In one of my recent games, my players were attacking scarecrows which, according to their stat block (Monster Manual page 268) have damage vulnerabilities to fire, resistances to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons, and damage immunity to poison. I am aware that damage vulnerabilities require double damage and resistances do only half of the damage rolled. I was wondering how exactly to narrate to my players that the monster they are fighting is only taking some damage from slashing weapons and no poison damage without flat out telling them the monster's vulnerabilities, resistances, etc. Or would it be better to just flat out tell them?
I tend to be more explicit with resistance/immunity then with vulnerabilities, because if you do extra damage but don't notice you're still getting a nice bonus, but if you're only doing half of what you expect (or less) and don't notice it's a nasty surprise and can feel cheep. So I'll be flavorful with my descriptions (see excellent suggestions from previous replies) but if I have any indication my players missed the point I will flat out say "They only took half damage from that hit."
In one of my recent games, my players were attacking scarecrows which, according to their stat block (Monster Manual page 268) have damage vulnerabilities to fire, resistances to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons, and damage immunity to poison. I am aware that damage vulnerabilities require double damage and resistances do only half of the damage rolled. I was wondering how exactly to narrate to my players that the monster they are fighting is only taking some damage from slashing weapons and no poison damage without flat out telling them the monster's vulnerabilities, resistances, etc. Or would it be better to just flat out tell them?
I usually just say "your attack seems to do less damage than you expect it to"
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"The blow seemed to leave nothing but a scratch." "A mortal strike to any other foe but this creature almost seemed to not notice the hit."
"The fire continued to smolder for longer than usual." "Your wild grazing swipe sent the monster reeling back in agony."
The second example for each works really well when the player has rolled high or low for their damage.
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InsiderI tend to be more explicit with resistance/immunity then with vulnerabilities, because if you do extra damage but don't notice you're still getting a nice bonus, but if you're only doing half of what you expect (or less) and don't notice it's a nasty surprise and can feel cheep. So I'll be flavorful with my descriptions (see excellent suggestions from previous replies) but if I have any indication my players missed the point I will flat out say "They only took half damage from that hit."
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