Post/Author/DateTime	Post
pukunui 11-04-07, 04:18 AM	Hi all, Quick question: does a creature's DR apply to attacks made against its gizzard by someone it has swallowed whole? For example, a half-fiend behir with DR 5/magic swallows a PC. This PC only has a masterwork rapier that he uses to try to cut his way out. Does the behir's DR apply to these attacks or not? Thanks in advance. Cheers, Jonny
Talisman 11-04-07, 10:17 AM	Yes. There's nothing indicating that DR applies to only part of a monster. That being said, I think it would be a fair house rule to say that a critters gut only benefits from, say, half of its DR. It's still magically tough, but DR is supposed to protect against outside attacks, not indigestion.
Slagger the Chuul 11-04-07, 12:21 PM	That being said, I think it would be a fair house rule to say that a critters gut only benefits from, say, half of its DR. It's still magically tough, but DR is supposed to protect against outside attacks, not indigestion. Where does it say that damage reduction isn't supposed to protect against internal attacks? Is there some special unknown property of magical toughness that only allows it to apply to surface skin?
pukunui 11-04-07, 03:25 PM	Where does it say that damage reduction isn't supposed to protect against internal attacks? Is there some special unknown property of magical toughness that only allows it to apply to surface skin? I don't think it does explicitly say that anywhere but the description of DR could be read so as to imply that it does insofar as it talks about creatures' tough hides and the like (and said tough hides tend not to be present inside digestive systems).
Talisman 11-04-07, 05:23 PM	Where does it say that damage reduction isn't supposed to protect against internal attacks? Is there some special unknown property of magical toughness that only allows it to apply to surface skin? It doesn't. Hence the first part of my post. By the RAW, DR applies to all parts of the critter, including the eyeball, eardrum, and even hair (thus creating a market for +1 scissors :rolleyes:). That's why the second part of my post was prefixed with "I think it would be a fair house rule." The purpose of DR is to protect a creature from attacks (at least, that's how it appears in legends of werewolves, demons, etc). Generally speaking, by the time you've been eaten you're past the category of "threat" and on to the category of "food."
runestar 11-04-07, 08:48 PM	Dr applies only to physical attacks, which I think by definition, requires an attack roll. The damage from swallow whole has no such requirement. I think that by a strict reading, dr would not apply...:P
Talisman 11-04-07, 09:34 PM	Damage Reduction (Ex or Su): A creature with this special quality ignores damage from most weapons and natural attacks. Swallow Whole (Ex): (...) A swallowed creature can try to cut its way free with any light slashing or piercing weapon (the amount of cutting damage required to get free is noted in the creature description), or it can just try to escape the grapple. The Armor Class of the interior of a creature that swallows whole is normally 10 + 1/2 its natural armor bonus, with no modifiers for size or Dexterity... The only reason a monster's gut has an AC is because you have to hit (that is, attack) it to cut your way out. DR protects against weapon attacks. Ergo, DR protects against the damage inflicted as you hack your way out of a monster's gut. This isn't about whether a swallowed creature with DR can apply that DR to the "swallow damage," if that's what you were thinking.
Slagger the Chuul 11-04-07, 09:55 PM	That's why the second part of my post was prefixed with "I think it would be a fair house rule." The purpose of DR is to protect a creature from attacks (at least, that's how it appears in legends of werewolves, demons, etc). Generally speaking, by the time you've been eaten you're past the category of "threat" and on to the category of "food." I agree that, normally, being eaten would switch the target from "threat" to "food", but swallow whole avoids that change by allowing the creature to gulp down prey that's alive and kicking. Reducing the damage reduction would unnecessarily penalize the creature for using one of its own attacks.
pukunui 11-04-07, 11:28 PM	Even if the DR didn't apply to the stomach lining itself, it would certainly apply to the skin and muscle layers, which the swallowed person has to cut through (albeit from the inside) in order to get out ...