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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quasqueton" data-source="post: 1626392" data-attributes="member: 3854">Something that has bugged me about the outsider-type naming convention for a long time came up in my group's last game session.One of the newer Players thought a half-fiend was lesser than a fiendish creature. That makes sense in thought, but isn't true in the game.Fiend - a demon or devil.- Many different varieties.- resistant to acid, cold, and fire.- damage reduction (most often) overcome by good.- personal weapons treated as evil.- variable abilities and powers -- but only 1 demon and 0 devils has darkness at all.Fiendish - actually from a lower plane. Associated with, but not actually related to fiends.- resistant to cold and fire.- damage reduction overcome by magic.- personal weapons not anything special.- no ability changes or any real "powers".Half-fiend - direct child of a fiend.- resistant to acid, cold, electricity, and fire.- damage reduction overcome by magic. - personal weapons treated as magic.- ability changes including +4 Dex, +4 Int, and +2 Cha.- many powers starting with darkness 3/day.Planetouched - has a fiend somewhere in the family tree. So, in effect, a decendent of a half-fiend. Yes?- resistant to cold, electricity, and fire.- no damage reduction.- personal weapons not anything special.- ability changes of +2 Dex, +2 Int, and -2 Cha.- one power - darkness 1/day.So:- Either all half-fiends and planetouched creatures are decended from babau demons, or they spontaneously develop the power of darkness.- Direct decendents of fiends get a boost to Charisma, but their decendents not only loose that boost, they drop below the average.- Decendents (all the way down to planetouched) somehow pick up a resistance to electricity.- Associates and direct decendents of actual demons/devils loose their vulnerability to good, and pick up a vulerability to magic instead.There is no real game-mechanic relationship between the above "related" creatures.And, in general, the names for these templates are just out of whack.If a fiend is the actual demon/devil, maybe the fiendish template should be called "planetouched". After all, fiendish creatures are just creatures from the lower planes -- "touched" by the evil planes.The half-fiend template should be called "fiendish". This template is the only one that even *looks* like an actual fiend -- they are essentially fiend *ish*.The planetouched template should be called "half-fiend". This template actually shows a little in common (though weaker) with the current half-fiend template (which should be called "fiendish").This confusing and counter-intuitive convention is also seen in the various "celestial" and "elemental" templates. It makes no sense. How far back in D&D history does this convention go? I don't remember such creatures in AD&D1. Was it too ingrained in AD&D2 nomenclature to change it for D&D3.X?Quasqueton</blockquote>

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