On this bit in general, I just think it should be the type. Fireball does fire damage, not "magical fire" damage. If the creature is immune to fire, it is immune to torches and burning hands alike. And nor does "fire" suddenly bypass "harmed by silver only" just because it came from a spell.
Again, i think there are interesting ways to do the actual mechanics to make "puzzle monsters" fun instead of a slog, but the one sure way NOT to do them is to let casters press their win button cantrips all day.
I have no issue with certain monsters being a pain for martial characters, and monsters being a pain for spellcasters. The DM can decide to balance their use to decide what level of balance is fair.
The MM is basically a toolbox of different types of encounters, by choosing certain monsters I can shape the flow of an encounter. For example, putting in a life draining undead in teh final fight of an adventuring day.....the effect is there but its not that big a deal most of the time. But put that in the first encounter that could potentially limit the PCs hitpoints for the entire day....brand new ballgame.
what I don't want is my tools taken away but removing uniqueness from monster design. Immunities, vulnerabilities, and regeneration is a nice way to tweak the tools in my box, and not keen to see those removed.
I can make the exact same argument for a lycanthrope. Even then there is no such thing as complete immunity. Martials can get silver or magic weapons so your comparison falls flat.
There are some great ideas floating around here. FWIW, I think I will be treating werewolves, and the other traditionally resistant to harm monsters, as having fast healing equal to 1/4 their max HP, and probably increasing their HP total (at least for bosses.) Any round they are hit by <special substance> prevents any healing, and reduces their max HP by the amount of damage taken (until a long rest/full moon/narrative device.) Magic sources of damage do not prevent this healing, or reduce the HP total. A final strike must be made with <special substance> to ensure the monster actually dies, otherwise they rise again to continue the fight (though that last part will just be applied as thematically appropriate.)
Relative to these modified Lycanthropes, blaster casters, and unprepared martials get a nerf, but not so badly that a level 10 party is losing to wererats. Control spells/abilities are still strong choices, and a prepared party could even play the attrition game with were-creatures. A poorly prepared party, on the other hand, could still find ways to nullify the threat, at least briefly, but they will be paying a heavy cost to do so.
I have this horrible image in my head of two mostly-defeated werewolves under a modified teeter-totter, being repeatedly bludgeoned unconscious, while one PC scrambles to the nearest silversmith, and another runs to the nearest temple, but my players will certainly come up with something far worse.
I guess the new rules would prevent that kind of thing, but if I'm using werewolves, we are probably into borderline horror content anyway.
The bigger issue, from my perspective is this. If lycanthropy is essentially a PC death, DMs are going to look like absolute jerks if they introduce were-stuff without the party having ready access to Remove Curse, but for the curse to matter we have to make it more than a minor inconvenience that takes a spell slot, or some gold, to recover from. Where is the middle ground? Is that what the "drops to 0 HP" is supposed to accomplish? Was the "under DM's control" bit only supposed to last until the now-monster's next long rest? What if the PCs kill the cursed PC? Can they use Revivify, and if so, is the curse still active? There are loads of questions that I have, and I haven't gotten the new MM yet to see if there are any answers.
My simple adjustment is to have silvered weapons do an additional d6 to them.
It means townsfolk will want to have some silvered weapons around to deal with them without getting into annoying and anti-climactic situations when the PCs face them without silver.
My simple adjustment is to have silvered weapons do an additional d6 to them.
It means townsfolk will want to have some silvered weapons around to deal with them without getting into annoying and anti-climactic situations when the PCs face them without silver.
For me the 'immune to normal weapons' myth would come about because were-creatures are much more powerful than typical townsfolk. When the townsfolk go to kill them without silvered weapons they all die and so they are functionally immune. Also, myths tend to take on extremes like that in order to motivate people to have silver weapons ready.
If 1d6 isn't enough it could be 2d6 and their HP could be raised a bit.
lycanthropes should have half damage from normal weapons but require defeat to be administered from a silver weapon, magic weapon or magic. Perhaps give them fast healing 10 that is reduced by spells, magic or silver weapons.
lycanthropes should have half damage from normal weapons but require defeat to be administered from a silver weapon, magic weapon or magic. Perhaps give them fast healing 10 that is reduced by spells, magic or silver weapons.
