our group has a bit of confusion regarding DR and spells/spell-like abilities/supernatural abilities.
does damage reduction only apply to physical attacks or does it extend to spells?
does a creature with DR10/good resist ten points of all attacks that aren't good/holy based or just the physical ones?
im leaning towards damage reduction being a qualifier for physical attacks and spell/energy resistance being the qualifier for spell attacks.
what's the word?
Damage reduction doesn't apply to spells, except those spells that specifically say they deal bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage.
That exception has been clarified as the intent by game developers.
Yea, DR applies to spells, SLAs, and (Su) whenever bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing pop up, regardless of the source. There's a line in the core rulebook that's getting hit with the errata hammer to make it in-line with the intent. Keep on reading the rest of the tread to see that bit.
If a spell doesn't have one of those physical damage types mentioned, it won't be affected. Fireball, for example, won't be affected by DR.
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Damage reduction doesn't apply to spells, except those spells that specifically say they deal bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage.
That exception has been clarified as the intent by game developers.
+1 on this.
Interestingly, our group ran into another related question last night, and had to look up the answer. Apparently, an animated object has Hardness instead of DR (since it's still considered an object, not a creature), and Hardness applies to ALL types of damage, spell or physical or whatever.
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Damage Reduction (Ex or Su)
A creature with this special quality ignores damage from most weapons and natural attacks. Wounds heal immediately, or the weapon bounces off harmlessly (in either case, the opponent knows the attack was ineffective). The creature takes normal damage from energy attacks (even nonmagical ones), spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities. A certain kind of weapon can sometimes damage the creature normally, as noted below.
1. Yes, weapons and natural attacks only. Not to spells. It also won't apply to elemental effects from weapons.
2. Just the weapon and natural attacks
3. Yup* except when the spell specifies a weapon damage type.
Edit: why oh why do I type so slow! (probably due to the -2 for using in appropriately sized equipment.)
As noted by the above posters, the intent and wording of this rule conflict. The expressed intent by the devs is that DR applies against any and all sources that deal bludgeoning, piercing and/or slashing damage, regardless of source, unless those types can hit the bypass conditions listed by the DR. This means that a spell that crushes you with a rock (bludgeoning damage) *does* have to deal with your DR despite the rule you quote.
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Note the asterisk.
Also, if a spell chrushes you with a rock, it's the rock doing damage and not the spell. If it specifies bludgeoning, again, note the asterisk.
Ah, sorry, somehow missed the asterisk. Note that if a spell crushes you with a rock, it is often still considered the spell dealing the damage (many such spells still have SR, for example, which would not work if it was simply a non-magical rock). Ice Storm is an example of this. Outside of that it seems a consensus is reached.
(I suppose the Ice Storm example could be considered a place where the line between what is rock and what is spell is blurred.)
thanks a ton for all the info! above and beyond what i needed :)
Hmmm...
Great magical hailstones pound down upon casting this spell, dealing 3d6 points of bludgeoning damage and 2d6 points of cold damage to every creature in the area.
Just thinking about this spell, since it's a truly fantastic example of compound damage types.
SR applies because the hailstones are "magical". Should a case be made that the bludgeoning damage is also magical bludgeoning damage, and therefore overcomes DR/magic?
If it was a Conjuration spell, I wouldn't even mention it, but it's Evocation.
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Does fall damage get reduced by DR. I had two different DM have two opposite opinions on the matter. I use create pit a lot and one DM rules that DR reduces the fall damage and another say the monster takes full fall damage.
It isn't reduced by DR.
Does fall damage get reduced by DR.
Damage Reduction: "Some magic creatures have the supernatural ability to instantly heal damage from weapons or ignore blows altogether as though they were invulnerable. The numerical part of a creature's damage reduction (or DR) is the amount of damage the creature ignores from normal attacks."
Damage Reduction (Ex or Su): "A creature with this special quality ignores damage from most weapons and natural attacks."
Falling damage is not from a weapon, natural attack, or normal attack, so DR should not apply.