What do the wardstones actually do?

[juballa]

We're told they prevent demons from crossing the barrier. Presumably, they also prevent demonic magic, such as teleport.

But we're also told that demons can get through (in the fluff for the Exposed to Awfulness trait, WotR Player's Guide p 6).

Are we ever told the mechanics for attempting to cross? Or what happens when a demon tries?

What happens if you put a demon in a sealed box and put that box on a wagon and drive it across the wardstone border?

[captain yesterday]

its all written in the wardstone artifact entry in the inner sea world guide.
i think (don't have book in front of me) it prevents demonic teleportation and causes physical damage to demons (a bunch too) thats why its only super powerful demons like khorammzadeh that try to get next to it to break it.

i could be wrong to or forgetting exact details:)

[Karui Kage]

captain yesterday wrote:

its all written in the wardstone artifact entry in the inner sea world guide.

i think (don't have book in front of me) it prevents demonic teleportation and causes physical damage to demons (a bunch too) thats why its only super powerful demons like khorammzadeh that try to get next to it to break it.

i could be wrong to or forgetting exact details:)

They're found in the Inner Sea Primer, shown here.

[juballa]

Karui Kage wrote:

They're found in the Inner Sea Primer, shown here.

Cool, thanks for the link.

That doesn't sound as... forbidding as I expected, I guess.

[NobodysHome]

Huh. I always thought they were like citronella candles for demons. Didn't know they had a write-up.

[Deadmanwalking]

They keep away most Demons most of the time. It's an average of 42 damage even if you make both saves and have enough movement to make it through in two turns (neither will be universal for most Demons), and at CL 20, it gets through the vast majority of Demons' SR casually.

It doesn't stop a really powerful (or lucky) demon or two from getting through, but it keeps the hordes at bay.

[Bellona]

There's something wrong with that Archive of Nethys entry. For one thing, the Inner Sea Primer (from the Player Companion line of products) does not have even 100 pages, let alone 301+. The source should be listed as the Inner Sea World Guide (from the Campaign Setting line of products).

And according to JJ, the wardstones were retconned a bit between The Demon Within module (3.5) and the final version (PF).

[Karui Kage]

Indeed. Hmm, quite odd, seems like for some reason the artifacts all got tagged as the Primer and not the WG. Weird. Well, I fixed that, so should display fine now.

[The Rot Grub]

I just read the description linked-to above and have a question because I'm GMing Volume 1 for my groups.

Spoiler for Volume 1:

Spoiler:

I don't have Volume 1 in front of me, but I thought that the forbiddance field was weakened and the demons were able to pour through, because the Kenabres wardstone was damaged but not destroyed? So that the party's reason for wanting to destroy the wardstone was not only to prevent the demons from reversing the energy of the wardstone to kill many crusaders, but also to "fix" the field by preventing a damaged wardstone from "spoiling" the forbiddance field?

[Karui Kage]

Spoiler:

I'm not sure about that spoiling bit. As far as I can tell, the primary number one reason for taking out the wardstone is because they're worried about the demons corrupting it and using it against them. Irabeth says this pretty flatly in the flavor text. I don't think the forbiddence field could even partially be existing for that singular wardstone anymore, they have dretches (one of the weakest demons) in the same building as it that are suffering no negative effects.

I think Irabeth and the master librarian fully understand that destroying the wardstone will negate the field entirely, but they consider it an acceptable loss.