Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Raven Dark 04-18-05, 01:33 PM	From the SRD DAMAGE REDUCTION Some magic creatures have the supernatural ability to instantly heal damage from weapons or to ignore blows altogether as though they were invulnerable. The numerical part of a creature’s damage reduction is the amount of hit points the creature ignores from normal attacks. Usually, a certain type of weapon can overcome this reduction. This information is separated from the damage reduction number by a slash. Damage reduction may be overcome by special materials, by magic weapons (any weapon with a +1 or higher enhancement bonus, not counting the enhancement from masterwork quality), certain types of weapons (such as slashing or bludgeoning), and weapons imbued with an alignment. If a dash follows the slash then the damage reduction is effective against any attack that does not ignore damage reduction. Ammunition fired from a projectile weapon with an enhancement bonus of +1 or higher is treated as a magic weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. Similarly, ammunition fired from a projectile weapon with an alignment gains the alignment of that projectile weapon (in addition to any alignment it may already have). Whenever damage reduction completely negates the damage from an attack, it also negates most special effects that accompany the attack, such as injury type poison, a monk’s stunning, and injury type disease. Damage reduction does not negate touch attacks, energy damage dealt along with an attack, or energy drains. Nor does it affect poisons or diseases delivered by inhalation, ingestion, or contact. Attacks that deal no damage because of the target’s damage reduction do not disrupt spells. Spells, spell-like abilities, and energy attacks (even nonmagical fire) ignore damage reduction. Sometimes damage reduction is instant healing. Sometimes damage reduction represents the creature’s tough hide or body,. In either case, characters can see that conventional attacks don’t work. If a creature has damage reduction from more than one source, the two forms of damage reduction do not stack. Instead, the creature gets the benefit of the best damage reduction in a given situation. According to this, DR does not help a character if they fall off a cliff or get crushed under a natural landslide of boulders. It appears that it has to be a deliberate "attack" of some kind before DR can apply to it. Is there any evidence anywhere that shows that DR may help against natural hazards that cause physical damage? How do you/would you run it in your games?
Another Gnome 04-19-05, 10:27 AM	It doesn't say indirect physical damage ignores damage reduction. If I recall, 2E had it like that, but then again because the system was different, there was a reason for it. Anyway, I have DR apply to mundane physical damage, including situations where damage is caused by hitting material that normally bypasses DR. Thus, a golem falling on adamantine or a lycanthrope on silver floor - as if something like that ever happened - is harmed by the fall, not the material, and thus gets to apply DR as if falling on plain old ground.
Purkake 04-20-05, 09:20 AM	There are actually two kinds of DR: magic and natural. Magic is all the x/magic, alignment and natural is x/damage type, material(some). I would allow natural DR for falls and the like, but certainly not magic DR. Most magic DRs come from myths where you could not hit a werewolf with a non-silver dagger, but why would it not go splat when it falls as much as a creature without dr.