I'm in the process of creating a few creatures with resistance to all types of magic (spells and magic weapons). However, I was curious if anyone knew of any monsters in any of the official sources that have something similar? Instead of creating the creatures from scratch, I could just modify the existing ones so that I keep most of the wording the same. However, I have yet to be able to find any creatures with resistance or immunity to magic damage. I haven't even been able to find anything that has resistance or immunity to magic weapons, so I figured I would ask you all if any of you know if something like that already exists in 5th Edition.
March 1st, 2022 EDIT: To everyone still posting on this thread in 2021 and beyond. Firstly, thank you for taking a look at one of my earlier creations. I have learned a lot about creating homebrew things since this one.
Secondly, to all of you who are criticizing me and telling others to not do this. Shame on you. You learn by doing. Some things work, others don't. It's about trial and error. You can't grow without making mistakes and learning from them. For my setting, the power scale is much higher, so creatures need to be much stronger.
I'm a much more experienced DM now than I was 4 years ago, and I can easily adjust the power level of things on the fly if I need to. Though I still very much prefer to homebrew as much of my own stuff as possible. It's fun for me, and my players have all enjoyed seeing my creations. I take all of their feedback into consideration for future ideas and adjust things to ensure they are also having fun.
So please stop assuming that I'm throwing this at a group of players who are either new to the game or that this is for some vanilla game of D&D. I run my game using a variation of the gestalt leveling system. Meaning that my players are essentially playing two classes in a single character. They love this, and the default monsters for the game tend to be way too easy for them. So I have to homebrew nearly everything I throw at them. While I have had instances of players saying they didn't enjoy a particular encounter, it has been for very minor things that were easily fixable.
To any new DMs who happen to read this and the comments: No matter what you create, have fun with it. You don't have to necessarily throw all of your creations at your players but definitely create a lot. It will help you learn how to homebrew things more easily, as well as give you a better understanding of how to balance things. Bounce ideas off of other DMs, and players. Ignore those who don't offer constructive criticism and simply tell you that "you're bad for making this". Listen to the advice of those who have been in your position, have learned from their own mistakes, and actually offer feedback on how to improve your creations. But if you're seeking advice, be sure to give as much information about your setting, as the power scale can be vastly different from game to game, DM to DM, group to group. Ultimately, as long as you and your group are all having fun, that is all that truly matters.
Many high level creatures, such as lichs and fiends, have a trait called Magic Resistance, which gives the creature advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects. Flail snails, crag cats, and the tarrasque are able to reflect certain spells. Helmed horrors and rakshasas both have limited magic immunity.
Resistance to magical weapon attacks is a highly desirable trait and is rarely given out. Few things in D&D 5e have resistance to magical attacks with plants, swarms, and topis being the exception. Then again, the plants have resistance to bludgeoning and piercing damage and the topi only has resistance to bludgeoning damage.
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
My idea was to make some of the creatures either immune or resistant to magic weapons, and only able to be damaged normally with mundane weapons. Some of the others were going to be completely immune to magic, or at least highly resistant. I totally forgot about the Tarrasque somehow. I like the idea of it being able to reflect some spells back at the caster. I might make a few creatures have that ability instead. The magic resistance trait is something I've thought about, but I'm looking specifically for something that is immune to all magic effects. Or that takes 1/4 damage instead of 1/2 damage to magic.
In all honesty, it's not that big of a deal. I was mostly curious about the wording, because I personally like to try and make things be worded as close to the official source(s) as possible. It's looking more and more like the specific things I'm looking for do not exist in any current officially published material. At least not that I've been able to find myself.
I feel like the wording could be a simple change of the common "resistance to all slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage from nonmagical weapons". Just change "nonmagical" to "magical".
I don't think there is anything (so far as I know) that can be damaged only by slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage from nonmagical weapons. I'd say it's uncommon because if it also is immune to all magical effects, your casters are going to be totally sidelined unless the wizard wants to try his hand with a dagger.
I feel like the wording could be a simple change of the common "resistance to all slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage from nonmagical weapons". Just change "nonmagical" to "magical".
