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Behind the Curtain: Damage Reduction
The damage reduction system changed significantly in the
revised core rulebooks. The obvious change is in the new variety
of methods to bypass a creature’s damage reduction: special
materials, magic or aligned weapons, and types of weapons
(slashing or bludgeoning) can all be the key to successfully get-
ting past damage reduction.
The less obvious change is that it’s generally easier to break
through a creature’s damage reduction even without the proper
key. Most monsters subtract 5, 10, or 15 points of damage from
most attacks, where prior to the revision this number might be
as high as 40. A number like 40 tells players, “don’t even try it if
you don’t have the right weapon.” A number like 15 sends the
message, “You can try, but it’s going to be a lot harder.”
This booklet includes revised damage reduction entries for
every monster in Deities and Demigods, Epic Level Handbook, Fiend
Folio, Manual of the Planes, and Monster Manual II. If you’re con-
verting other monsters that don’t appear in those books, follow
these general guidelines:
• Make the damage reduction amount (the number before the
slash) 5, 10, or 15. As a general rule, use 5 for weaker monsters,
up to CR 4 or 5. Use 15 for strong monsters, CR 13 or higher.
Use 10 for everything in between.
• Special Materials: If a monster had damage reduction bypassed
by silver before, keep it silver unless a different material is more
appropriate. Also use silver for baatezu devils, guardinals, and a
selection of other creatures from the outer planes, particularly
the lawful plane of the Nine Hells of Baator. In a few cases, you
might combine this with good or evil (see Combinations, below).
Use adamantine to bypass damage reduction in cases where a
creature’s damage reduction is almost like hardness: for most
constructs, creatures whose bodies are made of inorganic materi-
al, and for spell effects like iron body and stoneskin. Use cold iron
for fey (often, even when they did not have damage reduction
before), for the fey-like eladrins, for tanar’ri demons, and select
other creatures from the outer planes, particularly the chaotic
planes. It’s not a good idea to create new special materials
except in unique circumstances: most adventurers have no rea-
son to carry mithral weapons, for example.
• Weapon Types: If a monster took half damage from certain
weapon types, replace this with damage reduction 5/other
weapon types. For example, skeletons took half damage from
slashing and piercing weapons; now they have damage reduc-
tion 5/bludgeoning. Rarely use weapon types as a bypass for
damage reduction.
• Alignment: Allow aligned weapons to bypass the damage
reduction of outsiders of the opposite alignment. Demons and
devils have damage reduction #/good, celestials have damage
reduction #/evil, slaadi have damage reduction #/lawful, and
inevitables (despite being constructs) have damage reduction
#/chaotic. Generally, fiends and celestials associate more strong-
ly with evil and good, respectively, than with law and chaos.
The differences between lawful and chaotic fiends and celestials
showcase in their racial vulnerabilities to special materials rather
than aligned weapons (see Combinations, below).
• Magic and Epic: If nothing else fits, allow magic weapons to
bypass a creature’s damage reduction. For monsters at very high
CRs (minimum 20), consider using epic weapons instead.
• Combinations: You can use combinations of factors to distin-
guish monsters from each other based on CR and overall power.
Many outsiders have damage reduction that combines special
materials and alignments. For example, very weak tanar’ri
demons have easy-to-bypass damage reduction: a good weapon
or a cold iron weapon strikes unhindered. Moderately powerful
tanar ’ri benefit from damage reduction that is somewhat more
difficult to bypass: you need a good weapon; a cold iron weapon
won’t do. The most powerful tanar’ri have damage reduction
that is even more difficult to bypass: you need a weapon that is
both cold iron and good. As a rule of thumb, use “or” combina-
tions for monsters of CR 3 or lower, and use “and” combinations
for monsters of CR 16 or higher.
Also consider combinations of magic with either special mate-
rials or weapon types. A lich’s skeletal body is vulnerable to
bludgeoning weapons, like a skeleton’s, but only if they are
magic. A night hag is vulnerable to cold iron weapons, but only
magic ones. In general, requiring two conditions (“and” combi-
nations) makes a monster’s damage reduction more difficult to
bypass, and is most appropriate for powerful monsters.