Creature to Special Material Weakness

[Figgin of Chaos]

I have a fantasy setting, with various borrowing/stealing from D&D and other mythology. It includes a few broad categories of monster, each of which has a weakness to a given special material. The thing I'm not sure about is which special materials each one should be weak to.

Beasts (includes magical animals, lycanthropes, and miscellaneous things like hydras): Silver?

Giants (includes ogres, trolls, and a variety of big brutes): Starmetal?

Faeries (includes shapeshifters and various mischief-makers): Iron. This is the one I'm sure about. Not "cold iron," just any iron. Much like in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, they are harmed by how solid and real it is.

Elementals (mostly of the energy variety. Fire, lightning, cold): Obsidian?

Spirits (includes ghosts, physical undead such as zombies, and embodiments of concepts): Silver? Except I'm already using silver for Beasts?

Dragons: Dragonbone. Yeah.


If you have other ideas for special materials, or changing how the above is arranged, I'd love to hear them!

[TheCountAlucard]

Go with salt for undead; or have them unable to cross a line of sprouted grains.

[endoperez]

Get a book about symbolism of materials. Maybe something about alchemy? That sort of stuff is a goldmine for this sort of thing.

For example, gold and silver often symbolize the sun and the moon. Perhaps they repel the beasts of the night and of the day, respectively - that'd make a sword marked with both gold and silver harmful to all beasts, whether they're active during the night or the day.

Giants have sometimes been said to avoid the sound of church bells. Maybe it's more of a quality of the metal they're made of, i.e. bell metal (a form of bronze)? Alternatively, you could adopt e.g. brass, another metal used in loud instruments, as something the giants can't stand.

[Lord of Shadows]

Beasts (includes magical animals, lycanthropes, and miscellaneous things like hydras): Silver?

Giants (includes ogres, trolls, and a variety of big brutes): Starmetal?

Faeries (includes shapeshifters and various mischief-makers): Iron. This is the one I'm sure about. Not "cold iron," just any iron. Much like in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, they are harmed by how solid and real it is.

Elementals (mostly of the energy variety. Fire, lightning, cold): Obsidian?

Spirits (includes ghosts, physical undead such as zombies, and embodiments of concepts): Silver? Except I'm already using silver for Beasts?

Dragons: Dragonbone. Yeah.

My 2 coppers:

I would make make wooden weapons effective on "Beasts" (excluding Lycanthropes, see further below).

For Giants, perhaps flint, or coal, or something.. unless your world has a good supply of Starmetal. Or like the previous poster posited: brass or bronze.

Faeries should stay with iron.

Elementals, perhaps something as simple as the opposite element. (Fire/Water, Earth/Air, etc.)

Spirits, including corporeal and incorporeal undead, perhaps are vulnerable to glass, or crystal.

Dragons... hmmm... perhaps dragonbone from the opposite type of dragon, like elementals. Or from the same type.. not too sure on that one.

I think I would lump Lycanthropes and all other Shapeshifters (Doppelganger, Rakshasa, etc.) together, except Faeries, and make them vulnerable to silver.
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[erikun]

A lot of times, a material's properities (or believed properities) would be the reason it is effective against a certain monster. For example, silver is antimicrobial and helps to eliminate sickness. This is why it is considered good against werewolves (an illness) and undead (a disease). This is also why silver is related to werewolves under European myth, where they are individuals who change into wolves, and not necessarily related under other myths, where they are just natural animals who are shapeshifters.

You could use this to identify likely weaknesses, or even categorize them. For example, amethyst is considered to prevent drunkenness and intoxication. You could use this to say that amethyst prevents venoms and poisonous creatures, and use that as logic for saying that amethyst jewelry would protect someone from a medusa's gaze.

Glass and mirrors could be used to reveal truths, and thus glass is an effective weapon against ghosts and spirits. It would also be useful against illusions and shapeshifters, at least forcing them into their natural form when struck.

For elementals, it depends on what you consider the "opposite" of the elements are. Some people have considered iron, along with processed foods (like wine) or salt to be the opposite of nature. This would make elementals vulnerable to iron and salt. It would also probably work with fairies and fae, for the same reason, along with making them ill if they drank wine.

