Dungeons & Delvers 2nd Edition: Overcoming DR

On this post, Thiatas suggests permitting called shots as a way to bypass DR in some capacity. While I like the idea in theory, not so much in practice.

I remember running Rifts, which had an atrociously bad called shot mechanic: you could declare a called shot, and even if you didn't meet whatever trivial number it was (9 and up? 12 and  up?), so long as you got at least a 5 or whatever the static "hit" number was, the attack would still land as a normal hit, anyway.

So, there was really no reason not to try and hit someone in the head as often as possible, since each body part had a fraction of the "main body" hit points, and depleting the head meant the target was dead. We only stopped because one player kept doing it all the time, so I figured, why not do it back? This unsurprisingly upped the lethality of combat quite a bit, so we just decided no more.

Obviously I wouldn't do a called shot mechanic like that, but the issue is monsters using it against the characters: there are more of them, and they make more attacks. Also combat is quite chaotic, so declaring that you'd like to hit someone in the head (or some other part) is easier said than done, and really I expect everyone to be doing their best to inflict as much harm as possible, exploiting any and every opportunity they can, while also trying to avoid getting hurt themselves.

I think his suggestion has merit in that, were you to get a consistently high DR (say, 6+), it could make some fights trivial for the player. Or, boring, if you ended up fighting an enemy with an insanely high DR, and each round is just you slowly chipping away HP, changing it into a standard 4E slog. But before I try and work in a called shot mechanic (and I'm curious if anyone has suggestions), here are some ways you can work around DR:

Exceeding the Target's Defense

Right now, for every 5 points you exceed the target's Defense you deal +1 damage (so, 5-9 points is +1, 10-14 is +2, 15-19 is +3, etc). This reflects exceptionally accurate attacks. I thought about lowering this to every 3 points, but for now it seems to be doing alright. Maybe if base DR goes up? Was considering having plate armor actually grant DR 8 to reflect just how badass it is.

Another thing we're considering is giving spells scaling failures. So, if you fail to save against a fireball by 1-4 points, you take the normal rolled damage, but if you fail by 5+ points another 1d6 gets tacked on. Fail by 10+ and it's +2d6, etc. This could also work for stuff like Hold Person: fail by 1-4 and you're effectively Dazed, by 5-9 and you're Restrained, and 10+ and you're fully Paralyzed, easy to kill.

But we'll see about that. If we can give all/most spells meaningful failure effects. Unrelated, but if we do a "spell check", it would probably be to determine the spell's save DC as opposed to whether or not the spell works at all. Makes more sense this way.

Conditions

The following conditions grant a bonus to both attack and damage rolls: Dazed (+1), Immobilized (+1), Prone (+2), Restrained (+2), and Stunned (+2). Being Invisible grants you a +2 bonus against your target, and Slowed imposes a -1 penalty to Defense. Finally, Bleeding does automatic damage that ignores DR.

Various talents can impose these. For example, the fighter's Trip Attack can knock enemies Prone, Stunning Blow can Stun them, and Bleeding Attack imposes Bleeding. You can also do some of these without talents, such as trying to trip someone, or even restraining them with a grab, it's just that some talents make them very easy to do, without using up your whole turn.

Alternatively, the Burning and Corroding conditions inflict ongoing damage. Burning ignores DR from armor, and while Corroding doesn't it typically reduces the target's DR. While some spells impose these conditions, so do lots of alchemical items (fireflasks, snowglobes, vials of acid, etc). They also have the advantage of inflicting a lot of initial damage.

The big one is Paralyze: all melee attacks are auto crits, and ignore DR if there's a clear spot that you can hit without armor (ie, a humanoid creature without a helmet).

Grappling

This stems from a thought I had, about how, say, goblins might handle a fully armored person: you get a bunch, some go for the arms (effectively Slowing and Immobilizing the target). A few more try and latch into the arms (which, combined, effectively Restrains the target), then they trip the target (made much easier due to all the penalties for not being able to move), and then everyone gets a whole slew of bonuses to their attack and damage rolls, reflecting that they're able to line up their shots, go for the head, slip rusty daggers in between plates, etc.

In this way, even a band of lowly goblins could take out a fully armored, mid- level fighter pretty easily. I get it's a "team game", but players could feasibly do the same thing, and it wouldn't even require a whole party so long as the target is Medium or smaller. Against Large creatures you'd have a similar effect, and against Huge there's a set of rules for climbing around on them and stabbing them to death, ala Monster Hunter World.

The Athletics skill would be used to help out with this, and Skill Perks would make it even easier. 

Weapons With Armor Penetration

A bunch of weapons have AP 1, some have AP 2. It's not much, but then most opponents won't have DR 4+, anyway. Every bit helps.

Talents

Every warrior-type class has access to at least one talent that gives them a bonus to attacks and damage, increased Armor Penetration. For example, fighters have Slayer and Sundering Strikes, which combined is going to get you +1 damage to all attacks and AP +2 with two-handed weapons.

Spells and Miracles typically inflict a lot of damage (baseline 2-3 dice of damage, depending on its cost and whether it adds some other kicker effect), and can scale up pretty easily, so aren't as big of a concern. DR 6 knight? Hit him with a 5d6 fire damage Burning Hands, cook him from the inside.

Of course, some can provide other benefits, like Magic Weapon granting a bonus to attack and damage rolls, upping your AP, imposing conditions, damaging and destroying armor, or allowing you to bypass it completely.

Gang Up

After a creature has been attacked, whether by a weapon or spell, each subsequent attack gains a +1 bonus until the end of the round. So, pile on a single target, try and exceed that Defense for a damage bonus.

Let The Rogue Handle It

Many iconic rogue weapons have built in AP, rogues can add on more with Chink in the Armor, and they have Sneak Attack. Even a single die can potentially compensate for DR 6 armor.

Use Alchemical Items

In addition to the direct-damage stuff (mentioned briefly in the Conditions section, above), you can also quaff a frenzy potion for a brief spurt of added damage (1d4 for the standard version, which scales up to 1d12 at the high end). Ogre's blood bumps up Strength at the cost of Dexterity and Intelligence.

Various weapon oils can enhance your weapon in various ways: bladefire adds the Burning condition at first, but then also grants bonus damage at higher qualities. Frostblade adds Slow, while Stormblade can Daze and eventually Stun.

Then there's the tanglepod, which can Restrain or Slow depending on how big the target is and the quality (higher quality tanglepods can Restrain bigger critters).

Ambush

Set up an ambush and lure the enemy into a trap. It could even be an actual trap, rigged up by the ranger or rogue. Doesn't even have to negate their DR: a solid surprise attack could drastically tip the odds in your favor, or end the fight before they even know what's going on.

However, if the enemy has a high DR due to armor worn, you could try to catch them with their pants down. Or their helmet off.

Don't Fight

Sneak past the enemy. Bribe it. Intimidate it. Talk to it, and maybe you can work something out. Charm it. Teleport past.

I think those are plenty of options for helping to situationally mitigate the efficacy of armor, to where I don't think a called shot mechanic is needed for that specifically. But I think it could be useful for handling enemies with specific weak points, like how with a hydra you're supposed to chop off the heads instead of going for the body, so the body is either invulnerable or incredibly resistant to damage.

It would be nice to have a more universal rule, as opposed to an arbitrary one that only kicks in when the monster has a sort of glowing red weak point. So, again, up for hearing about various called shot rules. Something that for whatever reason can't be easily turned on the players, resulting in a one-sided called shot-fest.