I have spent the past few years developing an immunity to iocaine powder. Very useful dealing with Sicilians when death is on the line.
Otherwise, much as people hate on dragonborn, that elemental immunity can be useful. It’s tough because so many are situational/ campaign dependent. A resistance that could be life saving in one campaign could be useless in another.
So maybe I’d go with fire as a general purpose. Sooner or later, someone’s going to fireball you.
Personally, for me, I like the Monk abilities, immunity to Poison and Disease, able to shrug off Frightened and Charmed (MOST times) and eventually proficiencies in ALL saves and the ability to reroll a failure at low cost.
Second place would have to be Paladins, with their immunity to disease and an aura to boost saves AND share that boost with nearby party members is pretty useful.
Anything that offers a resistance or immunity o stuff can be really helpful though, but will depend on your DM using such effects to be of any use. I play a Monk and our DM frequently forgets some perks my character has (Air Genasi, so unending breath sometimes negates effects too) and I get to ignore something going on. He has also at times, put in situations where my Monk is the ideal choice to address the problem, due to his abilities. Long story short, any benefit your character has, the value will be directly related to how often your DM throws HAT thing at you.
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Talk to your Players.Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
My favorites are the ones that are thematically appropriate and reinforce the character concept. Don't just add the crowd favorite to your homebrew so people will like it better. It needs to make sense.
My favorites are the ones that are thematically appropriate and reinforce the character concept. Don't just add the crowd favorite to your homebrew so people will like it better. It needs to make sense.
This is a little off topic. I'm not just trying to add "the crowd favorite," I want to hear some of the personal opinions on immunities and resistances and see which ones are functional and if some can reflect my homebrew, or maybe learn something about immunities and resistances that would help make a decision; that's why I asked this particular question for the thread.
My favorites are the ones that are thematically appropriate and reinforce the character concept. Don't just add the crowd favorite to your homebrew so people will like it better. It needs to make sense.
My favourites are those that fit a theme well without being unbalancing for the intended overall design. So very context driven.
Again, the subject is "what are your top 5 favorite immunities or resistances"; you two are opinionating about what you think immunities and resistance ought to be, not what specific immunities or resistances you like.
My favorites are the ones that are thematically appropriate and reinforce the character concept. Don't just add the crowd favorite to your homebrew so people will like it better. It needs to make sense.
My favourites are those that fit a theme well without being unbalancing for the intended overall design. So very context driven.
Again, the subject is "what are your top 5 favorite immunities or resistances"; you two are opinionating about what you think immunities and resistance ought to be, not what specific immunities or resistances you like.
"Too context specific to answer" is an answer. It may not be the answer you want to hear, but that does not make it less an answer.
But it's irrelevant to the subject of the thread: this thread isn't about the immunity/resistance design in general, it's about what particular immunities and resistances people personally like. Maybe if you gave an example of a specific immunity or resistance you like and then explained why you like it (being context driven), then it would be relevant to the thread.
These things really do tend to be campaign dependent. Psychic resistance could be your best friend or never come up. Aura of Warding depends on how many enemy spell casters who focus on damaging spells you encounter.
My favorite is probably the resistance to bludgeoning/piercing/slashing from barbarian rage. Rages are limited use so you need to think about when you want to use it. The physical damage types are ubiquitous enough that it's rare to have an adventuring day they don't shop up in your enemy's arsenal. And by mixing in magic damage types, you can allow it to be useful as a DM without it basically halving all damage outpout. (I'm honestly not a fan that bear totem barbarian gets resistance to everything but psychic.)
It's consistently useful without being too much of a headach for the DM to balance damage output, to allow it to be powerful and useful frequently without breaking the game.
My favorite immunities and resistances are ones that require some thinking to overcome. The demilich has a unique resistance to BPS damage from MAGICAL weapons. The shadow mastiff has a similar resistance to nonmagical BPS damage while in dim light or darkness, which makes illumination a key strategy. Some homebrew monsters of mine have even more specific resistances. My phane homebrew (a time-traveling monster) regenerates health unless damage is dealt by a weapon crafted in an alternate timeline. I'm also a fan of resistances that are bypassed by specific metals, like silver (for devils), adamantine, or cold iron (for old-school fey).
