So I'm DMing a group right now who is facing a creature with DR/good or Cold Iron 10. Here's the deal: My group is mostly all new, and even the more experienced one knows very little about the technical aspects of things. No one is playing a cleric or paladin, and no one has anything cold iron or good aligned. (Our group is witch, gunslinger, bard, monk).
I realize that summon monster can bring celestial creatures in to deal with this guy. It's what happened when they had to fight a hezrou previously. But, how do I put this... almost all of the major enemies here have DR/good. And the party monk is starting to feel sort of worthless as her attacks deal 1 nonlethal damage per hit. If she could bypass this damage, things would probably be okay, but she can't, and so it's not. The gunslinger still manages to deal some okay damage, but I think they're both sick of being outperformed by 1d4+1 celestial eagles.
Anyway, I think they could buy oils of bless weapon? But let's say the next encounter is going to be one that they aren't expecting and can't prepare for.
PS does it matter that the monk is an aasimar? I keep thinking there's some way they could bypass evil like true good plane outsiders, but I can't find anything suggesting it.
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Wait wait wait. Why is the party monk dealing 1 nonlethal per hit? Having damage reduction doesn't stop damage that does get through from being lethal, I don't believe. And damage that fails to get through just... well, fails to get through. DR does not have a minimum 1 rule. Failing to penetrate it results in zero damage dealt.
Anyway, they've got a very limited number of options available to them. Alignment DR is one of the hardest (Or easiest with oil of <insert effect here) to deal with, depending. They will need either that oil or to wind up with a +5 amulet of mighty fists, the latter of the two being ungodly expensive. My honest advice? Try to tailor the encounters in such a way that you don't make the monk, a class that is already horribly underpowered, suffer more than it has to. That player has chosen to walk the path of most resistance already, so why not toss'em a bone here or there? Give them some moments to feel badass to counterbalance all of the suck they've had to endure.
Other notes: A monk's fists begin counting as cold iron and silver relatively early on in their career. If the DR you've listed is indeed good OR cold iron, they should stop having that issue relatively shortly.
You could give the monk her bypass dr/good early for being an aasimar... that's all I got...
Wait wait wait. Why is the party monk dealing 1 nonlethal per hit? Having damage reduction doesn't stop damage that does get through from being lethal, I don't believe. And damage that fails to get through just... well, fails to get through. DR does not have a minimum 1 rule. Failing to penetrate it results in zero damage dealt.
Huh, I was sure I read that attacks beaten by DR still do 1 nonlethal damage. Looking now though I can't see that anywhere.
Anyway, they've got a very limited number of options available to them. Alignment DR is one of the hardest (Or easiest with oil of <insert effect here) to deal with, depending. They will need either that oil or to wind up with a +5 amulet of mighty fists, the latter of the two being ungodly expensive. My honest advice? Try to tailor the encounters in such a way that you don't make the monk, a class that is already horribly underpowered, suffer more than it has to. That player has chosen to walk the path of most resistance already, so why not toss'em a bone here or there? Give them some moments to feel badass to counterbalance all of the suck they've had to endure.
Well, for what it's worth, it's just been the last two major encounters that have done this. Our monk is a defensive monk who's had some major moments to shine so far.
Other notes: A monk's fists begin counting as cold iron and silver relatively early on in their career. If the DR you've listed is indeed good OR cold iron, they should stop having that issue relatively shortly.
Oh! Ahaha, turns out she DOES have that option. Didn't notice, whoops. Okay, that ends my issue fairly early. She'll have to not use her magic sword but all is not lost.
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Might I suggest that you allow her to find a monk's robe? That should raise her damage (and a couple other useful but not game breaking class functions) by one die grade. It's not a gigantic boost, but it should certainly help close the gap slightly, assuming there is one. ... And I'd bet money there will be one even without the DR because, well, monks have it really hard right now.
You're the GM. Drop a +1 holy sword or a cold iron mace or something.
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You're the GM. Drop a +1 holy sword or a cold iron mace or something.
This. Holy's probably overkill, but Cold Iron weapons are common enough.
Also, mention OOC (or have them make skill checks to realize IC) how very useful (and reasonably inexpensive) cold iron and silver weapons are. then they can just buy them (or in the gunslinger's case, make some appropriate ammo).
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Be familiar with the rules on what magical enhancement bonus will penetrate what DR:
+3 Cold Iron/Silver
+4 Adamantine
+5 Alignment DR
So if the monster has "DR X/Good or Cold Iron", a +3 weapon will suffice because it's equivalent to Cold Iron.
Note that DR only applies to mundane/weapon damage; it doesn't apply to elemental damage or most other spell damage types.
Read the DR rules carefully; there are some workarounds and limits in there that matter a lot to the difficulty. Also, the players should probably read them too, so they know which types of gear are available to them as a solution.
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1) I always carry Cold Iron and Silver
2) I always carry Cold Iron ammunition (only double the price). I dont even bother with regular ammunition.
3) Oil (potion) of Bless Weapon to bypass DR/Good. 50gp per oil (potion).
Talk to your monk and see if they would want to go into the champion of the enlightened PRC. It mixes monk and paladin well but is more monk.Do you mean Champion of Irori?
Two things here:
1) That PC requires Smite Evil. Any creature with DR/Good, will be Evil anyways, so if smiting is an option, then the DR isn't a problem.
2) Prestige Classing almost always requires multiclassing. PCs are underpowered, as is multiclassing (in general).
A third bonus thing: Her charisma is 10, which is pretty good far as monks go (though p. bad amongst aasimars).