I don't think there is anything (so far as I know) that can be damaged only by slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage from nonmagical weapons. I'd say it's uncommon because if it also is immune to all magical effects, your casters are going to be totally sidelined unless the wizard wants to try his hand with a dagger.
Well, I'm only making one type of creature that is immune to spells and magical effects. I know it's going to make the spellcasters feel useless at first. However, the creatures are going to have fairly low HP. So even if one of the casters can't use magic against it, they'll still have a fairly easy time killing it, provided they hit the 12 AC I'm giving the creature. I want to challenge the casters to overcome a seemingly impossible task, by relying on something other than their magic. Yes, that is the core of their class, but for roleplay purposes, I want to challenge the players themselves, as well as have the characters realize that not every solution can or should be solved with the use of magic.
I think it's a really neat idea! I may even steal it for my own campaign. I was just saying that the difficulty for spell casters may be why there aren't many (or any) official monsters with magical immunity.
I decided to use D&D Beyond's homebrew tool to attempt to create one of the creatures I had in mind. I know the CR is completely wrong, but that's because I'm not exactly sure how to go about calculating the CR for something with this many resistances.
Anyway, here is a preview of what I have so far. If anyone can provide some insight into the CR thing, that would be greatly appreciated.
Base statistics:
Abilities/traits:
Amphibious. The creature can breathe air and water.
Standing Leap. The creature's long jump is up to 45 feet and its high jump is up to 35 feet, with or without a running start.
Spellcasting. The creature is a 9th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 16, +5 to hit with spell attacks). It knows the following spells:
At will: all Wizard cantrips
1st level (4 slots): jump, shield, sleep
2nd level (3 slots): darkness, shatter, web
3rd level (3 slots): fireball, slow, dispel magic
4th level (3 slots): greater invisibility, polymorph, dimension door
5th level (1 slot): animate objects, telekinensis
Strong Magic Resistance. The creature is highly resistant to all types of magic, and has advantage on Saving Throws against Spells and other magical effects. Instead of taking half damage from magic, the creature only takes a quarter damage. Also, whenever the creature takes damage from magic, it regains half the damage as Hit Points. Immediately after regaining Hit Points this way, the creature can force the caster to make a saving throw. Depending on which kind of saving throw the creature forces the caster to make, a different effect overcomes the caster:
Strength saving throw (DC16): work in progress
Dexterity saving throw (DC16):work in progress
Constitution saving throw (DC16): On a failed save, the caster begins to violently throw up, causing any concentration spells to instantly end, and the caster is Incapacitated for 1d4 rounds. On a successful save, the caster still vomits, but they are only Poisoned for 1d4 rounds instead.
Intelligence saving throw (DC16): On a failed save, the caster becomes Stunned for 1d4 rounds. On a successful save, the caster instead becomes Restrained for 1d4 rounds.
Wisdom saving throw (DC16): On a failed save, the caster's deepest fear comes to life, rendering the caster Petrified for 1d4 rounds. On a successful save, the caster still sees it's deepest fear come to life, but they are instead Paralyzed and Frightened for 1d4 rounds.
This is just what I've been looking for. My parties Teifling Wedlock acts as though their page and a half of cantrips is the cure to everything. The only excitement they get its from choosing which cantrip they are going to use at any given time.
I'm thinking about doing this but having it gain an amount of temporary HP equal to the amount of magical damage it has taken. They will have to think outside of the box. Like throwing something at it with telekinesis. I'm thinking it will be vulnerable to physical completely non-magical attacks.
It will also put off a magical field within a half mile of it that causes wild magic to happen when a 1st level or higher spell is cast.
I would change the petrified condition from the wisdom save to paralyzed, and on a success the creature is just frightened. Being paralyzed for multiple rounds even on a success is powerful and not very fun.
Have you considered just doubling the hp and making it vulnerable to non-magical damage? I feel like that might make it a lot more fun for the players (though it would effectively do the same thing)... in addition, this leaves you free to make more specific resistances to something.
Also, the strong magic resistance trait is a little confusing... like why does it remain hp if its still taking damage? is that just to make effects that stop hp regen useful against it? is "half the damage" it regains half the original damage or half the damage it takes?