From a mechanical standpoint my top 6 resistances / immunities are:
Bludgeoning
Piercing
Slashing
Poison
Charm
Disease
Sadly I’ve only ever played a character with one of those one time. Somehow I never play characters with those ones.
Thank you, you are the first person in the past 3 days since this thread was made to actually give a simple straightforward opinion on the subject.
To be honest, your question doesn't lend itself to straightforward answers. Immunities and resistances just aren't mechanically interesting. You halve or ignore damage. That's pretty boring, in and of itself. What makes them interesting is when you provide context of why you are resistant to that damage. Dwarves being resistant to poison due to their high constitution and general resilience is an interesting one because it provides flavour and depth to the character.
Whack that same resistance onto a Human, a Gnome or other random race, and it becomes a flat, boring and interesting ability that is pretty useless as well. Resistances are only as useful as the campaign permits - a campaign that has a lot of poison-damage enemies will make that poison resistance really useful. In most campaigns, it may never even come up.
Resistances are so context dependent, whether you're going for flavour or utility, that getting a definitive answer for top 5 is pretty much impossible for anyone that understands the game.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
First, I am going to agree with those saying that, for damage resistance/immunity, there is no way to differentiate because they all do the same thing against different damage types, which may or may not be present in your campaign. You might say "fire damage is more common!", which is true, unless you're playing a campaign in a frozen tundra, or underwater, in which case fire resistance sucks, because you don't use it.
This leads to the conclusion that these things only gain traction when they are used out of combat:
Fire immunity/resistance has come up at a fair when there was a fire-walk challenge, which was quite fun.
Poison immunity came up in a trap where the corridor was full of poisonous mist, and the yuan-ti just walked through it (then proceeded to solve evry other bit in record time, without following the traps design at all).
There's also being immune to surprise if you rage as a barbarian, which is cool, and that sort of thing. I honestly prefer the unique ones to the mundane, because they come up less often but have a greater effect. Things like:
advantage against being grappled (IE resistance to grappling)
resistance/immunity to charm
immunity to surprise
etc.
But I am 100% behind things being thematic - a race of tall, fat toad creatures being reistant to grappling makes less sense than them being resistant or immune to poison from things they eat. And adding those caveats (immune to poison from ingested stuff, resistant to fire when inside their shell, immune to cold when not wearing armour) makes them much more interesting than just "resistant to fire".
It is worth considering the "value" of resistance in homebrew, as fire resistance is quite common, and necrotic or force resistance is quite rare. Similarly, the damages themselves are of comparable rarity. Resistance to Necrotic is worth more than resistance to fire, as fire resistance is factored for in the rarity of the damage.
What are your favorite immunities or resistances (Including all types e.g., Monk's Timeless body)? First to last
Based on what criteria?
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Criteria? I guess based on usefulness or how much you like them from personal experience.
I have spent the past few years developing an immunity to iocaine powder. Very useful dealing with Sicilians when death is on the line.
Otherwise, much as people hate on dragonborn, that elemental immunity can be useful. It’s tough because so many are situational/ campaign dependent. A resistance that could be life saving in one campaign could be useless in another.
So maybe I’d go with fire as a general purpose. Sooner or later, someone’s going to fireball you.
Personally, for me, I like the Monk abilities, immunity to Poison and Disease, able to shrug off Frightened and Charmed (MOST times) and eventually proficiencies in ALL saves and the ability to reroll a failure at low cost.
Second place would have to be Paladins, with their immunity to disease and an aura to boost saves AND share that boost with nearby party members is pretty useful.
Anything that offers a resistance or immunity o stuff can be really helpful though, but will depend on your DM using such effects to be of any use. I play a Monk and our DM frequently forgets some perks my character has (Air Genasi, so unending breath sometimes negates effects too) and I get to ignore something going on. He has also at times, put in situations where my Monk is the ideal choice to address the problem, due to his abilities. Long story short, any benefit your character has, the value will be directly related to how often your DM throws HAT thing at you.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
My favorites are the ones that are thematically appropriate and reinforce the character concept. Don't just add the crowd favorite to your homebrew so people will like it better. It needs to make sense.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
I personally am immune to milk, bee stings, and all food allergies. I am resistant to alcohol.
I am vunerable to cat dander, pollen, and allopurinal.