Naa, she's happy being a monk. She also has cold iron fists, so I'm not worried here.
The hard part is that it definitely FEELS like an aasimar should have the power to slay evil, but because of the evil things with smite good it generally turns out the opposite. Oh well, her possible 27 AC and her only slightly modified crane style (it activates on one attack but before rolls are made at all, instead of an auto block an attack deal, and the counter attack has to be an unarmed strike) makes her more than strong enough in most scenarios. I also remade the wavecutter into a +2 keen macuahuitl, and gave her the ability to use it just like a temple sword. So it's all good. Her fists are cold iron, they'll serve her well against this guy. And she'll notice when she makes a counter attack and it hurts the guy in ways the sword won't. It'll work great!
The rakshasa is a different story, but I sort of want him to be nightmarishly strong, so I don't mind.
So I'm DMing a group right now who is facing a creature with DR/good or Cold Iron 10. Here's the deal: My group is mostly all new, and even the more experienced one knows very little about the technical aspects of things. No one is playing a cleric or paladin, and no one has anything cold iron or good aligned. (Our group is witch, gunslinger, bard, monk).
Elemental damage will bypass DR since it does energy damage. Another option is for the witch to use the Slumber hex and hope it works. Coup De Grace is extremely powerful.
The typical way one blows through DR is to simply out damage it. All of my melee characters or switch hitters tend to be able to two-handed power attack for +9 damage from just strength and power attack and the rest of the damage (1d6 to 2d6) is just the good damage.Your only major choice is to either dump some sort of cold-iron weapons into the game or for them to be able to avoid the monster.
Your PCs could just quit the encounter.
Possible ways to win:
Grapple the monster. Pin the monster. Strangle the monster and do not allow it to breathe until it falls unconscious or dies.
You could give the monk her bypass dr/good early for being an aasimar... that's all I got...
Actually not. Unless there is some special rule I don't know about. Aasimar do not have the good subtype, so their natural weapons do not bypass DR/good.
I have not seen prayer wheels mentioned... Not for the start of a career, but later on it's great :-)
And I do hope they have power attack and deadly aim do know how and when to aid another... :-P
So I'm DMing a group right now who is facing a creature with DR/good or Cold Iron 10. Here's the deal: My group is mostly all new, and even the more experienced one knows very little about the technical aspects of things. No one is playing a cleric or paladin, and no one has anything cold iron or good aligned. (Our group is witch, gunslinger, bard, monk).
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Anyway, I think they could buy oils of bless weapon? But let's say the next encounter is going to be one that they aren't expecting and can't prepare for.
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Actually this issues is not all that uncommon for some veteran players and is almost universal for new players. Everyone has this tendency to want to save all their money for the ultimate wizbang that that really, really want. But doing that can make it so you don’t survive long enough to get it.
.I think the best way to combat this is to get them to read some of the for advice. For some reason if their friend tells them this is a good idea, they won’t believe it. But if they read it from some stranger then it must be true.
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There are certain things that I firmly believe almost every character should get at least 1 or 2 levels they think they are at a level to need it. Alchemist fire and acid for swarms. Wand of cure light wounds (or infernal healing) Oils of daylight, align weapon, and magic weapon. Potions of remove disease, remove curse, remove blindness, neutralize poison, lesser restoration, and restoration. Ghost salts for incorporeals. Weapons and/or ammo that are blunt, piercing, and slashing. Weapons and/or ammo that are silver, cold iron, adamantine.
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If you never use it? So what? It really didn’t cost you all that much. But most characters will need all or nearly all of those at some point in their career. Whenever I use up one of those, I immediately buy at least 2 more of them.
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Yes, there are character concepts that don’t want to carry around a tool box of gear. But then that character needs to think about, consider, and develop tactics to deal with those situations that make such items needful.
I once had a sorcerer that had that gear minimalist mindset. But I had spells to get me through almost all of those situation. And I paid for a contingency teleport (long before the level where I cast it) to a temple where I had already arranged and paid for healing from almost any potential condition.
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I have a martial character that is only 4th level. He uses a MW bastardsword as his primary weapon. He will eventually be switching to a magic adamantine bastard sword. But he carries a MW cold iron morning star and masterwork silver dagger. He has adamantine weapon blanch already applied to a quiver of arrows. He has scrolls or potions of all of those already in his gear. The only one he doesn’t have yet is ghost salts. That is at 4th level. No matter what shows up, I can still fight it. Recently we had a fight with a minor demon DR 10/cold iron and small golem DR 5/adamantine. I beat down the demon with the morningstar and then backed up while shooting the golem with arrows. I did better than ½ the damage to kill both targets even though I didn’t use my weapon of choice. Mine was the only character in the party that could effectively fight both of them. One of the characters didn’t really have a decent chance to fight either of them. He basically had to roll a crit or max damage to get past the DR.
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Have a talk with your players entirely out of character. Explain that ‘these’ are the kinds of things that any well equipped adventurer should have on hand very early in his career. Or needs to make plans to get by without (hoping its not needed doesn’t count).
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Now for your immediate situation, you might have a demon that is trying to keep himself safe by stealing all the good or cold iron weapons in the area so they can’t be used against him. Then he drops them in a deep well with some other monster living in it. I would also make it so all the weapons in there are ones the party doesn’t really like. Put in a cold iron star knife, trident, and spiked chain. Then a good javelin, hand crossbow, and long spear. (Assuming the party doesn’t really want any of those.) Then they have something that will work. But if they want the right stuff, they have to dish out for it.