Fiendish Codex Malebranche question

[Voadam]

In Fiendish Codex II the malebranche has regeneration 8. I can't find a description of what does real damage to them though.

 

[Shade]

I'd stick with its MMII/3.5 update booklet version:

Regeneration (Ex): A malebranche takes normal damage from acid, good-aligned silvered weapons, and from spells or effects with the good descriptor.

It bugs the heck out of me that its DR was changed to 15/magic. Fiends should not have DR/magic, especially the higher CR ones.

 

[Voadam]

I'm still not used to the new stat blocks so this omission caught me off guard and left me searching the entry a couple of times.

What did the update booklet do for their DR? Is that magic as well or is it good?

 

[Shade]

10/good.

 

[Nightfall]

*thinks that make sense along with sliver too*

 

[Garnfellow]

It bugs the heck out of me that its DR was changed to 15/magic. Fiends should not have DR/magic, especially the higher CR ones.

Out of curiosity, does it bug you because because DR 15/magic is inconsistent, or because 15/magic is almost meaningless to a higher level party.

 

[Voadam]

Out of curiosity, does it bug you because because DR 15/magic is inconsistent, or because 15/magic is almost meaningless to a higher level party.

It bugs me a little as well. Because of the inconsistency. When knowing you are fighting devils good and silver should be your go to weapons and you should be able to count on DR magic working against their natural attacks.

No reason is given why this mid rank devil (a mere variation of the horned devil at that) is more like a fiendish creature than a devil in this respect.

This just screws up those who know some knowledge of devils in general. It is not like it is a chaotic demon where breaking the type guideline rules could be reasonable because of the vagaries of elemental Chaos. I like the fact that some variant non-tanari demon families in Slayer's Guide to Demons have nonstandard silver DRs. For the lawful Baatezu devils, unexplained variation does not seem like a good genre design.

 

[Shade]

Out of curiosity, does it bug you because because DR 15/magic is inconsistent, or because 15/magic is almost meaningless to a higher level party.

Both. I agree with Voadam's assessment, as well as the fact that it doesn't correspond well with its regeneration. Generally, things that have regeneration that take real damage from good-aligned weapons and spells have DR/good.

DR/magic is really only effective for very low-level creatures or for use against monsters. I really like the 3.5 DR system, except for /magic. I wish they'd used both the new system and still applied a plus value to DR/magic.

 

[Pants]

No reason is given why this mid rank devil (a mere variation of the horned devil at that) is more like a fiendish creature than a devil in this respect.

Well, there is sorta of a reason. A malebranche caste is a demotional caste, which is probably why it has such pitiful DR, though I still don't care for it.

 

[Voadam]

Well, there is sorta of a reason. A malebranche caste is a demotional caste, which is probably why it has such pitiful DR, though I still don't care for it.

sorta. Weak cast devils still have devil style DR, just weaker (silver OR good) if they have DR. I liked the line about them sometimes being forced to be used as mounts though and if I had read it earlier and used them it would have fit in great in my ftf game over the weekend.