The notion of the Slayer has been compared to the equivalent of a Demonic "Boogey-Man", incredibly feared and considered by most to be essentially unconquerable.
[2] Pender goes on to discuss the "struggle to balance the demands of her supernatural duties as the Slayer and her desire to live what she sees as a normal teenage life.
As several critics have pointed out, this struggle literalises the challenges many, if not all, adolescents experience when negotiating their entry into the adult world".
[2] Cynthia Fuchs similarly says Buffy's character brought an understanding of teenage life, but that her "'secret identity' as the slayer exacerbates such ordeals and dreams.
[4] This process granted the girl great strength, speed, agility, reflexes, healing, endurance and psychic abilities, though it cost her her sanity and connection to humanity.
The Shadow Men's descendants went on to form the Watchers' Council, an organization dedicated to finding, training, and supporting Slayers.
Consequently, the Shadow Men's spell also created a large number of Potential Slayers—normal girls around the world who may one day be called.
The Watcher's Council tries to identify and train these "Potentials" before they are called, locating some as babies, but are not always able to do so, with some girls only being found after they have been activated as the Slayer.
[5] Willow Rosenberg uses magic to tap into the Scythe's essence at Buffy's request, and performs a spell that calls every living Potential Slayer at once, thus ending the legacy of "one girl in all the world".
[7] After taking the time to find and count them, Buffy states that there are at least 1800 Slayers in the world, 500 of whom are working with the Scooby Gang.
[9] In the far future, demons eventually find a way to return to Earth's dimension, and the next Slayer is finally called—a girl named Melaka Fray.
Buffy Summers, for instance, has been shown to lift, with great effort, a metal portcullis which an entire group of people were unable to budge.
[12] Buffy has been recorded throwing human-sized subjects sizable distances[13] and casually lifting steel girders used in construction building[14] During a fight, Faith Lehane is able to pick up the vampire Angel with one hand and easily throw him across a room, then lift him over her head and slam him into the ceiling.
Angel also remarked in "Sanctuary" that Buffy is "a little bit stronger" than he is, though the humorous tenor of the exchange suggests he may have been understating the difference.
The Slayer's strength appears to be largely metaphysical, as it does not seem to add to their body mass and they remain buoyant enough to swim.
Melaka Fray is able to pick up an overweight vampire several times her own size and body mass, lift him up over her head with both hands and throw him over a distance of presumably over 20–25 feet, with no downward arc to his trajectory (which was only interrupted due to his hitting a metal grate, which was extensively deformed on impact).
Buffy has been shown snatching a crossbow bolt in mid-flight,[19] dodging gunfire from multiple ranges and setting off a bear trap, but not getting caught in it.
[23] A Slayer's body is substantially more durable and resistant to blunt force trauma than an ordinary human's and there is evidence of an incredibly high pain tolerance.
[26] Buffy can leap from a window with a man in her arms, landing on the ground and letting her body take the brunt of the fall.
[10] Faith has fallen from a height of three stories on top of a closed dumpster, rolled off it to hit the ground and got up immediately with no signs of damage;[15] she also was able to hold her own in a fight with Buffy less than 24 hours after waking from a nine-month coma[16]—a coma which she entered after surviving a deep stab wound to the abdomen immediately followed by a fall from the top of a multi-story building into a moving truck.
For instance, Buffy has been knocked out by blunt force trauma, such as being hit over the head with a lead pipe by a possessed Cordelia Chase in "Bad Eggs" and with a detached mannequin arm by Ethan Rayne in "The Dark Age", and was also rendered unconscious when Drusilla jolted her with a cattle prod in "Crush".
Usually, Buffy is completely healed within 24 hours of being injured, though more serious injuries have been shown to take at least a few days,[29] and Slayers can receive scars.
[30] Buffy has survived contact with a live electrical wire; the normally lethal jolt simply renders her unconscious and melts her shoe soles.
[31] The Slayer also appears to have a heightened immune system: Buffy is depicted as almost never getting sick, aside from contracting the flu during a period of great emotional stress.
In the course of the entire timeline, The Slayer has always instantly been acknowledged as the leader and the final decision maker, superseding even that of the Watchers.
[22] A "normal" workout routine that would enhance a regular human's strength and speed increases her abilities much faster and at greater magnitude.
[38] Recently in Season Eight, Buffy has gained a multitude of new powers: her strength, speed, agility, and reflexes have been greatly enhanced, and she has also developed telescopic vision, superhuman hearing, flight, and a level of invulnerability.
Swords, axes, and knives are the most common implements used for dispatching demons, though other melee weapons (generally of medieval European design) are also used.
The Scythe is a weapon resembling a metal lochaber axe with a wooden stake and a flanged mace head built into the handle.
It is during Fray's time as Slayer that the Scythe was destroyed; during a confrontation with a time-displaced Buffy Summers, the latter smashed it clean in two with a backhanded punch.