Quote:
Originally Posted by Skarg
* As written, it seems to me spells affect demons normally (and the new rules give them lower IQ, making them more vulnerable to some spells), though a GM might rule the part about them attacking people who cast spells on them is part of their magical nature and overrules spells used to attempt to control them.
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In the session I ran last night, that was essentially the ruling I made -- the magical nature of demons, combined with their extreme reaction to having spells cast on them particularly precludes magical control. So this rules out Control Person, Geas, Possession (although that does have a nice irony to it), and Word of Command, Persuasion, etc. Any other one-shot disable / kill spells, like The Little Death don't work. I'd say that the Death Spell would work though, if you happen to have a high enough ST at the time of casting because, well, at least there's some fairness in that.
As an in-world justification for this, there is the fact that you can't use wishes in the process of trying to gain a wish. I think this can just be extended to immunity from control and one-shot-disable spells, like having a limited, permanent spell shield. Reading just a little bit into the RAW, when you try to gain a wish you (and your group) are surrounded by an "anti-wish" field starting just before you make the IQ roll and lasting for as long as the demon is present. I'd allow a wish to be used on the DX roll to summon a demon because you haven't technically committed to what you are going to do with the demon.
Heck, why not just give who have demons a 1 minute long spell shield when someone is trying to gain a wish, anyway? Spell Shield is a legitimate magical effect, it makes sense to me that demons might have it or at least that it might be a property of the anti-wish field. I think this would not only restore wish farming to its proper level of danger but it would give heroes a chance to step in and do something a wizard couldn't do -- fight an angry demon right after the wizard messed up!
I should mention that although this is challenging, it wouldn't affect the characters farming techniques from last night because Spell Shield doesn't protect against 2 7-hex dragons. You get a character experienced enough and a lesser demon really doesn't pose much of a threat, even if it has a Spell Shield...
Anyone can keep one lesser wish in their pocket for 1 talent point, but a proliferation of lesser wishes does make things
way less challenging. We ran a test session of wish farming to see how it difficult it was with two 40-point PCs with no magical items and the Lesser Demons didn't present much of a threat at all.