[Lord of Shadows]

Hmmm... perhaps instead of re-arranging creatures, you would be better off classifying several materials as far as what they are effective against. Keep in mind that any effort, either way, can drive one batty after a while, as it is possible to go into almost infinite detail.
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[The Oni]

I'd have magical beasts be vulnerable to bronze, for a Greek myth reference.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Elementals could be weak to gold, which under Platonic systems was considered to have a perfect balance of all four elements.

Dragons being weak to things made of dragonbone makes sense. What's strong enough to beat a dragon? Another dragon. Presumably they had to kill the first one the hard way, or scavenge it.

[RedMage125]

A lot of times, a material's properities (or believed properities) would be the reason it is effective against a certain monster. For example, silver is antimicrobial and helps to eliminate sickness. This is why it is considered good against werewolves (an illness) and undead (a disease). This is also why silver is related to werewolves under European myth, where they are individuals who change into wolves, and not necessarily related under other myths, where they are just natural animals who are shapeshifters.

Actually, the lycanthrope/silver thing comes from the "mystical/alchemical" connection between silver and the moon, and werewolves' connection to the moon.

Different animal lycanthropes may be weak vs different substances. In 2e Ravenloft, some were weak vs gold, others to bone, iron, or certain types of wood, such as ash, oak, etc.

I remember old World of Darkness, the Corax (wereravens) had connections to the sun instead of the moon, and theiur weakness was gold (which is connected to the sun in the same way silver is to the moon)

[Jay R]

Don't forget garlic, wolvesbane, mistletoe, etc.

I once decided that hippogriffs could get addicted to coffee beans.

[NichG]

Actually, why not have elementals be weak to lead, as it tends to draw in their natures to attempt to ascend into gold? Also, the softness of lead as a weapon wouldn't really matter so much when attacking things made of fire, water, or air (earth would logically still pose a problem I suppose, but 3/4 isn't bad) compared to attacking more traditional things.

I also kind of like the idea of lawful outsiders being vulnerable to mercury, both for the metaphor and also because in real life mercury can get drawn into metals on contact to form an alloy, which can drastically weaken them.

[Slipperychicken]

Elementals (mostly of the energy variety. Fire, lightning, cold): Obsidian?

IMO, elementals should be weak to stuff appropriate to the element, rather than a single special material. Pouring water on a fire elemental would extinguish it (as would smothering, vacuums, and cold damage), air elementals could be captured inside airtight containers (such as bags and bottles), water elementals could be absorbed by absorbent materials, lightning elementals could be defeated by planting an iron rod in the ground near it (the elemental is conducted through the rod and its essence discharged harmlessly into the dirt), cold/ice elementals are dissipated by heat/fire (including boiling water), acid elementals are neutralized by alkali substances (also diluted by exposure to water, or dispersed by immersion in non-acidic liquid), and so on. Obviously, most of those wouldn't be insta-kills (unless you completely immersed the elemental in its weakness), but would instead deal a bunch of damage.

tl:dr: Each elemental type gets its own weaknesses.

[CombatOwl]

I have a fantasy setting, with various borrowing/stealing from D&D and other mythology. It includes a few broad categories of monster, each of which has a weakness to a given special material. The thing I'm not sure about is which special materials each one should be weak to.

Beasts (includes magical animals, lycanthropes, and miscellaneous things like hydras): Silver?

Giants (includes ogres, trolls, and a variety of big brutes): Starmetal?

Faeries (includes shapeshifters and various mischief-makers): Iron. This is the one I'm sure about. Not "cold iron," just any iron. Much like in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, they are harmed by how solid and real it is.

Elementals (mostly of the energy variety. Fire, lightning, cold): Obsidian?

Spirits (includes ghosts, physical undead such as zombies, and embodiments of concepts): Silver? Except I'm already using silver for Beasts?

Dragons: Dragonbone. Yeah.


If you have other ideas for special materials, or changing how the above is arranged, I'd love to hear them!

For spirits, some kind of wood. Maybe yew? Hawthorn? Kind of depends on the tone you were wanting to go for.

To be honest, this seems like it would be more interesting if you just picked some symbolically appropriate weaknesses for each creature. If you wanted to do a low-magic folklore style thing, it could be some very particular and obscure weaknesses.

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Actually, why not have elementals be weak to lead, as it tends to draw in their natures to attempt to ascend into gold? Also, the softness of lead as a weapon wouldn't really matter so much when attacking things made of fire, water, or air (earth would logically still pose a problem I suppose, but 3/4 isn't bad) compared to attacking more traditional things.

