In my opinion, not more ridiculous than that the stake has to be wooden in general lore.
Depends ...
Im not sure if there is any reason explained in DnD lore, but i presume they took this from general folklore (or at least as inspiration) ... reason people used wood (at least in Slavic folklore, as far as i know, feel free to corect me if you have better source) was that dried willow bark was often used for healing against pain.
So people kinda logicaly presumed that wood have some "natural" power to soothe, and heal ...
There are also some sources (yes still talking about slavic folklore) that claim certain wood have power to soothe magic, willow is prime example of them, since that one is strongest.
Also, it would be most likely silly to spend valuable Iron (or Steel) for something so trivial as stakes.
Especialy since people in Slavic history were often burried with the stake in their heart, so logicaly, the more common material the better.
But i see what you mean.
Obviously I haven't tried it, but I would make the assumption that a metal stake would pierce a heart just as easily if not more...
Most likely ... question is if the "piercing the organ" is source of the damage.
I mean ...
We dont quite know how this even work ... Vampire heart dont even beat anymore, so why piercing it (no matter what you will use to do that) even have so destructive effect? Will it have same effect if you would make vampire explode? If you would burn the heart? If you would remove it from the body without piercing it?
And if so ... why?
If i would be allowed to present some headcannon ... i dare to presume that stake through heart is primarily symbolic ... you can imagine it as some part of long forgotten ritual, rest of which has not been preserved ... but this part was the most important.
Or you can find your own explanation ofcourse ... that is one of beauty of headcannons.
I'm not that much traversed in Forgotten Realms vampire lore but I guess that the resting place part somehow adheres to you giving them their final rest?
Dunno ...
I presumed its just bcs that is the place where Vampire will certainly rest during the day ... so, while they rest ... and therefore are incapacitated ... and therefore cant fight back ... you dont find better opourtunity to easily destroy it than right then and right there.
Could be wrong tho.
as has been established in the immersion thread, immersion is not high on your priority list
This is actualy interesting information (and kinda sad, if that impression is the outcome) since immersion is pretty high on my priorities, one could almost say its on the top ...
I just have a little different approach to it than Niara (and many others as it seems).
Anyway ...
I believe lore integrity is the therm you were looking for here ... immersion seem to be a little different topic ...
In my opinion exactly this is what happens, when player who have monsters learned try to metagame using that knowledge ... but GM is homebrewing (or just slightly alterning, to not be so dramatic) things to make that impossible to them.
In other words, i believe situations like this are exactly the reaspon Rule Zero was created for.
In other words...this will be yet another area where you will have to agree to disagree.
Yup, thats quite possible ...
But we could dismiss any discusion with that, couldnt we?
//Edit:
Not sure if official, but I believe the "stake" must be wood because it is/was alive.
Good point!
I completely forgot about that one. :-/ Silly me ...
Its basicaly the same reason why Druids dont use any metal armor. Isnt it?
