Monster Brainstorm

[Dr paradox]

So, I've been puzzling over this.

Skeletons are resistant to slashing and piercing, but not bludgeoning.

Zombies are resistant to piercing and bludgeoning, but not slashing.

What sort of monster would be resistant to slashing and bludgeoning, but not piercing?

The closest thing I can think of is some kind of half-filled balloon, but wouldn't that still be vulnerable to slashing?

Help me answer this dumb question!

[JNAProductions]

Chainmail?

[War_lord]

Some sort of soft skinned creature with incredibility thick armored plates, which can only be attacked by stabbing the fine gaps between.

[Braininthejar2]

[Cluedrew]

Something with an almost invulnerable shell that has holes in it. I suppose you could poke a slashing weapon through as if it were a piercing weapon.

[J-H]

Sand golems and ooze based creatures. Mud based creatures.

[Kitten Champion]

Any creature with eyes, basically. You can have armor-like skin and shock-resistant bones that capably fend off any slashing and bashing attacks aimed your way, but your eyes are still going to be squishy things that something as straightforward as an arrow can go into.

Or...



Something like this, with enough pliant mass that bashing attacks are absorbed easily and slashing attacks lose most of their angular momentum as they're enveloped by the creature's thick mass, but piercing attacks can slip through into the internal organs.

[Knaight]

The shell with gaps and the thick mass of padding (fat, vegetable fibers, or just lots and lots of fur) are the two obvious cases. However, damage resistance is sometimes used for near instantaneous and highly limited regeneration - and piercing weapons tend to stay in location just a bit longer than the other two. Something that seals a wound from a sword as it passes through might not work against a spear tip that's still there, and then the window closes and the wound stays.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Some sort of soft skinned creature with incredibility thick armored plates, which can only be attacked by stabbing the fine gaps between.

Dire armadillo.

Maybe turtles, ankylosaurs, glyptodons and such as well. But the reasoning that lead to that might give piercing weapons an advantage in any situation where you need to aim past armor, so probably not.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Chainmail?

Some sort of undead wrapped in chains (or chicken gauze/wire mesh/how it's supposed to be called), maybe made from drowned sailors and anchor lines?

[Jay R]

Somebody in full plate, with easy access to the gaps under plates. Fiore di Liberi's 15th century manual shows how to attack a man in plate, and almost everything is a thrust.

[ShikomeKidoMi]

Something made out of tough rubbery material but with vulnerable organs deep inside. Some of the types of Demodand come to mind as do some of the weirder oozes (though most of them lack organs you can stab).

[Lord Torath]

Chainmail?

No. Chainmail turns everything into a blunt weapon. It provides good protection from slashing, some protection from piercing, but almost no protection from bludgeoning.

Maybe an armored slug? Slugs are immune to blunt, and armor plates could provide resistance to slashing, leaving only piercing effective.

[8BitNinja]

A stegosaurus?

[Segev]

A really thick-skinned, blubbery creature. Bludgeon it, and it jiggles a bit. Slash it and you can do superficial damage, but you aren't getting through that hide. Make it have thick, coarse hair (the kind really furry dogs use to be water-resistant) and that would also cause slashing weapons to expend their energy on the hair rather than the flesh beneath.

But a good piercing weapon goes THROUGH, rather than trying to cut open.

[8BitNinja]

A really thick-skinned, blubbery creature. Bludgeon it, and it jiggles a bit. Slash it and you can do superficial damage, but you aren't getting through that hide. Make it have thick, coarse hair (the kind really furry dogs use to be water-resistant) and that would also cause slashing weapons to expend their energy on the hair rather than the flesh beneath.

But a good piercing weapon goes THROUGH, rather than trying to cut open.

I got you covered

[Dr paradox]

So, I think my takeaway from this thread is that the reason there aren't really many D&D monsters that are vulnerable to piercing damage is that creatures that work like that are too cute to want to fight. Good to know.

[Koo Rehtorb]

Dire Balloons was the answer my group came up with ten years ago when we asked this question.

[Bohandas]

edit: wrong thread. that's what comes of too many tabs open

[Bohandas]

Something armored with irregularly shaped unjoined plates.