[Dungeon Fantasy] My attempt at a "standard demonic footsoldier" template

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by Anthony

The best way to make the 'know weakness' skills on the holy warrior useful is by giving demons random traits that can be determined with an appropriate hidden lore or physiology check, but not by going "this is a demon just like all the other demons we've fought".

Maybe not entirely random—I'd think there should be some connection between a demon's weaknesses and its other abilities. Which really calls for quite a few different demons, rather than single "standard" one.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

Maybe not entirely random—I'd think there should be some connection between a demon's weaknesses and its other abilities.

Maybe, but you want to make it so the players cannot easily determine via player knowledge what the weaknesses or resistances are, or you devalue the character ability (this is a general problem with trick monsters -- when Herakles ran into the hydra he had a puzzle to solve, but when modern PCs run into a hydra they already know the solution).

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

Maybe not entirely random—I'd think there should be some connection between a demon's weaknesses and its other abilities. Which really calls for quite a few different demons, rather than single "standard" one.

You could toss in specific details that alter the weaknesses slightly. For example, perhaps holy water is always treated as acid against demons, but it's possible with a quick blessing (a free action - basically an invocation you make as you're throwing the flask) to alter it to be more effective against specific demons. Maybe a demon of greed suffers additional damage from a blessing of charity, while a demon of lust is instead more susceptible to holy water that has been given a blessing of chastity. It takes an expert to recognize exactly which variety of demon you're up against, as well as to know the specific blessing to enhance the effect - this basically works out to a successful skill roll at the start of combat (to identify the demon) allowing you to make your holy water more effective against them. On the demon's side, arguably this additional weakness is already covered by Variable, but if you really want to account for it, you could give them a Rare Weakness to holy water that is thus-blessed (still with Reduced Time and Variable), with the damage of both Weaknesses stacking.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Terror [30] is only likely to be useful if used before combat actually starts - if the demon sneaks up on the party, or the two blunder into each other unexpectedly. Don't forget, you get a +5 to Fright Checks if you're in combat, which means at the [30] level anyone with effective Will 8 or higher will be at or above the cap of 13, with a ~84% chance to resist.

The Rule of 14 still applies in combat. That means if you have, say, three fighters being hit with Terror, it's only 59% that they all resist, so you have a decent chance of getting rid of one of them.