Appropriate vulnerability for Fey?

[wcpfish]

I vote for poison as well. Fey are typically portrayed as full of vigor and life (bacchanalian revelry and all that). Hitting them hard with poison seems very appropriate.

Also, on the cold iron front, be careful as cold iron is magic weapon property (which nails Fey), just as info.

 

[Akaiku]

You could give then regeneration that's turned off by martial keyword powers. That would be interesting.

 

[IanB]

It is hard for players to do, but necrotic damage is probably the appropriate 4e choice; the ghaele and bralani from the MM are already vulnerable necrotic.

 

[LostSoul]

Don't follow the normal damage type stuff. Make this vulnerability unique. Put some hints in the adventure that point to the monster's vulnerability (and use the Monster Knowledge DCs).

Maybe one player will figure it out during the game and improvise a weapon to remove its regeneration. That kind of thing is very rewarding.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Traditionally cold iron. For me you could play it to ways:
1. Any weapon whose 'damaging part' (sword blade, mace flanges) is iron enough to be counted.
2. Make an alchemical whetstone or other consumable that can be applied to any wep for extra damage.

 

[On Puget Sound]

Depends on what your intent is. How easily do you envision the party solving the problem? Do they need to discover, through research and /or experiment, what the vulnerability is? If so, it can be anything....ashes from a funeral pyre, tears shed in sorrow, kryptonite.

Or is the weakness common knowledge, and the party simply needs to make sure they have the item with them? In that case, cold iron works as well as anything else.

Or is it something they must discover in the heat of battle, by observation, logic or plain luck? In that case it should be something they actually do have. Maybe human(oid) blood acts as a poison, so they have to first blood the weapon (taking 1 point of damage and using a minor action) before each hit.

A related question... if you make the weakness hard to discover or costly to acquire, can the party win without it? Is the choice to use it or not meaningful? Is there a downside? If the weakness is well known and plentiful, every adventurer will carry it, and so the regeneration ability becomes a waste of ink, except as backstory.

 

[Mentat55]

The ghaele and bralani eladrin in the MM have a vulnerability to necrotic -- it slows them when they take necrotic damage.

Cold iron would be the traditional choice, to be sure.

 

[Starfox]

"cold" iron really means cold-forged iron. That is basically anything forged on an open heath, as opposed to cast or made in a furnace. Before 1700 or so, cold iron was basically the only kind of iron around, and definitely the only kind you'd use to make a weapon.

In an agrarian society, almost everything was made by replenishable local materials like wood or clay. Much of the metal goods was softer metals, like copper. Iron was odd and exclusive, for small tools like knives. Many people would not own an iron object. In such a society, iron is a symbol of civilization and human progress - which is the anathema of they fey. It was considered wise to wear a small iron object, like a nail, as a ward against faeries.

How to simulate this in an rpg where everyone sports metal weapons? Actually, I don't think you should. Giving fey a weakness against something this common is not a good idea. Specific fey might have specific weaknesses, but giving them an overall weakness to iron only works in a low-fantasy world where iron is actually scarce - and faeries are banished to the back of the woods.

 

[Byronic]

We already HAVE cold iron weapons in 4th edition, they're in Adventurers vault. They do more critical damage vs Fey. You could use them as Cold Iron Weapons or you could adjust them. Perhaps have them do twice their bonus vs Fey?

It makes some sense that a Cold Iron weapon would usually be used against Fey (since steel is better for other things) and that one would prepare such weapons well. Especially with enchantments and such.

 

[-Avalon-]

Historically, mythologically, I agree with Cold Iron...

Logically, and for the most part, I agree with poison.

I personally would go with poison as the other as a material is too common, and as an enchantment already exists...

Poison is very rarely used or taken as a power damage type... Use it.