Canonfire! Forums-viewtopic-Polymorphing Undead

Thu May 17, 2018 1:43 am Demonic Resistances & Powers

Part 1)
I've always found myself a little confused about the physical resistances of demons (and devils for that matter).

The 1st and 2nd edition rules say that demons suffer full damage from iron weapons. By 'iron' is this meant to mean regular non-magical weapons? I always assume that a standard mundane weapon is made from steel and therefore not counted as an iron weapon (even though steel is an iron alloy) thus being unable to cause physical harm to a demon. Have I misunderstood this? Obviously some demons require specific magical bonuses to harm but I'm mostly referring to lower ranking demons where no specific requirement is made beyind the general demon/tanar'ri rules.

Part 2)

Are demons (and other creatures for that matter) able to make their natural attacks AND use an innate spell-like ability in a round or must they select one of the other?

How does everyone else adjudicate these things?

Sat May 19, 2018 8:52 am

Wolfling,

1) It's not just IRON weapons that affect them. It's specifically COLD IRON, I believe. I recently read just what that means. Cold iron means a weapon that has NOT been heat-shaped or treated in a forge. It has been fashioned WITHOUT a forge, hammered and shaped by force alone. These items are NOT mainstream and are rare. Imagine shaping metal without the assistance of a raging fire to help make it more malleable and you can well imagine the difficulty.

2) Unless specifically stated, typically creatures can make an innate spell ability OR a physical one, not both.

-Lanthorn

Sat May 19, 2018 12:43 pm

Thanks for the feedback Lanthorn. Is there a 2nd edition reference to specifying cold iron? I thought that was something later introduced in 3rd edition and beyond? The Monstrous Manual entry for tanar'ri just says plain old iron.

Sat May 19, 2018 4:05 pm

I will have to delve deeper, but I have always inferred that "iron" meant "cold iron." I'll keep you posted...

-Lanthorn