Thursday, January 1, 2015

From D&D 3.5 to 5.0(5E) - 5 - Damage Resistance, not DR in 5th Edition Rules

I know you didn't like fighting those monsters in 3.5 with DR5, DR10, or even worse DR20.  Well you won't have to any more in 5.0.  Damage Reduction is gone!  But it has been replaced by Damage Resistance.  I don't think the 3.5 damage reduction was difficult to manage, but Damage Resistance in 5.0 is even simpler.   When a creature has Damage Resistance to a type of damage, such as "Slashing", then the damage dealt to the creature by slashing weapons is simply halved.  This allows your first level characters to at least do some damage to creatures with Resistance, but if you can dish out 60HP of slashing damage to an Imp be ready to face the fact that it will only take 30HP of damage, not the 55HP it might have taken in 3.5 when the Imp had DR5/silver instead of the 5.0 "Damage Resistance: non-silver"

And what about the skeleton?  Does he have Damage Resistance?  Not in 5.0.  But skeletons do have a "Damage Vulnerability" toward bludgeoning weapons.  Creatures with damage vulnerabilities take double damage when experiencing that form of damage.
Barbarians in 5.0 will enjoy the benefits of Damage Resistance to slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning weapons while raging.  That helps make up for the lack of bonus hit points that they no longer gain while raging in 5.0.  And it eliminates the dilemma that occurs when the barbarians rage is about to end and he doesn't have enough hit points left to keep him alive.

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