DR/Golf Bag in 2.0
Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 2:39 pm
The 3.5 damage reduction system posits the existence of a few distinct types of weapon damage: magic (+1), epic (+6), adamantine, cold iron, and silver. Aside from unusual damage reductions that depend on the type of damage (bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing) rather than or in addition to the source, these are it. This was a change from 3.0, which had such damage reduction categories, but also had a rule stating that any weapon with enough magical pluses could overcome DR - thus there was a sliding scale of sorts and weapon enhancement was of critical importance.
One of the main issues DnD 3.0 players have taken with 3.5 is that a fighter must maintain a veritable "golf bag" of different weapons and swap them in and out depending on enemies for optimum effect. I don't see that being a concern in Toril 2.0 because we've always swapped weapons (blind weapons/damage proc weapons/bash proc weapons) around depending on the fight.
That said, I wonder if damage reduction will exist. Certainly the immunity of undead/golems to death and sneak attacks will, if implemented, put a serious snag in rogue damge in some zones (CC anyone?), thus suggesting that DR should be implemented to balance fighter and ranger damage against that of rogues, but I could also see an argument that advanced DR would make zoning even more eq-dependent, which would be harmful to new players. Of course, we have always had spectres and the like immune to nonmagic weapons, so there is that to begin with. If DR is implemented, there arises the question of whether iconic weapons will be altered to be like their counterparts (for example, the holy avenger is made of cold iron in 3.5.)
One of the main issues DnD 3.0 players have taken with 3.5 is that a fighter must maintain a veritable "golf bag" of different weapons and swap them in and out depending on enemies for optimum effect. I don't see that being a concern in Toril 2.0 because we've always swapped weapons (blind weapons/damage proc weapons/bash proc weapons) around depending on the fight.
That said, I wonder if damage reduction will exist. Certainly the immunity of undead/golems to death and sneak attacks will, if implemented, put a serious snag in rogue damge in some zones (CC anyone?), thus suggesting that DR should be implemented to balance fighter and ranger damage against that of rogues, but I could also see an argument that advanced DR would make zoning even more eq-dependent, which would be harmful to new players. Of course, we have always had spectres and the like immune to nonmagic weapons, so there is that to begin with. If DR is implemented, there arises the question of whether iconic weapons will be altered to be like their counterparts (for example, the holy avenger is made of cold iron in 3.5.)