'Epic' DR?


Rules Questions


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Just a quick question; On beasties like the Tarrasque, what exactly does the DR 15/Epic mean? Do the party need +6 or better weapons, or weapons that have abilities that add up to +6 or better? Or am I waaaay off :)

Silver Crusade

Savant1974 wrote:
Just a quick question; On beasties like the Tarrasque, what exactly does the DR 15/Epic mean? Do the party need +6 or better weapons, or weapons that have abilities that add up to +6 or better? Or am I waaaay off :)

Well, if I had to guess, the only other time I've heard the term "epic" used is when a character begins to hit levels beyond 20. Maybe you have to be lvl 20 or 21 and above in order to bypass that DR with your attacks?

I'm really not certain.


+6 raw enhancement on a magic weapon.

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ImperatorK wrote:
+6 raw enhancement on a magic weapon.

A +4 or +5 bane weapon ought to do it as well:

PRD wrote:
Bane: A bane weapon excels against certain foes. Against a designated foe, the weapon's enhancement bonus is +2 better than its actual bonus. It also deals an extra 2d6 points of damage against the foe.

(emphasis mine)

Makes sense to me that you either need "the best sword in the world" (+6) or a very good sword designed to hurt that explicit type of creature (bane).


Well bane adds a +2 bonus to the weapon pushing it past the +5 mark. Thanks guys, now I know what not to give my players before fighting this thing ;)


Normally weapons can have a +5 enhancement bonus and a +5 modifier for other abilities, making it a +10. a +10 costs 200,000gp. This is below epic status. For epic weapons, you basically have to have a +11 weapon or greater. +11 weapon costs 2,420,000go. +12 costs 2,880,000gp, and so on.
The equation is basically the total bonus (e.g. +6) squared and multiplied by 2000gp. Therefore a +6 weapon costs 72,000gp. For anything beyond +10, you use the same equation but add another zero at the end. Incredibly expensive!!!


Bane weapons work to break the +5 mark, and a raging character with a Furious weapon can do it, too.

Liberty's Edge

I would say it would need to be naturally epic weapon, not just the +6 effective bonus. a +5 bane weapon is not an epic weapon by any means. Epic weapons do not have pricing yet.

The Exchange

There are other ways. Paladin 'Smite" for one. Golembane Scarab, if its an adamantine golem (also DR 15/Epic).

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Shar Tahl wrote:
I would say it would need to be naturally epic weapon, not just the +6 effective bonus. a +5 bane weapon is not an epic weapon by any means. Epic weapons do not have pricing yet.

It's certainly an iffy area as far as RAI go. I think RAW supports the bane=good to go argument. Here is the relavent section from the bestiary on epic DR:

PRD wrote:
A few very powerful monsters are vulnerable only to epic weapons—that is, magic weapons with at least a +6 enhancement bonus. Such creatures' natural weapons are also treated as epic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

A +4 magical beast bane weapon has an enhancement bonus of +6 when swinging at the Tarrasque, therefore it penetrates the epic DR, RAW. I'm just not sure if this is a feature or a bug of weapon abilities that increase the enhancement bonus in some situations.


I think James or someone made a post where the boost from bane and furious doesn't increase their ability to overcome DR but I can't remember where it may have been


Because the Mythic Minotaur, and presumably other mythic monsters, has Epic DR, I've decided to bump this thread.


At least it used to be any weapon with a total enhancement equivalent of +10 or great (Enhancement + Special Properties).

I don't know if Mythic Rules will change that.

The Exchange

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

They said that for Mythic characters there were going to be a lot of ways to bypass DR/Epic. I think the intent is something easy to bypass for mythic characters while difficult to bypass for non-mythic characters. Besides Paladin and the old definition of DR/epic (+6 enhancement bonus on a weapon or better), if that way still works, they haven't mentioned ways for non-mythic characters to bypass DR/Epic.

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Yes to the +4/+5 bane weapons or furious weapons. There may be a couple other effective enhancement bonus shenanigans you can pull to get up to effectively +6 or better, which beats DR/epic. GMW specifically does not work because it does not improve a weapon's ability to overcome DR. Various class abilities such as paladin bonded weapon or magus arcana that let you add enhancement bonuses to a weapon can work if put on a bane weapon, for instance, as well.

Liberty's Edge

Chernobyl wrote:
There are other ways. Paladin 'Smite" for one.

When the Mythic rule set comes out I will probably require Paladins to use an epic version of smite evil to bypass epic DR as a house rule (assuming it isn't addressed in rule set). Now that low level parties can potentially be facing epic DR this is a situation that will pop up much more often.

The Exchange

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from mythic adventures:
DR/Epic: A type of damage reduction, DR/epic can be
overcome only by a weapon with an enhancement bonus of +6
or greater (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 299). Weapons with special
abilities also count as epic for the purposes of overcoming
damage reduction if the total bonus value of all of their
abilities (including the enhancement bonus) is +6 or greater.

so a +4 Holy weapon would be considered epic.

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