In addition, I might limit the cantrips to just a few: you do not want to be looking through every wizard cantrip every turn unless you know the rules very well. For npcs, less options make fights much easier to manage.
One more thing, make sure the players don't feel totally useless. If there is just one mage in the party this kind of thing can feel like a vindictive dm move, i don't know your table, but becoming incapacitated and/or ineffective (especially when these things take effect even when you succeeded on your save) is likely to make players feel slighted. Whatever happens be sure they have options (like, the creature is resistant to their magic but what if the environment has things that a spell could take advantage of, damaging the creature indirectly? What if there are other creatures to fight so they have something to do while their non-magical companions take on this beast? what if this is a heist and the mage needs to secure treasure, evade traps, and solve puzzles before the fighter is overcome by a foe stronger than him, the mage powerless to assist?
Also folks I know you've already done this it's years old, but don't do this. Don't make strange creatures that defy regular convention and invalidate players style. They don't like it. Remember you are trying to craft an enjoyable adventure.
I am currently trying my hand at making a racial template for a variant of creature that is utterly without magic or the ability to interact or be affected by magic. Im calling the Nulls. Intelligent beings or beasts that are completely removed from the worlds magical energy. Voids in the etherical fabric. They cannot see, hear, or touch any magic energy whether it be positive healing or a fireball. but a common stone launched using catapult, or an arrow fired from a magic bow will still physically harm them. just no magic effect of said projectiles will affect the target. I see it as both a blessing and a curse depending on the situation. able to walk through a fireball or a prismatic wall like it wasn't there, because to them it was indeed not there. but any injury they receive, and broken bone, or weapon wound...must heal normally. no healing spell will work on them. no resurrection spell will bring them back.
Maybe the Wolfwere from Minsk and Boo's goes into the right direction for you? It is immune to the damage dealt by silvered weapons and thus basicially requires a normal, mundane weapon to defeat it.
By the way, I think such a creature can work, but it should be used sparingly and only where it actually makes sense that creatures defy normal rules. I remember that in one of my games we had to fight enemies related to the Far Realms that were immune to magic and required nonmagical weapons to defeat them, and it actually was a quite interesting challenge considering we were at really high level and had an astonishing lack of nonmagical weapons...
Fair warning, that magic immunity would be very broken. The only time it would be even remotely considered a double edged sword is at lower levels when enemy spellcasters are a bit less common, so they wouldn’t be immune to that many attacks but still not effected by healing. In all other instances, it is beyond broken. No amount of healing done by a healer will ever out heal damage dealt by an enemy caster of a similar level, which makes the positives of the trait far out way the negatives. Not to mention that this would be very reliant on dm interpretation in many scenarios. Is a dragon’s breath attack considered magic? Some DM’s would say yes, others would say no. What about spell-like abilities, like a Soulknife Rogue’s or a Mind Flayer’s psionics? Same story. Meanwhile, they’re missing out on receiving any healing, which will either not matter at all, or matter so much that they need to stay the hell away from most combat, in which case they may as well be a ranged combatant, most of which are casters. But now they’re locked to a martial play style since they can’t interact with/use any magic, so their most reliable role in combat is as a physical ranged weapon user, like a gunslinger or archer. Also, are potions magic? There is an argument for both yes and no. If this is a race for a player character, it would be incredibly unbalanced, in both the over powered way and the nigh unusable way, somehow. If this is for a monster/NPC for the players to overcome, this would be the least fun thing for any caster to fight. Limited magic immunity is infuriating enough to deal with as an offensive caster, but complete immunity? Literal anti-fun. It would force the caster to get into melee to be remotely useful, which is practically a death sentence for anything but a few niche gish builds like a bladesinger or a hexblade. The only PCs who would not absolutely hate this would be the 100% martial classes.
Idont understand why you would want to make a monster or enything whith that lvl of magic resist.you trying to kill your group?there is already enough things in game to make a tough ass fight for them.
