Namely the dhampir who get the undead trait of not needing to breath. If it never breath how does that affect things like poison breath or spells like cloud kill that puts a area of poison that one breaths in and has to save against or take damage if you never breath does that make you auto save? What about some one choaking them so they can't breathe. Does that mean they don't need to make the save verses the person's grip to choak them?
It just seems daffy to say you don't need to breathe but some jack ass is trying to strangle you unconscious or you don't breathe but you walked through a cloud of floating toxins or poison that you have to inhale to breathe so make a save or you take damage. Or you under water or in a vacuum and dont need to breath
Cloudkill specifically noted that “Creatures are affected even if they hold their breath or don't need to breathe.” - presumably because the toxin touching the skin is enough to cause damage, it need not be inhaled.
Essentially it would be the same as someone trying to hold their breath, be it underwater, in an inhaled poison, etc. but without having to exert any effort (such as constitution rolls) to try and keep holding their breath. That said, there might be other factors at play which could harm the individual - the crushing pressure of water, decompression in a vacuum, etc.
Getting strangled into unconsciousness is less about not being able to breath and more about significant bloodflow being blocked to your brain. So unless you don't have blood (or other fluids running through your body) a strangle hold can still render you unconscious.
This.👆That’s why whenever someone starts strangling someone else (like a PC choking an NPC) I skip past the “holding your breath” part of the suffocation rules and go straight to the “choking” phase of things. Doing that actually maps to a realistic number of seconds for choking someone out in d&d.
So then what the heck is the point of giving creatures the ability that says you don't need to breathe? Becuase as far as I can tell it's bleeding pointless trait not needing to eat or drink is useful as far as not needing to worry about dying of thirst or hunger.
Not needing to breath is practical in situation where:
- you might drown - where you're in an area with the poison is in the air - walking through a space where it stinks horribly
The last one is brought to you by my Woodelf Druid, who used his Pennant of the Vind Rune to not have to breath in the smell of a dead Beholder Zombie.
So then what the heck is the point of giving creatures the ability that says you don't need to breathe? Becuase as far as I can tell it's bleeding pointless trait not needing to eat or drink is useful as far as not needing to worry about dying of thirst or hunger.
It means you can stay underwater indefinitely and are immune to any inhaled poisons among other things.
It also means that you can get buried alive and not die. Or stuffed inside a crate/barrel and smuggled into the BBEG's castle.
The practical applications of not needing to breathe are huge! Not getting choked out just isn't one of them. But, constructs and Warforged are typically immune to the poisoned condition and resistant to poison damage. This is likely a result of their inorganic bodies and not needing to breathe.
Warforged have only advantage on saving throws against poison.
Not needing to breathe means you can safely hide in a Bag of Holding. Great way for the Rogue to sneak your Warforged Barbarian into, say... some evil badguy's bedroom in the dead of night.
Also want to point out that not every racial feature needs to have a dozen applications. Some of them are primarily for flavor, to flesh out the distinguishing characteristics of the race through how they interact with the world. It rarely - if ever - matters in the game that monks and druids reach a point where they stop aging, but it's a powerful concept to show what they've achieved in their personal journey.
These "ribbon abilities" are only problematic when they are considered equal to more mechanical abilities for the purposes of determining mechanical balance. But in the case of dhampir and warforged, this does not seem to be the case as they are plenty strong.
Namely the dhampir who get the undead trait of not needing to breath. If it never breath how does that affect things like poison breath or spells like cloud kill that puts a area of poison that one breaths in and has to save against or take damage if you never breath does that make you auto save? What about some one choaking them so they can't breathe. Does that mean they don't need to make the save verses the person's grip to choak them?
It just seems daffy to say you don't need to breathe but some jack ass is trying to strangle you unconscious or you don't breathe but you walked through a cloud of floating toxins or poison that you have to inhale to breathe so make a save or you take damage. Or you under water or in a vacuum and dont need to breath
Cloudkill specifically noted that “Creatures are affected even if they hold their breath or don't need to breathe.” - presumably because the toxin touching the skin is enough to cause damage, it need not be inhaled.
Essentially it would be the same as someone trying to hold their breath, be it underwater, in an inhaled poison, etc. but without having to exert any effort (such as constitution rolls) to try and keep holding their breath. That said, there might be other factors at play which could harm the individual - the crushing pressure of water, decompression in a vacuum, etc.
This.👆That’s why whenever someone starts strangling someone else (like a PC choking an NPC) I skip past the “holding your breath” part of the suffocation rules and go straight to the “choking” phase of things. Doing that actually maps to a realistic number of seconds for choking someone out in d&d.
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So then what the heck is the point of giving creatures the ability that says you don't need to breathe? Becuase as far as I can tell it's bleeding pointless trait not needing to eat or drink is useful as far as not needing to worry about dying of thirst or hunger.
Not needing to breath is practical in situation where:
- you might drown
- where you're in an area with the poison is in the air
- walking through a space where it stinks horribly
The last one is brought to you by my Woodelf Druid, who used his Pennant of the Vind Rune to not have to breath in the smell of a dead Beholder Zombie.
It means you can stay underwater indefinitely and are immune to any inhaled poisons among other things.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Warforged have only advantage on saving throws against poison.
Not needing to breathe means you can safely hide in a Bag of Holding. Great way for the Rogue to sneak your Warforged Barbarian into, say... some evil badguy's bedroom in the dead of night.
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Also want to point out that not every racial feature needs to have a dozen applications. Some of them are primarily for flavor, to flesh out the distinguishing characteristics of the race through how they interact with the world. It rarely - if ever - matters in the game that monks and druids reach a point where they stop aging, but it's a powerful concept to show what they've achieved in their personal journey.
These "ribbon abilities" are only problematic when they are considered equal to more mechanical abilities for the purposes of determining mechanical balance. But in the case of dhampir and warforged, this does not seem to be the case as they are plenty strong.
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