Cold Iron Blues?

One of my players asked me a question that actually stumped me, so I immediately ran here for some advice. The question posed is thus: If a character changes type to fay and gains damage reduction cold iron, does just touching an item made of cold iron do damage to her? I didnt want to make an out of hand ruling so if you could help me out with this I would appreciate it.
-V-

One of my players asked me a question that actually stumped me, so I immediately ran here for some advice. The question posed is thus: If a character changes type to fay and gains damage reduction cold iron, does just touching an item made of cold iron do damage to her? I didnt want to make an out of hand ruling so if you could help me out with this I would appreciate it.

-V-

No, mechanically it has no effect if the creature simply wields an item or touches an object that bypasses it's DR. The item in question must strike the character somehow in order to deal damage.

From a roleplaying standpoint, however, I would say that fey creatures would be terribly uncomfortable around cold iron objects. The same for lycanthropes and silver.

I was thinking the same thing. My player is wielding a scimitar of cold iron but her template that she is taking, changes her into fey. She was afraid she would have to lose her weapon, but I am thinking of the role playing aspect. I am thinking that maybe I will give her a negative on reactions from NPC fey she may run into. Thanks alot Fatespinner. I guess this is why people dont just throw silver pieces at a charging lycanthrope.

-V-

Fatespinner is, naturally, correct. There is no mechanic to penalize a creature holding, or even wielding, the material that bypasses their DR.

If you want to apply something to discourage this, or to help a player roleplay reluctance to handle said items, I would suggest a temporary negative level. Akin to creatures of the opposite alignment wielding an aligned weapon.

But that is just my take on it. But in my mind, that would encourage "discomfort" in wielding said weapon - without going too far overboard.

The negative level is certainly a workable idea, but do negative levels from items (such as this or an unholy sword picked up by a paladin) cause hp loss as normal negative levels do? And you're still effectively a level lower, so it stacks with enervation to determine overall effects (including point of death from too many negative levels), right? Just curious.

Now, I can personally get behind the negative level idea- take the stance that cold iron is akin to a radioactive substance that sickens and saps the character's vitality.

There's also things like sickening that the character could have applied anytime they draw the weapon, if you didn't want to go the negative level route.

Sickened is probably a good way to handle the discomfort, if you want to run your game that way. Considering that creatures other than fey have DR bypassed by cold iron, like demons, you may want to add some minor benefit to compensate. Then again, it makes a great roleplaying hook, so you may not want to, either.

and heres a question: is she actually touching the blade when she wields it? Most weapons have wrapped grips of some sot and thus no actuall contact would be made between the character and the weapons "base metal".

just a comment

if you choose to rule out that aspect, then I would do something like 1 nonlethal everytime it is drawn or picked up.

sickened would also work from a RP perspective with things like putting manacles on certain creatures. An elf bound in cold iron. A werewoof in a silver cage. Good aligned manacles. I like it.

FH

I'm in the sickened camp as well. One does not want to actually discourage the use of the weapon to much but maybe just add a little spice. I'd do something like make the player suffer from nausea for a minute or so the first time she touches her weapon each day.

Play up the idea that just holding makes her want to disgorge the contents of her stomach and sends chills and cold sweats through her body. In game terms the player will just hold the weapon at the start of every day and get rid of the effect, and that's fine as one does not want her weapon ruined over this. Very occasionally it might actually have a game effect, say if she was ambushed in her sleep and had to roll out of bed and grab her sword without the benefit of taking tame to adjust to it.