Why not a new feature called: Impervious to magic, giving you the following benefits and drawbacks:
- Advantage on all saves VS spells, and on a roll of 20, the spell doesn't affect you at all (even if the spell normally has a reduce effect on a successful save). - Attackers gain disadvantage on spell attack rolls against you. - Resistance VS all damage type except bludgeoning, piercing, slashing. - You ignore damage dealt by the enhancement bonus (+1 to +3) gained from magical ammunitions, weapons or spell focuses. The item user still gets its enhancement bonus to its attack roll and / or spell save DC though. - You can't cast or learn spells (including cantrips), nor can you utilize features that emulates spells (ex. Monk of the four elements). - You can't activate or gain any bonuses / effects from wearing / wielding magic items, but are also immune to curse items ill effects.
I'm in the process of creating a few creatures with resistance to all types of magic (spells and magic weapons). However, I was curious if anyone knew of any monsters in any of the official sources that have something similar? Instead of creating the creatures from scratch, I could just modify the existing ones so that I keep most of the wording the same. However, I have yet to be able to find any creatures with resistance or immunity to magic damage. I haven't even been able to find anything that has resistance or immunity to magic weapons, so I figured I would ask you all if any of you know if something like that already exists in 5th Edition.
March 1st, 2022 EDIT:
To everyone still posting on this thread in 2021 and beyond. Firstly, thank you for taking a look at one of my earlier creations. I have learned a lot about creating homebrew things since this one.
Secondly, to all of you who are criticizing me and telling others to not do this. Shame on you. You learn by doing. Some things work, others don't. It's about trial and error. You can't grow without making mistakes and learning from them. For my setting, the power scale is much higher, so creatures need to be much stronger.
I'm a much more experienced DM now than I was 4 years ago, and I can easily adjust the power level of things on the fly if I need to. Though I still very much prefer to homebrew as much of my own stuff as possible. It's fun for me, and my players have all enjoyed seeing my creations. I take all of their feedback into consideration for future ideas and adjust things to ensure they are also having fun.
So please stop assuming that I'm throwing this at a group of players who are either new to the game or that this is for some vanilla game of D&D. I run my game using a variation of the gestalt leveling system. Meaning that my players are essentially playing two classes in a single character. They love this, and the default monsters for the game tend to be way too easy for them. So I have to homebrew nearly everything I throw at them. While I have had instances of players saying they didn't enjoy a particular encounter, it has been for very minor things that were easily fixable.
To any new DMs who happen to read this and the comments: No matter what you create, have fun with it. You don't have to necessarily throw all of your creations at your players but definitely create a lot. It will help you learn how to homebrew things more easily, as well as give you a better understanding of how to balance things. Bounce ideas off of other DMs, and players. Ignore those who don't offer constructive criticism and simply tell you that "you're bad for making this". Listen to the advice of those who have been in your position, have learned from their own mistakes, and actually offer feedback on how to improve your creations. But if you're seeking advice, be sure to give as much information about your setting, as the power scale can be vastly different from game to game, DM to DM, group to group. Ultimately, as long as you and your group are all having fun, that is all that truly matters.
Many high level creatures, such as lichs and fiends, have a trait called Magic Resistance, which gives the creature advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects. Flail snails, crag cats, and the tarrasque are able to reflect certain spells. Helmed horrors and rakshasas both have limited magic immunity.
Resistance to magical weapon attacks is a highly desirable trait and is rarely given out. Few things in D&D 5e have resistance to magical attacks with plants, swarms, and topis being the exception. Then again, the plants have resistance to bludgeoning and piercing damage and the topi only has resistance to bludgeoning damage.
Edit: Black pudding and ochre jelly are immune to slashing damage.
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"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
My idea was to make some of the creatures either immune or resistant to magic weapons, and only able to be damaged normally with mundane weapons. Some of the others were going to be completely immune to magic, or at least highly resistant. I totally forgot about the Tarrasque somehow. I like the idea of it being able to reflect some spells back at the caster. I might make a few creatures have that ability instead. The magic resistance trait is something I've thought about, but I'm looking specifically for something that is immune to all magic effects. Or that takes 1/4 damage instead of 1/2 damage to magic.
In all honesty, it's not that big of a deal. I was mostly curious about the wording, because I personally like to try and make things be worded as close to the official source(s) as possible. It's looking more and more like the specific things I'm looking for do not exist in any current officially published material. At least not that I've been able to find myself.
