Post by GRWelsh on Jan 17, 2023 15:00:29 GMT -5
Scott's description of how easily Lolth was defeated made me want to evaluate the immunities and resistances of greater beings ranging from certain monsters up to gods.
UNDEAD: Most undead are immune to sleep, charm, hold and cold based magic. Poison and paralysis are explicitly called out as other immunities under the wraith description, but I think that should apply to other undead as well (i.e. immune to things like paralysis from carrion crawlers or other causes of paralysis and not just hold person spells, as well as any poisons since they no longer have a natural biology). Vampires are immune to sleep, charm, and hold magic and take half damage from cold and electricity. Liches are unaffected by charm, sleep, enfeeblement, polymorph, cold, electricity, insanity or death spells/symbols. I think it should go without saying that all undead should be immune to death spells/symbols since they're already dead. So a death spell, finger of death, symbol of death, etc. should have no effect on undead.
DEMONS: They aren't specifically immune to anything, but take half damage from cold, electricity, fire and gas. They're unaffected by silver if they require +1 or better to hit, but can be hit by cold iron. They take full effects from poison of any sort other than gas. Manes are treated as undead with regard to sleep, charm and similar spells.
DEVAS: They are unaffected by cold, electrical, magic missile, petrification, poison, normal fire-based or any gas attack spells. Devas take half damage from magical fire and dragon fire attacks, except for monadic devas who are immune to fire attacks of any sort. Devas take full damage from acid. They are immune to life level loss either from undead or magic, and death magic of any sort. They can only be hit by +1 or better weapons.
DEVILS: They're immune to fire and take half damage from cold and gas. They're unaffected by iron if they require +1 or better to hit, but can be hit by silver. They take full effects from poison of any sort other than gas. Lemures are not subject to any form of sleep, charm, or the like.
DRAGONS: They get saving throw bonuses against attacks based upon what sort of breath weapon(s) they have. These bonuses never seemed like a perfect fit to me since the dragon colors don't perfectly correspond to the four elements referenced. So, red dragons get bonuses against fire and air based attacks but are more susceptible to water and earth based attacks. I get the fire and water, but the air and earth don't make much sense to me. A white dragon gets bonuses against earth and water attacks but are more susceptible to fire and lightning attacks. The fire attacks makes sense but I'm not sure about the others, and there is no provision in this chart against cold based attacks. The implication seems to be that elementals were much more commonly used in the early days of D&D and that it was important to know how dragons fared against each elemental type. I think the logic of the saving throw bonuses of dragons could be extended to more specific resistances (i.e. red dragons having the resist fire ability as per the spell, white dragons resist cold ability, etc.).
ELEMENTALS: According to their descriptions they deal out less damage in certain situations, but it doesn't say they take less damage from certain attacks. But the description of the efreeti says it is immune to normal fire and magical fire attacks are at -1 to hit and damage per die. The description of the salamander says it is impervious to all fire-based attacks and immune to sleep, charm and hold spells and that cold based attacks cause an additional point of damage per die. The djinni description says that attacks from creatures based on the element of air are -1 to hit and -1 damage. Invisible stalkers and aerial servants don't have any immunities or damage reductions listed. For the water weird, sharp weapons do 1 point of damage, blunt ones cause normal damage, but it reforms again in 2 melee rounds. Cold spells slow it, fire-based spells do half or no damage, and a purify water spell kills it. The xorn are unaffected by fire or cold based spells, take half or no damage from electrical attacks such as lightning bolts, but can be affected by earth-based spells: move earth flings them back 3" and stuns them; stone to flesh or rock to mud lower their AC to 8 for 1 round; and passwall does 11-20 points of damage. Although I like the quirkiness of the various attack and spell effects on certain monsters -- and thus the reduced likelihood players won't know or remember all of the nuances -- I'd also like to see more uniformity among the immunities and resistances among elementals. I can't imagine any of them being poisoned or affected by a sleep spell. Elementals seem to have their own rules about being controlled and breaking control, and they resent control, so that may imply they're all immune to charm spells like charm monster.
