A monster with an alignment subtype counts both its natural weapons and any weapon it wields as having that alignment - note that the Celestial-style templates don't add subtypes, you need a bona fide outsider (the lowest one you can summon being the lemure, with a Summon Monster II). And of course, their natural weapons count as being whatever damage type they normally would be - a slam is bludgeoning, a sting is piercing, and so on. Generally, monsters do not have any innate ability to defeat material-based DR, but I could easily see some have it as a special ability (e.g. a silver golem would be good for dealing with werewolves).

So yes, the dragon would have some trouble with a high-power demon, since the dragon's natural attacks are not considered Good. He could probably power through the demon's DR since dragons are pretty good at the whole "hit like a truck" thing, but it would be a bit harder. On the other hand, many demons (those not wielding magic weapons) would have trouble with the dragon's DR as well (DR X/good doesn't help you get through DR X/magic).

As for falling, that's a matter of interpretation. Using the strictest reading, falling damage is not an attack, and is thus not affected by DR. That's fairly silly though, so I would treat falling damage as a non-magic bludgeoning attack. If you're falling onto a surface made of a particular material, the falling damage would count as that material too.

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