This is a little off topic. I'm not just trying to add "the crowd favorite," I want to hear some of the personal opinions on immunities and resistances and see which ones are functional and if some can reflect my homebrew, or maybe learn something about immunities and resistances that would help make a decision; that's why I asked this particular question for the thread.
Again, the subject is "what are your top 5 favorite immunities or resistances"; you two are opinionating about what you think immunities and resistance ought to be, not what specific immunities or resistances you like.
But it's irrelevant to the subject of the thread: this thread isn't about the immunity/resistance design in general, it's about what particular immunities and resistances people personally like. Maybe if you gave an example of a specific immunity or resistance you like and then explained why you like it (being context driven), then it would be relevant to the thread.
From a mechanical standpoint my top 6 resistances / immunities are:
Sadly I’ve only ever played a character with one of those one time. Somehow I never play characters with those ones.
Professional computer geek
Thank you, you are the first person in the past 3 days since this thread was made to actually give a simple straightforward opinion on the subject.
These things really do tend to be campaign dependent. Psychic resistance could be your best friend or never come up. Aura of Warding depends on how many enemy spell casters who focus on damaging spells you encounter.
My favorite is probably the resistance to bludgeoning/piercing/slashing from barbarian rage. Rages are limited use so you need to think about when you want to use it. The physical damage types are ubiquitous enough that it's rare to have an adventuring day they don't shop up in your enemy's arsenal. And by mixing in magic damage types, you can allow it to be useful as a DM without it basically halving all damage outpout. (I'm honestly not a fan that bear totem barbarian gets resistance to everything but psychic.)
It's consistently useful without being too much of a headach for the DM to balance damage output, to allow it to be powerful and useful frequently without breaking the game.
My favorite immunities and resistances are ones that require some thinking to overcome. The demilich has a unique resistance to BPS damage from MAGICAL weapons. The shadow mastiff has a similar resistance to nonmagical BPS damage while in dim light or darkness, which makes illumination a key strategy. Some homebrew monsters of mine have even more specific resistances. My phane homebrew (a time-traveling monster) regenerates health unless damage is dealt by a weapon crafted in an alternate timeline. I'm also a fan of resistances that are bypassed by specific metals, like silver (for devils), adamantine, or cold iron (for old-school fey).
Helpful rewriter of Japanese->English translation and delver into software codebases (she/e/they)
To be honest, your question doesn't lend itself to straightforward answers. Immunities and resistances just aren't mechanically interesting. You halve or ignore damage. That's pretty boring, in and of itself. What makes them interesting is when you provide context of why you are resistant to that damage. Dwarves being resistant to poison due to their high constitution and general resilience is an interesting one because it provides flavour and depth to the character.
Whack that same resistance onto a Human, a Gnome or other random race, and it becomes a flat, boring and interesting ability that is pretty useless as well. Resistances are only as useful as the campaign permits - a campaign that has a lot of poison-damage enemies will make that poison resistance really useful. In most campaigns, it may never even come up.
Resistances are so context dependent, whether you're going for flavour or utility, that getting a definitive answer for top 5 is pretty much impossible for anyone that understands the game.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
First, I am going to agree with those saying that, for damage resistance/immunity, there is no way to differentiate because they all do the same thing against different damage types, which may or may not be present in your campaign. You might say "fire damage is more common!", which is true, unless you're playing a campaign in a frozen tundra, or underwater, in which case fire resistance sucks, because you don't use it.
This leads to the conclusion that these things only gain traction when they are used out of combat:
There's also being immune to surprise if you rage as a barbarian, which is cool, and that sort of thing. I honestly prefer the unique ones to the mundane, because they come up less often but have a greater effect. Things like:
etc.
But I am 100% behind things being thematic - a race of tall, fat toad creatures being reistant to grappling makes less sense than them being resistant or immune to poison from things they eat. And adding those caveats (immune to poison from ingested stuff, resistant to fire when inside their shell, immune to cold when not wearing armour) makes them much more interesting than just "resistant to fire".
It is worth considering the "value" of resistance in homebrew, as fire resistance is quite common, and necrotic or force resistance is quite rare. Similarly, the damages themselves are of comparable rarity. Resistance to Necrotic is worth more than resistance to fire, as fire resistance is factored for in the rarity of the damage.
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
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