In a homebrew campaign in which I'm playing, the following happened last session:
1.) We fought an evil treant that supposedly had DR/bludgeoning. I was under the impression that treants have DR/slashing. Of course the GM has the last word, but he claims he was reading straight from the rules, and he thought that it may be because they were the evil counterpart to normal treants. I think he's just getting the DRs mixed up. What's the deal here?
2.) We fought a lich which took no damage from a magic missile that I cast on him. I beat his SR, and the GM said the missile struck him directly in the chest to no effect. I rolled 12-14 damage on the mm. He said the lich did not have the shield spell cast on him, did not have a brooch of shielding (that protects from magic missiles), and that it was a type of damage reduction against magic spells. Again, I honestly think he just doesn't understand how DR works. (I think when he sees DR 15/bludgeoning and magic, he thinks that means he has reduction AGAINST bludgeoning and magic, which is the opposite of how DR is supposed to work.) What's the deal in this case? Is there some kind of damage reduction against magical damage?
I looked up both creatures and DR rules because, as a newbie GM myself in another campaign, I want to make sure I have a good grasp on the rules. Is there something I'm not aware of, or is he just wrong/making up homebrew rules?
1. The bestiary is more an idea guide for DMs then something that needs to be followed to the letter; if those specific treants were different (homebrewed) from the norm then I wouldn't really see any issue with it barring it being done retroactively just to mess with you. With that said, he is mistaken if he intended to run the creature as written from what I can see, barring a template added to the creature.
2. DR is for physical damage (bashing, piercing, slashing), Resist is for typed magic/elemental damage (Fire, Cold, Acid, etc.); very few things have Resist X Force. It could be he was confused or it could have been a homebrew thing, which again, isn't really an issue unless it was done in the context of, "Oh my god, I hate you using Magic Missile on my guys so this one is now immune just because!" That aside, if you are looking for a RAW explanation, are you sure it was a lich you were facing? Juju zombies keep all the powers of their former life and also happen to specifically be Immune to Magic Missile for some inexplicable reason.
I would ask your DM outside the game about the potential mistakes you noticed. Ask him if he is using homebrew rules (in which case ask for a list of them that apply to the PCs just so you know in advance, but if it's just for monsters, go with it) or if he intended to run RAW but was simply mistaken. It could just be that he wants to run RAW but as he didn't know what it was at the time, made a quick call just to keep things running.
I wasn't there, so I don't know for sure.
Did the GM say the words "The treant has DR/Bludgeoning"? If so, then maybe he was reading those exact words somewhere. Maybe there's some online reference that has it wrong, or maybe he wrote it wrong in his own notes, or whatever.
But if the GM only said something like "The treant has DR so you need bludgeoning weapons to hit it" then yes, maybe he was misunderstanding how DR works.
Best answer: talk to him offline. Send him an email, or call him, or if you ever see him outside of the gaming table, just talk to him about it. Tell him you want to understand the game rules and wonder if he could help clarify the DR rules for you.
It sounds like he's misunderstanding how DR works, yeah. I'd try politely explaining to him that what comes after the "/" is what overcomes the DR, not what the DR applies to.
Thanks for the responses! I was aware of the elemental resistances, as the same GM made a mistake before, thinking that abilities like acid dart are affected by DR (rather than elemental resistance). I'm certain it was a lich, he said so himself, and made it sound like it was pretty much a vanilla lich.
On the treant, he did say something like "you need bludgeoning damage to do full, he's resistant to slashing" not "he has DR/blugeoning, it says exactly so right here." If it helps it was spawned from some kind of magic bag of beans we found.
I'll try talking to him but he's been kind of difficult about reaching him outside of the game and discussing rules in the past. I can deal with it if he just won't see logic or rules it as a homebrew, I'm mainly concerned about getting RAW correct for my own campaign.
Edit: For clarity.
Or it could be the DM is creative, and making sure that his players can't just rattle off the usual tricks to win?
I myself recently considered making spells such as resist energy have additional damage types, namely divine (against flame strike, blade barrier, etc) as well as force (magic missile and disintegrate).
Perhaps the treant had some stoneskin variant spell on it from a crazed druid?
Things don't have to go by standard rules, as long as there is consistency. And as a DM and player of 25+ years, I can tell you from experience that good DMs have surprises for experienced players, especially ones who know the stats of monsters well.
I believe there might be an undead or rotting treant with a different form of DR.
That said, magic missiles is force damage, so unless the lich is specifically immune to MM or Force damage, he should have taken the hit. it's not a weapon and not subject to DR.
==Aelryinth