Why doesn't damage reduction work with vicious weapons?

[ummens]

I have a level 5 barbarian that now has an innate damage reduction of 3/-, so I bought a vicious longsword that says it does 1-3 damage to the wielder. I keep getting damaged when I use it. Why?

[zztophat]

Because untyped damage ignores damage reduction.

Like the disintegrate spell, which works on everything.

[coolpenguin410]

I have a level 5 barbarian that now has an innate damage reduction of 3/-, so I bought a vicious longsword that says it does 1-3 damage to the wielder. I keep getting damaged when I use it. Why?

Damage reduction only applies to weapon damage. The viscious property of your weapon is not weapon damage, but a damage of its own type. Just like holy, flaming and true chaos damage is not reduced by DR, neither is vicious.

[ummens]

I see... Well that was a bunch of wasted money. The description on vicious weapons should have something in it that says "this damage cannot be resisted". So I take it that vicious weapons are pretty much useless then?

[ellamonster]

Not really useless, but you need to be able to heal yourself well. It used to be 1d6 to yourself, and 2d6 to enemy, so it is a lot better. On Lam I have a FvS drow who fights with vicious shortswords, she can heal herself and I find the higher DPS gives me a quicker kill and therefore actually saves resources in that case. Vicious just has to be carefully thought out when to use them.

[Folonius]

I see... Well that was a bunch of wasted money. The description on vicious weapons should have something in it that says "this damage cannot be resisted". So I take it that vicious weapons are pretty much useless then?

A Vicious weapon of greater construct bane would be very useful in portal beating in the shroud, but other than that, I don't see much use for them.

[Impaqt]

I see... Well that was a bunch of wasted money. The description on vicious weapons should have something in it that says "this damage cannot be resisted". So I take it that vicious weapons are pretty much useless then?

2d6 extra damage for 1d3 is a decent trade off if youhave the HP to back it up. Barbarians should.

the damage is untyped so it hits Everything. THere is no resistance.

Against Evil Mobs, Holy is better of course, but there are lots on Neutral and even some good mobs that Viscious is very effective on.

[Spoonwelder]

no just use it with a bodyfeeder in the offhand....+15-3-3-3-3-3+15.......or have a pocket cleric to heal you as you zerg through a dungeon - the extra 2d6 untyped dmg is great in the lower levels....not so much in the 10+range where you'd rather have banes/smiters/destructs for extra damage by type OR paralyzers/vorpals etc...

[BruceTheHoon]

They work well with the cleric's new aura.

[ellamonster]

They work well with the cleric's new aura.

Huh yeah nice thought, I don't have a cleric right now.

[testing1234]

almost all vicious weapons are bad, but they are not useless.

examples of good viscous weapons:
+5 adamantin viscous of greater construct bane pretty close to perfect weapon, or
lvl4 rr race +2 viscous adamantin of lesser construct bane.
if you can get your dps high enough then the feedback still does not make it a bad weapon.
chose construct bane as a example because they often have dr and are mostly immune to criticals.
high damage elementals are also a good example were a viscous weapon could be worth the price

do not use viscous on trash enemies

[Babumbalaboo]

FRENZIED BERSERKER

All vicious, all the time.

[Angelus_dead]

I see... Well that was a bunch of wasted money. The description on vicious weapons should have something in it that says "this damage cannot be resisted".

Well, the only reason to do that would be to assist clueless people, because there is absolutely no reason to expect that DR would apply to vicious damage.

Nobody seems surprised when their Fire, Acid, Bane, Holy, Maiming, and Puncturing weapons ignore the DR on monsters. Why would anyone think Vicious would work differently?

[ummens]

Well, the only reason to do that would be to assist clueless people, because there is absolutely no reason to expect that DR would apply to vicious damage.

Nobody seems surprised when their Fire, Acid, Bane, Holy, Maiming, and Puncturing weapons ignore the DR on monsters. Why would anyone think Vicious would work differently?

Probably because I've only been playing for a month or so. Level 5 is my highest. I don't even know if I've faced a monster with DR yet? Besides, the tooltip for DR "-" says that it cannot be overcome by any physical attack.

[Cylinwolf]

Probably because I've only been playing for a month or so. Level 5 is my highest. I don't even know if I've faced a monster with DR yet? Besides, the tooltip for DR "-" says that it cannot be overcome by any physical attack.

Actually if you read the description, the damage is generated by "a flash of light reverberating between you and your opponent" - or something similar to that. It's not physical damage.

[Nott]

Probably because I've only been playing for a month or so. Level 5 is my highest. I don't even know if I've faced a monster with DR yet? Besides, the tooltip for DR "-" says that it cannot be overcome by any physical attack.

Part of the fun in a game such as D&D, and thus DDO, is learning the rules and what you can do / not do in order to get the most out of them.

If every little detail that a one month long player doesn't know were just spelled out, rather than having some things left up for exploration, the game would get very boring after two months.

[Angelus_dead]

Probably because I've only been playing for a month or so. Level 5 is my highest. I don't even know if I've faced a monster with DR yet? Besides, the tooltip for DR "-" says that it cannot be overcome by any physical attack.

Yes, the tooltip says it works on attacks. Vicious self-damage is not an attack, so a person wouldn't expect DR to block Vicious self-damage.

If you think that Vicious self-damage is an attack, then who is doing the attacking?

[donblas]

You can use power attack with vicious weapons - reduces the amount of hits (and consequently damage to yourself) but increases the damage on the opponent when you DO hit.

My 6th lvl Fighter uses vicious greatsword of pure good, generating 5d6+24 damage per hit and a measly 1d3 to her - I think that's a good trade off.

[BruceTheHoon]

Besides, the tooltip for DR "-" says that it cannot be overcome by any physical attack.

As far as I know vicious deals an 'untyped' type of damage not 'physical' type. It's all legit!

[Visty]

You can use power attack with vicious weapons - reduces the amount of hits (and consequently damage to yourself) but increases the damage on the opponent when you DO hit.

My 6th lvl Fighter uses vicious greatsword of pure good, generating 5d6+24 damage per hit and a measly 1d3 to her - I think that's a good trade off.

power attack doesnt reduce the number of attacks, just the number of your tohit

and if you start hitting less with PA on, then you better turn it off again cause you do less damage then