| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It's fairly obvious for constructs and other beings whose DR comes from having an exterior made of exceptionally tough material -- the weapon that fails to penetrate the golem's DR just bounces off its hard surface. But what about flesh-and-blood beings whose DR is a magical property that doesn't make their skin look any different from that of a humanoid or animal with no DR, such as lycanthropes, fey and outsiders?
For example, let's say Merisiel throws a dagger at that succubus that's draining Kyra* on page 52 of Demons Revisited. Say her player rolls a 20, then confirms the critical hit, and rolls two fours on the damage dice, but unfortunately it's not a cold iron dagger, just an ordinary steel one.
The succubus has DR 10/cold iron, so she doesn't lose any hit points, but if I'm GMing and trying to be a good, dramatic storyteller, how do I describe what Meri sees happen? With a roll like that, attacking from behind, I'd say the dagger hit the demon in the lower back, just below the ribs, and (if it were an ordinary humanoid with no DR, or a cold iron dagger) sank in to the hilt. With DR, does the dagger fail to break her skin (similar to natural armor)? Does it penetrate, then fall right out again, spilling no blood and leaving no wound (like super-fast regeneration, similar to Wolverine's healing factor)? And how does the succubus react? Did she feel it as pain comparable to a real wound, as slight pain like a pinprick, as a painless impact like a pat on the back, or does she not feel it at all? (Is there anything more intimidating than a monster that doesn't even notice your attack?)
Obviously, this is ultimately going to be up to the individual GM, but I'm interested to hear how other people handle it.
*Kyra, seriously? I would think she'd have more sense than to get into a situation like that. I'd have chosen Valeros or Alain for that illustration -- they seem just the type to fall for a succubus's wiles. I suppose it might happen if the succubus disguised herself as Merisiel, though...
I generally describe it like so:
"You drive your sword deep into the demon's gut, but as you pull the blade free, notice very little blood on the blade, as if it took reduced damage from your blow"
or...
"You strike what appears to be the pink, normal flesh of the (whatever) but your blade has difficulty piercing its tough hide, reducing the amount of damage you inflict"
Regeneration, on the other hand...
"The massive gash across the torso of the beast has been closing up since you hit it several rounds ago, now almost completely healed. It seems that it can regenerate"
I always try to mix description with game terms to try and avoid confusion between the two.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Another possibility would be selective quasi-incorporeality: "As you drive the dagger into the monster's flesh, you see that although by simple geometry, it seems that it should pierce the moster's flesh, instead you see reality distort so that the dagger and target flesh are somehow together, yet neither piercing the other, almost as if they had both become semi-transparent, yet remaining opaque to everything else, as if the laws of geometry and sanity themselves had locally broken down. You, on the other hand, gain no such benefit as the monster savagely retaliates, its claws tearing through your flesh as fully substantial weapons, even as they exhibit some of the same effect seen with your dagger as they pass through one of your armor spikes."
Another possibility would be selective quasi-incorporeality: "As you drive the dagger into the monster's flesh, you see that although by simple geometry, it seems that it should pierce the moster's flesh, instead you see reality distort so that the dagger and target flesh are somehow together, yet neither piercing the other, almost as if they had both become semi-transparent, yet remaining opaque to everything else, as if the laws of geometry and sanity themselves had locally broken down. You, on the other hand, gain no such benefit as the monster savagely retaliates, its claws tearing through your flesh as fully substantial weapons, even as they exhibit some of the same effect seen with your dagger as they pass through one of your armor spikes."
This would be a cool way of describing certain outsiders DR, for example.
Nicely done.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Depending on monster i describe DR as one of the following:
* A hard bouncing off - Like when hitting a stone and bounce back. [Constructs, etc.]
* Super-fast healing - Like you inflict a nice cut with your Longsword, but the gast never gets longer than 1 inch, as you see the flesh knit itself back together almost instantly, healing as if you never cut it. [Outsiders, most fleshy monsters with DR, etc.]
* Lowered or even ignored effects - Like when you hit him in the leg, but it bleeds hardly and he doesnt even hobble a bit. Or when you hit them squard in the face, and they just spit out a tooth, grin, and continue fighting as if nothing of notice happened. [Barbarians, Undead, etc.]
* Just passing through - You hit him, yet left no cut in his form. You are unsure if and how strong you effected the monster. [Elementals, incorporeal entities, etc.]
I like the idea of quasi-incorporeality for Demons and Fey in particular. Then cold iron (or strongly magical) weapons are effective because they're "solid" enough to overcome that characteristic of the creatures' form, which fits with the concept of cold iron.
Depending on monster i describe DR as one of the following:
* A hard bouncing off - Like when hitting a stone and bounce back. [Constructs, etc.]
* Super-fast healing - Like you inflict a nice cut with your Longsword, but the gast never gets longer than 1 inch, as you see the flesh knit itself back together almost instantly, healing as if you never cut it. [Outsiders, most fleshy monsters with DR, etc.]
* Lowered or even ignored effects - Like when you hit him in the leg, but it bleeds hardly and he doesnt even hobble a bit. Or when you hit them squard in the face, and they just spit out a tooth, grin, and continue fighting as if nothing of notice happened. [Barbarians, Undead, etc.]
* Just passing through - You hit him, yet left no cut in his form. You are unsure if and how strong you effected the monster. [Elementals, incorporeal entities, etc.]
This would be the best way -- in all the cases you can tell that you're not really doing as much damage. 'You watch the evil cleric whack Barbie the Barbarian in her face with his mace. Her DR, tanked charisma, and general attitude towards personal appearance means she looks slightly better. But she stops smiling as her greatsword seems to bounce off the demon next to him, leaving shallow wounds despite what usually happens.'