For a more amusing bent, the "elementals" could only be harmed by people who recognized the incorrect philosophical basis of the classical elements.

[Axinian]

I'd have magical beasts be vulnerable to bronze, for a Greek myth reference.

tl:dr: Each elemental type gets its own weaknesses.

To be honest, this seems like it would be more interesting if you just picked some symbolically appropriate weaknesses for each creature. If you wanted to do a low-magic folklore style thing, it could be some very particular and obscure weaknesses.

I support all of these. Iron for fae and dragonbone for dragons works just fine.

I like starmetal harming giants actually. Giants are larger than life, but are generally seen as rather earthy or connected with the land. Something otherworldly makes sense. It could also be something light but powerful, like mithral (instead of something big and powerful like giants themselves). You could take inspiration from the being araid of churchbells thing, and make them week to sonic effects. Perhaps there's some sort of very vibratory metal that harms them?

[TuggyNE]

IMO, elementals should be weak to stuff appropriate to the element, rather than a single special material. Pouring water on a fire elemental would extinguish it (as would smothering, vacuums, and cold damage), air elementals could be captured inside airtight containers (such as bags and bottles), water elementals could be absorbed by absorbent materials, lightning elementals could be defeated by planting an iron rod in the ground near it (the elemental is conducted through the rod and its essence discharged harmlessly into the dirt), cold/ice elementals are dissipated by heat/fire (including boiling water), acid elementals are neutralized by alkali substances (also diluted by exposure to water, or dispersed by immersion in non-acidic liquid), and so on. Obviously, most of those wouldn't be insta-kills (unless you completely immersed the elemental in its weakness), but would instead deal a bunch of damage.

tl:dr: Each elemental type gets its own weaknesses.

None of that's really a weapon-usable special material, so while it should all work, that's not exactly in scope.

[Knaight]

For spirits, some kind of wood. Maybe yew? Hawthorn? Kind of depends on the tone you were wanting to go for.

Willow comes up semi-frequently, mostly in and near China. I'd also note that mercury was frequently associated with magic, particularly attempts for immortality, and can be relevant here. Plus, it's an interesting metal for a number of reasons, even if pure mercury weapons have some obvious functionality problems.

That said, I'd be tempted to use glass here. It doesn't have the grounding in mythology, but something about it just feels fitting,

[Socksy]

Perhaps Jade for spirits?

The Dresden Files' fey are pretty great if you're looking for traditional mixed with other sources of awesome.

[Slipperychicken]

None of that's really a weapon-usable special material, so while it should all work, that's not exactly in scope.

The point was partly to argue against having special weapon materials for elementals, because they already have weaknesses baked into the concept. It might work to have weapons made out of an opposite element, though.

[NichG]

From a worldbuilding perspective it'd be neat to have a general rule which determines what is vulnerable to what, so that players can actually reason it out. For example:

- All planes belong to a Greater Realm and a Lesser Realm. The Greater Realm is things like 'Inner Plane, Outer Plane, Transitive, Prime Material'. The Lesser Realm is stuff that is idiosyncratic to each Greater Realm, such as 'Fire' for an Inner Plane, Chaotic Good for an Outer Plane, a particular prime plane for the Prime Material, etc. It'd also be neat to have 'Moon' or 'Sun' or 'Star' or 'World' or whatever associations somewhere - maybe the Astral?

- Physical materials are formed by a pair of Lesser Realms from two different Greater Realms not directly connected by a Transitive plane. Metals are Inner Planes + Outer Planes hybrids, stones are Inner Planes + Prime Material hybrids, living matter is Outer Planes + Prime Material hybrids, etc.

- Creature types are determined in the same way. Most 'living things' have Positive as one of their two factors. A lycanthrope is a Positive-Moon creature; a humanoid is Positive-Prime creature. A fire elemental is a Ethereal-Fire creature.

- Creatures are Vulnerable to a material that shares a factor that is non-native to the Greater Realm they are encountered on, because that material 'cuts' an extraplanar part of their being in addition to cutting their local form. As a result, they take additional damage from such things. A material that has the opposite of one of their factors is Repellant to them - they must make a Will save or be held at bay by it.

So for example, we could reason that silver is Moon-Earth, and that vampires have Negative-Sun (they're directly hurt by sunlight, and repelled by moon-associated things e.g. mirrors).