UNDEAD: Most undead are immune to sleep, charm, hold and cold based magic. Poison and paralysis are explicitly called out as other immunities under the wraith description, but I think that should apply to other undead as well (i.e. immune to things like paralysis from carrion crawlers or other causes of paralysis and not just hold person spells, as well as any poisons since they no longer have a natural biology). Vampires are immune to sleep, charm, and hold magic and take half damage from cold and electricity. Liches are unaffected by charm, sleep, enfeeblement, polymorph, cold, electricity, insanity or death spells/symbols. I think it should go without saying that all undead should be immune to death spells/symbols since they're already dead. So a death spell, finger of death, symbol of death, etc. should have no effect on undead.
DEMONS: They aren't specifically immune to anything, but take half damage from cold, electricity, fire and gas. They're unaffected by silver if they require +1 or better to hit, but can be hit by cold iron. They take full effects from poison of any sort other than gas. Manes are treated as undead with regard to sleep, charm and similar spells.
DEVAS: They are unaffected by cold, electrical, magic missile, petrification, poison, normal fire-based or any gas attack spells. Devas take half damage from magical fire and dragon fire attacks, except for monadic devas who are immune to fire attacks of any sort. Devas take full damage from acid. They are immune to life level loss either from undead or magic, and death magic of any sort. They can only be hit by +1 or better weapons.
DEVILS: They're immune to fire and take half damage from cold and gas. They're unaffected by iron if they require +1 or better to hit, but can be hit by silver. They take full effects from poison of any sort other than gas. Lemures are not subject to any form of sleep, charm, or the like.
DRAGONS: They get saving throw bonuses against attacks based upon what sort of breath weapon(s) they have. These bonuses never seemed like a perfect fit to me since the dragon colors don't perfectly correspond to the four elements referenced. So, red dragons get bonuses against fire and air based attacks but are more susceptible to water and earth based attacks. I get the fire and water, but the air and earth don't make much sense to me. A white dragon gets bonuses against earth and water attacks but are more susceptible to fire and lightning attacks. The fire attacks makes sense but I'm not sure about the others, and there is no provision in this chart against cold based attacks. The implication seems to be that elementals were much more commonly used in the early days of D&D and that it was important to know how dragons fared against each elemental type. I think the logic of the saving throw bonuses of dragons could be extended to more specific resistances (i.e. red dragons having the resist fire ability as per the spell, white dragons resist cold ability, etc.).
ELEMENTALS: According to their descriptions they deal out less damage in certain situations, but it doesn't say they take less damage from certain attacks. But the description of the efreeti says it is immune to normal fire and magical fire attacks are at -1 to hit and damage per die. The description of the salamander says it is impervious to all fire-based attacks and immune to sleep, charm and hold spells and that cold based attacks cause an additional point of damage per die. The djinni description says that attacks from creatures based on the element of air are -1 to hit and -1 damage. Invisible stalkers and aerial servants don't have any immunities or damage reductions listed. For the water weird, sharp weapons do 1 point of damage, blunt ones cause normal damage, but it reforms again in 2 melee rounds. Cold spells slow it, fire-based spells do half or no damage, and a purify water spell kills it. The xorn are unaffected by fire or cold based spells, take half or no damage from electrical attacks such as lightning bolts, but can be affected by earth-based spells: move earth flings them back 3" and stuns them; stone to flesh or rock to mud lower their AC to 8 for 1 round; and passwall does 11-20 points of damage. Although I like the quirkiness of the various attack and spell effects on certain monsters -- and thus the reduced likelihood players won't know or remember all of the nuances -- I'd also like to see more uniformity among the immunities and resistances among elementals. I can't imagine any of them being poisoned or affected by a sleep spell. Elementals seem to have their own rules about being controlled and breaking control, and they resent control, so that may imply they're all immune to charm spells like charm monster.
