Is it possible, or even conceivable to have a half and half weapon to overcome DR. Say a Barbarian is preparing for a battle against a Bearded Devil and a Succubus, and he is at the blacksmith ready to change his steel weapon into a new material so as to overcome DR. Would it be even relatively possible to make a Bastard Sword (just an example, could be any weapon) that is half Silver (bearded devil's DR bypasser) and half Cold-Iron (Succubus DR bypasser)? That way when he attacks he simply changes his swing angle so the certain material side hits the enemy? I've been toying with the idea and have come up with some NASTY combo's that really hurt some baddies.
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This can be relevant:
Weapons with an enhancement bonus of +3 or greater can ignore some types of damage reduction, regardless of their actual material or alignment.
The following table shows what type of enhancement bonus is needed to overcome some common types of damage reduction.
DR Type Weapon Enhancement Bonus Equivalent
cold iron/silver +3
adamantine* +4
alignment-based +5
* Note that this does not give the ability to ignore hardness, like an actual adamantine weapon does
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This can be relevant:
Weapons with an enhancement bonus of +3 or greater can ignore some types of damage reduction, regardless of their actual material or alignment.
The following table shows what type of enhancement bonus is needed to overcome some common types of damage reduction.
DR Type Weapon Enhancement Bonus Equivalent
cold iron/silver +3
adamantine* +4
alignment-based +5
* Note that this does not give the ability to ignore hardness, like an actual adamantine weapon does
Is that something that the Pathfinder system changed from standard 3.5, or has it always been that way? Either way I like it.
Is it possible, or even conceivable to have a half and half weapon to overcome DR. Say a Barbarian is preparing for a battle against a Bearded Devil and a Succubus, and he is at the blacksmith ready to change his steel weapon into a new material so as to overcome DR. Would it be even relatively possible to make a Bastard Sword (just an example, could be any weapon) that is half Silver (bearded devil's DR bypasser) and half Cold-Iron (Succubus DR bypasser)? That way when he attacks he simply changes his swing angle so the certain material side hits the enemy? I've been toying with the idea and have come up with some NASTY combo's that really hurt some baddies.
Think of it this way... werewolves don't like silver and Superman doesn't like kryptonite. So you make a hammer out of kryptonite to beat up Superman with. Only there are werewolves outside your door, howling. So you start thinking... hmmm, I need silver. You melt down the hammer, throw away half of the kryptonite and pull out half a hammer's worth of silver and get crafting.
Do you feel safe? You don't have as much kryptonite as you had, and you don't have as much silver as your neighbor does. Tricky.
As in... no, mixing doesn't work.
"I tried hacking through a wall with my adamantine and wood greatsword (great for vampires!) but strangely it just broke."
Personally, I like needing different materials, and in most groups I just houserule (with the group's consent) that the +3/+4/+5 equivalency just doesn't exist. That way, DR actually makes a difference instead of just saying, "Well, I've got a +5 sword so it doesn't matter what DR it has."
While it could technically make sense to say "One side is cold iron, the other is silver" it has some problems.
a) The fighting styles for the different weapons don't work anymore. They're meant for hitting with either side, or stabbing etc. So you'd take a penalty on attacks.
b) Weapons are usually made out of a single piece. Well ok, thats not true, they're often using different materials, but usually they're not split in the middle into two totally different ones. It would definitely not work in the favor of the weapon's stability
c) Same reason, it would also make the weapon unbalanced, since cold iron is probably heavier than silver (or the other way around), so another penalty on hit
You can make double weapons out of different materials on each side though.
Not without getting a double weapon or house ruling something. Mind you a process like damascus that was half silver half cold iron would look sweet.
A double weapon (one end cold iron, one end alchemical silver) can work in low-/medium-level campaigns. Or you could just invest in some weapon blanch (Advanced Player's Guide).