Random Things

[Neeek]

I just noticed that the "Thicker Than Water" secret for the Tainted Scholar gives DR 1 (Piercing and Slashing). Is that even possible to overcome?

[User3]

Bites are slashing, piercing, and bludeoning, and claws are slashing and piercing. That'll do it.

[User3]

1147658362[/unixtime]]I just noticed that the "Thicker Than Water" secret for the Tainted Scholar gives DR 1 (Piercing and Slashing). Is that even possible to overcome?

I'm fairly certain that, given the flavor of the ability, the author intended it to be DR 1 Vs. Slashing and DR 1 Vs. Piercing (in other words, DR 1/Blunt), but didn't actually understand the DR rules.

[MrWaeseL]

The DR rules are among the easiest of alld D&D. How did this guy get to be an author?

[Crissa]

1147686460[/unixtime]]The DR rules are among the easiest of alld D&D. How did this guy get to be an author?

They don't hire based upon qualifications, they hire based upon how much you will write for little or not compensation.

Why do you think they don't have editors?

-Crissa

[MrWaeseL]

But the amount of disability you need to have to not understand the DR rules is staggering! Surely some of that would leak through during the job interview?

[User3]

Heroes of Horror used writers from White Wolf, and you know those guys are like "this has such an awesome flavor it doesn't even need coherent rules." Thats their whole design philosophy.

[RandomCasualty]

1147695587[/unixtime]]But the amount of disability you need to have to not understand the DR rules is staggering! Surely some of that would leak through during the job interview?

Well, I can imagine some guy up really late at night, tired as hell and just making a stupid mistake.

[Neeek]

Oddly, they did something similar in the Planar Handbook for the Spiker race. They have DR 2/Bludgeoning, but the description says it's supposed to protect from Bludgeoning.

[User3]

I think it's an easy mistake to make. A damage reduction system could either mean "reduces this kind of damage" or "reduces everything but this kind of damage.

D&D has both, as resistances and DR. WoTC authors aren't always great at keeping things straight (just like most of us), so it isn't too hard to imagine that they might confuse the two.

"/" is not intuitively 'vs.' or 'bypassed by,' it could be either. So when it's 2 in the morning and an author is trying to hammer out a PrC before the deadline hits, it isn't too hard to imagine that he or she might accidentally write one and mean the other.

The problem is, that kind of stupidity can be really subtle if it isn't spelled out in the ability's description.
Who is to say whether some earth elemental creature is supposed to be resistant to bludgeoning (their 'steriotyped damage class'), or vulnerable to it (because hitting a rock with a hammer works better than hitting it with a sword)?

And then we get to the "and"/"or" issue (which BTW does not mean '"and" bypassed by "or",' but means '"and" vs. "or"')...

[Crissa]

1147695587[/unixtime]]Surely some of that would leak through during the job interview?

Job interview?

Why would they do that? That would cost money.

They contract writing and then they pay... Later.

-Crissa