I feel like the wording could be a simple change of the common "resistance to all slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage from nonmagical weapons". Just change "nonmagical" to "magical".
I don't think there is anything (so far as I know) that can be damaged only by slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage from nonmagical weapons. I'd say it's uncommon because if it also is immune to all magical effects, your casters are going to be totally sidelined unless the wizard wants to try his hand with a dagger.
Well, I'm only making one type of creature that is immune to spells and magical effects. I know it's going to make the spellcasters feel useless at first. However, the creatures are going to have fairly low HP. So even if one of the casters can't use magic against it, they'll still have a fairly easy time killing it, provided they hit the 12 AC I'm giving the creature. I want to challenge the casters to overcome a seemingly impossible task, by relying on something other than their magic. Yes, that is the core of their class, but for roleplay purposes, I want to challenge the players themselves, as well as have the characters realize that not every solution can or should be solved with the use of magic.
I think it's a really neat idea! I may even steal it for my own campaign. I was just saying that the difficulty for spell casters may be why there aren't many (or any) official monsters with magical immunity.
I decided to use D&D Beyond's homebrew tool to attempt to create one of the creatures I had in mind. I know the CR is completely wrong, but that's because I'm not exactly sure how to go about calculating the CR for something with this many resistances.
Anyway, here is a preview of what I have so far. If anyone can provide some insight into the CR thing, that would be greatly appreciated.
Base statistics:
Abilities/traits:
Amphibious. The creature can breathe air and water.
Standing Leap. The creature's long jump is up to 45 feet and its high jump is up to 35 feet, with or without a running start.
Spellcasting. The creature is a 9th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 16, +5 to hit with spell attacks). It knows the following spells:
At will: all Wizard cantrips
1st level (4 slots): jump, shield, sleep
2nd level (3 slots): darkness, shatter, web
3rd level (3 slots): fireball, slow, dispel magic
4th level (3 slots): greater invisibility, polymorph, dimension door
5th level (1 slot): animate objects, telekinensis
Strong Magic Resistance. The creature is highly resistant to all types of magic, and has advantage on Saving Throws against Spells and other magical effects. Instead of taking half damage from magic, the creature only takes a quarter damage. Also, whenever the creature takes damage from magic, it regains half the damage as Hit Points. Immediately after regaining Hit Points this way, the creature can force the caster to make a saving throw. Depending on which kind of saving throw the creature forces the caster to make, a different effect overcomes the caster:
This is just what I've been looking for. My parties Teifling Wedlock acts as though their page and a half of cantrips is the cure to everything. The only excitement they get its from choosing which cantrip they are going to use at any given time.
anti magic field... is a possibility
I'm thinking about doing this but having it gain an amount of temporary HP equal to the amount of magical damage it has taken. They will have to think outside of the box. Like throwing something at it with telekinesis. I'm thinking it will be vulnerable to physical completely non-magical attacks.
It will also put off a magical field within a half mile of it that causes wild magic to happen when a 1st level or higher spell is cast.
I would change the petrified condition from the wisdom save to paralyzed, and on a success the creature is just frightened. Being paralyzed for multiple rounds even on a success is powerful and not very fun.
Have you considered just doubling the hp and making it vulnerable to non-magical damage? I feel like that might make it a lot more fun for the players (though it would effectively do the same thing)... in addition, this leaves you free to make more specific resistances to something.
Also, the strong magic resistance trait is a little confusing... like why does it remain hp if its still taking damage? is that just to make effects that stop hp regen useful against it? is "half the damage" it regains half the original damage or half the damage it takes?
In addition, I might limit the cantrips to just a few: you do not want to be looking through every wizard cantrip every turn unless you know the rules very well. For npcs, less options make fights much easier to manage.
One more thing, make sure the players don't feel totally useless. If there is just one mage in the party this kind of thing can feel like a vindictive dm move, i don't know your table, but becoming incapacitated and/or ineffective (especially when these things take effect even when you succeeded on your save) is likely to make players feel slighted. Whatever happens be sure they have options (like, the creature is resistant to their magic but what if the environment has things that a spell could take advantage of, damaging the creature indirectly? What if there are other creatures to fight so they have something to do while their non-magical companions take on this beast? what if this is a heist and the mage needs to secure treasure, evade traps, and solve puzzles before the fighter is overcome by a foe stronger than him, the mage powerless to assist?
