From: covin@tartarus.uchicago.edu (David Covin)
Subject: Re: Enchanted weapons to hit...
Organization: University of Chicago Computer Science
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 21:03:52 GMT

In article <1aorbdINNe0p@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> pkralik@ecst.csuchico.edu (Wintermute) writes:

>Exactly how do you explain to a character *why* an enchanted weapon is needed
>to hit certain more powerful creatures.  Now, I realize that this is one of 
>the things that perhaps makes the creature more powerful, but I want a more
>logical explanation to give players than this...

...
[ Mentions high-hit die creatures being able to hit such monsters
  with effect ]
...

>Also, if a creature with this defense is struck by a non-magical weapon, what
>exactly are the effects?  Does the weapon simply bounce off of it?  Is there
>any knock-back if a boulder were thrown?  Would the weapon simply miss(i.e. the
>creature dodged it)?  Or would it pass harmlessly through the creature.


Well, I always liked the idea of weapons just passing through certain
creatures without effect, unless the weapon were magical, thus able
to interact with the substance of the eldritch creature.
Unfortunately, this rationale doesn't work with all creatures that
have this property-- it's fine for wraiths and wights, but gargoyles
and lycanthropes are quite physical beings, and it doesn't seem right
for weapons to just "pass through" them.

So now I make up the special effects in each case.  Some creatures
are insubstantial-- wights, wraiths, spectres, water, air, or fire
elementals-- and attacks really will just pass through them without
effect.  An earth elemental might shatter mortal weapons used against
it.  Other creatures appear to take the damage, but it's just
cosmetic, and doesn't affect their functioning in any way.  In movies,
for example, vampires and werewolves can often get shot without harm--
the creature will bleed a little, and the shot might sting, and annoy
the creature, but it won't be impaired in the long run (takes no h.p.
damage), and often the wound itself will heal over in a few seconds,
minutes, or hours. See the movies "Near Dark" and "The Howling" (any)
for good examples of this.  In "Near Dark," one of the vampires takes
a shotgun blast in the stomach.  It throws him back a bit, and his
stomach is laid open, wet and bloody (doesn't bleed much, but some),
but he's more dazed by the fact that he's still walking than by the
damage, and it's mostly healed by the next scene.  In the "Howling"
series, werewolves can be apparently killed by damage from normal
weapons, and yet recover.  One werewolf rips his own skull open, just to
be gruesome (soliloquizing, "I'd like to give you a piece of my 
mind...").  Silver weapons, on the other hand, kill them dead.

Note that this means you *can* knock a werewolf back with a boulder.
Even if it isn't harmed per se, it can still be moved.  In the 
comic book series "The Elementals," during a confrontation with a
werewolf, one character points out that although they have no silver
bullets to kill him with, his friends have automatic weapons with
enough raw firepower to tear the werewolf to shreds.  They weren't
sure that this would kill the werewolf, but it was sure to make it
unhappy.

The most difficult part to rationalize, actually, is the bit about
tough monsters being able to damage hit-only-by-magic creatures even
though they had no magic themselves.  The closest I could come to
rationalizing this is to take the approach I've been whining about
with fighting gods: these are "creatures of legend," and their status
as mystical beings puts them above being damaged by ordinary weapons.
Their life forces are not dependent on their physical bodies, but
rather the life force maintains the body; ordinary weapons just can't
harm that life force, and so the body quickly recovers from the 
superficial damage done to it.  On the other hand, very tough (high
hit dice) monsters become "creatures of legend" themselves, and so
can damage the life force of other such creatures with their attacks.

I'm not sure whether I like this rationale or not; I've toyed with
the idea of just making "immunity to normal weapons" an absolute
thing, regardless of how many hit dice your opponent has.

--
David Covin                           covin@despair.uchicago.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd