[RPG] Does a Disintegrated Demon still reform in the Abyss

dnd-5emonsters

The Spell Disintegrate states that

A disintegrated creature and everything it is wearing and carrying, except Magic Items, are reduced to a pile of fine gray dust. The creature can be restored to life only by means of a True Resurrection or a wish spell.

And a Demon does this when it dies:

…the fiend dissolves into foul ichor. It then instantly reforms in the Abyss, its mind and essence intact.

How do these two effects interact? Does being "reduced to a pile of fine gray dust" effectively destroy the Demon for good? Or is it still a Demon and not a pile of fine gray dust and still capable of reforming in the Abyss?

Best Answer

It's up to the DM.

Usually, we would apply the specific-beats-general rule to work out contradictions:

If a specific rule contradicts a general rule, the specific rule wins.

The trouble here is that both Demons and the disintegrate spell present specific contradictions to what generally happens when a creature dies. They are both specific rules. Here is the general rule for NPC creature death:

Most DMs have a monster die the instant it drops to 0 hit points, rather than having it fall unconscious and make death saving throws.

Mighty villains and special nonplayer characters are common exceptions; the DM might have them fall unconscious and follow the same rules as player characters.

This is the general rule. The creature dies, and there are no restrictions on resurrection, the body is just a body, etc. The usual, expected stuff when you stab something to death.

Demons create an exception. Instead of just dying and leaving a corpse, we see, in the section Eternal Evil:

Outside the Abyss, death is a minor nuisance that no demon fears. Mundane weapons can’t stop these fiends, and many demons are resistant to the energy of the most potent spells. When a lucky hero manages to drop a demon in combat, the fiend dissolves into foul ichor. It then instantly reforms in the Abyss, its mind and essence intact even as its hatred is inflamed. The only way to truly destroy a demon is to seek it in the Abyss and kill it there.

Disintegrate also creates an exception to the general rule, but creates a contradiction when used on demons:

A disintegrated creature and everything it is wearing and carrying, except magic items, are reduced to a pile of fine gray dust. The creature can be restored to life only by means of a true resurrection or a wish spell.

Because these are both specific rules that contradict the general rules for dying, one cannot clearly be seen to be more "specific" and the other more "general". These are both specific rules that contradict one another. It is up to the DM to decide how this works.