What avg party level did you put this up against?
Also folks I know you've already done this it's years old, but don't do this. Don't make strange creatures that defy regular convention and invalidate players style. They don't like it. Remember you are trying to craft an enjoyable adventure.
B, P, S from magical weapons is the least resisted damage type in the whole game.
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I am currently trying my hand at making a racial template for a variant of creature that is utterly without magic or the ability to interact or be affected by magic. Im calling the Nulls. Intelligent beings or beasts that are completely removed from the worlds magical energy. Voids in the etherical fabric. They cannot see, hear, or touch any magic energy whether it be positive healing or a fireball. but a common stone launched using catapult, or an arrow fired from a magic bow will still physically harm them. just no magic effect of said projectiles will affect the target. I see it as both a blessing and a curse depending on the situation. able to walk through a fireball or a prismatic wall like it wasn't there, because to them it was indeed not there. but any injury they receive, and broken bone, or weapon wound...must heal normally. no healing spell will work on them. no resurrection spell will bring them back.
Maybe the Wolfwere from Minsk and Boo's goes into the right direction for you? It is immune to the damage dealt by silvered weapons and thus basicially requires a normal, mundane weapon to defeat it.
By the way, I think such a creature can work, but it should be used sparingly and only where it actually makes sense that creatures defy normal rules. I remember that in one of my games we had to fight enemies related to the Far Realms that were immune to magic and required nonmagical weapons to defeat them, and it actually was a quite interesting challenge considering we were at really high level and had an astonishing lack of nonmagical weapons...
Fair warning, that magic immunity would be very broken. The only time it would be even remotely considered a double edged sword is at lower levels when enemy spellcasters are a bit less common, so they wouldn’t be immune to that many attacks but still not effected by healing. In all other instances, it is beyond broken. No amount of healing done by a healer will ever out heal damage dealt by an enemy caster of a similar level, which makes the positives of the trait far out way the negatives. Not to mention that this would be very reliant on dm interpretation in many scenarios. Is a dragon’s breath attack considered magic? Some DM’s would say yes, others would say no. What about spell-like abilities, like a Soulknife Rogue’s or a Mind Flayer’s psionics? Same story. Meanwhile, they’re missing out on receiving any healing, which will either not matter at all, or matter so much that they need to stay the hell away from most combat, in which case they may as well be a ranged combatant, most of which are casters. But now they’re locked to a martial play style since they can’t interact with/use any magic, so their most reliable role in combat is as a physical ranged weapon user, like a gunslinger or archer. Also, are potions magic? There is an argument for both yes and no. If this is a race for a player character, it would be incredibly unbalanced, in both the over powered way and the nigh unusable way, somehow. If this is for a monster/NPC for the players to overcome, this would be the least fun thing for any caster to fight. Limited magic immunity is infuriating enough to deal with as an offensive caster, but complete immunity? Literal anti-fun. It would force the caster to get into melee to be remotely useful, which is practically a death sentence for anything but a few niche gish builds like a bladesinger or a hexblade. The only PCs who would not absolutely hate this would be the 100% martial classes.
Idont understand why you would want to make a monster or enything whith that lvl of magic resist.you trying to kill your group?there is already enough things in game to make a tough ass fight for them.
Why not a new feature called: Impervious to magic, giving you the following benefits and drawbacks:
- Advantage on all saves VS spells, and on a roll of 20, the spell doesn't affect you at all (even if the spell normally has a reduce effect on a successful save).
- Attackers gain disadvantage on spell attack rolls against you.
- Resistance VS all damage type except bludgeoning, piercing, slashing.
- You ignore damage dealt by the enhancement bonus (+1 to +3) gained from magical ammunitions, weapons or spell focuses. The item user still gets its enhancement bonus to its attack roll and / or spell save DC though.
- You can't cast or learn spells (including cantrips), nor can you utilize features that emulates spells (ex. Monk of the four elements).
- You can't activate or gain any bonuses / effects from wearing / wielding magic items, but are also immune to curse items ill effects.