So was paging through the ref wiki and while reading up on Lycanthropes from "Bite Me! Wereblooded" I noted something that found odd. When I read over their traits I noticed a mention of silver and thought "A weakness of course. Makes sense." Then I looked closer to see it was a Damage Reduction vs Silver, not a vulnerability;
Defensive Abilities: A natural lycanthrope gains DR 10/silver in animal or hybrid form. An afflicted lycanthrope gains DR 5/silver in animal or hybrid form.
Can someone explain why this is? I thought given that Pathfinder uses a lot of the old tropes of mythical beasts that all were beasts would be vulnerable to silver. Does the resistance have something to do with them still retaining their free will and independent thought even in hybrid and beast form? As opposed devolving into a wild hostile animal like some afflicted do.
Love some feedback on this.
They are vulnerable to silver... not to the extent it does double damage, just to the extent that it bypasses their immediate regeneration.
DR 10/Silver doesn't mean you're resistant to silver, it means silver is the thing that bypasses the damage resistance.
DR/10 Silver means that unless it is a silver weapon they take 10 less damage each time they are hurt. It is listed as the amount of damage reduction and then what bypasses the DR.
What Milo said, they are vulnerable to silver because they shrugg off most other things.
I think it's pretty accurate, since the legend, as I know, is not that silver bullets are especially effective against werewolves, but that normal ones are simply not effective at all.
In other words: they are vulnerable to silver in that it can hurt them, and are "invulnerable" to other things.
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DR/silver means that they have DR (damage reduction) versus everything BUT silver. Silver is the only way to overcome their natural damage reduction. So if you hit something that has DR 10/silver with a regular weapon, the damage has 10 points subtracted from whatever was dealt, but if you hit them with a silver weapon it does full damage.
In Pathfinder games you will come up against many enemies that have DR, and the words following the / will be the ways to overcome it. These include silver, cold iron, adamantine, magic, good, evil, slashing, piercing, bludgeoning, and more. Then there is the dreaded DR/-, where the - means the monster has DR, and there is not way to beat it, you will always have your damage reduced by the listed amount.
Sometimes there will even be more than one word, and include the words either OR or AND. OR means you need to have one of the listed types, such as DR/cold iron OR good meaning you need to have either a good aligned weapon or a cold iron weapon to do full damage. AND means that you need to have BOTH the listed damage types to do full damage, such as DR/magic AND silver meaning you need to have a magical silver weapon, having a weapon that is only silver or only magic will be just the same as having a regular weapon, and have it's damage reduced.
Knowing about DR and how to overcome it is an important part of playing Pathfinder, so it's a good question to ask.
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What Milo said, they are vulnerable to silver because they shrugg off most other things.
I think it's pretty accurate, since the legend, as I know, is not that silver bullets are especially effective against werewolves, but that normal ones are simply not effective at all.
In other words: they are vulnerable to silver in that it can hurt them, and are "invulnerable" to other things.
I wonder if DR 10/- with vulnerability Silver would be better and more fitting to legend.
Or even:DR 10/silver with vulnerability Silver.
Many thanks everyone. Especially you Sani for your thorough explanation of how DR works.
In truth I don't even play Pathfinder but trolling the reference wiki for inspiration and fun is one of my hobbies.
I do feel a bit dumb that it didn't click sooner that's what it meant by DR/10 Silver, but like the saying goes; "The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life." :)