Dungeons & Dragons Online: How to Identify and Bypass Monster Damage Reduction

Examine the monster and read the unbroken DR types in the Combat Log

After Update 81.4, examining a monster reports its Damage Reduction, if it has any. When your attack damages an enemy, the Combat Log lists every DR requirement you are failing to break. Use the two displays together: examination identifies what the enemy has, while the log identifies what the current attack is missing. [1]

The Combat Log reports more than just the strongest requirement. [1]

Steps

1. Examine the enemy, make an attack, and check the Combat Log for every unbroken DR type. [1]

Evaluate the percentage penalty instead of subtracting an old flat value

The update changes monster DR to percentage penalties. Failing to bypass Bludgeoning, Slashing, Piercing or Bane reduces weapon damage by 25 percent; other unbroken DR types reduce it by 50 percent. This is a monster rule change: player DR is explicitly unchanged. Use the enemy’s current requirements rather than an older guide’s flat DR subtraction. [1]

The player’s own DR retains its existing rules. [1]

Satisfy all relevant requirements on enemies with multiple DR types

When a monster has more than one DR type, the highest remaining penalty applies. In the publisher’s Good plus Bludgeoning example, bypassing only Bludgeoning still leaves the 50-percent Good penalty. Bypassing only Good leaves a 25-percent Bludgeoning penalty. Bypassing both removes those penalties. One successful bypass therefore does not necessarily restore full weapon damage. [1]

The example shows the two incomplete combinations and the complete bypass. [1]

Steps

1. Check every remaining requirement after changing your weapon or bypass effect. [1]

Use a matching augment when your weapon has a suitable slot

Lahar’s new level-one red augments provide Bludgeoning, Slashing or Piercing bypass through Bludgeoning Blows, Slashing Strikes and Piercing Precision. They add the corresponding Morphic bypass to a slotted weapon. The update also standardizes Lahar’s existing alignment augments to minimum level four and material augments to minimum level eight, so account for the appropriate level requirement when choosing a solution. [1]

Alignment and material augments have separate minimum levels. [1]

Steps

1. Choose the matching Morphic red augment for a slotted weapon when you need Bludgeoning, Slashing or Piercing bypass. [1]

Choose the correct physical or material spell option

Artificers gain Morphic Weapons at spell level two, selecting Piercing, Bludgeoning or Slashing; it is also available as a scroll. Transmuted Weapons at spell level three selects Adamantine, Silver, Byeshk or Cold Iron and is also a scroll. Match the missing requirement reported by the log, then inspect the result of the next attack rather than assuming a physical bypass also provides a material bypass. [1]

The material options belong to a different spell. [1]