I'm a big fan of the Aasimar in 5e, but I'm having trouble with a mechanical question. The Scourge Aasimar can do radiant area damage when they activate their racial power, and this damage hurts them as well. However, the race inherently has resistance to radiant damage. Should I, as a DM, cut the damage in half, or require that it bypass the Aasimar's natural resistance since it's (in the flavor of the ability) overloading its own radiant power to harm its enemies? For clarification, I have asked Wizards staff about this on an official helpline, and they weren't able to definitively tell me one way or the other.
When something inflicts damage to the creature using it and doesn't want that damage to be resisted if they happen to have resistance, or ignored if they happen to have immunity, it specifies "this damage cannot be reduced in any way."
So unless errata comes along that clarifies that being intended to be included in the Scourge Aasimar feature, it's by the book to let the Aaismar's resistance apply.
From the Rules as Written (RAW) perspective, yeah, I'd apply the damage from the racial power, and give them the benefit of the resistance.
From the Rules as Interpreted perspective, if you think that's silly in your game, cut it. It shouldn't be a game breaker either way - making it a great spot for each DM to house rule if they don't like RAW focused rulings.
Sage Advice answer by Jeremy Crawford. It is intended that you you damage yourself and apply the Resistance. So you would take half damage from your effect.
I agree that this is the rule. I don't like the answer though. It's radiant equal to half your level, rounded up. Cutting it in half again is both overly lenient on the player, and seems counter to the flavor of the ability. The point is that they're burning themselves up to hurt their opponents. Letting them take almost nothing in damage for a racial area damage effect seems lame. I acknowledge that my interpretation is a house rule.
Have you considered changing the Damage done by Scourge Aasimar? Maybe have it be Fire damage instead of Radiant? That way there isn't an exception where the PC is resistant to all radiant damage except his own. It makes it similar to the Phoenix Sorcerer which is maybe why Wizards went this route.
Of course it is just as simple to say they are resistant to all but their own radiant damage. I guess it is just a matter of what "feels" accurate to you.
It is fairly clear that it is intended that the radiant damage resistance is applied, though as DM you are perfectly withing your right to disregard the resistance. However, be warned that such a change will make the racial feature less usable and the character may be hesitant to use it, unless the character is somewhat suicidal. I would definitely not make such a critical change unless the player was warned about it at the start of character creation.
Yeah, it would definitely be necessary to discuss it with them. My difficulty with applying the resistance is that this is a racial ability, not a spell or even, as with previous editions, spell-like ability. There is no save against the damage, and it can't be counterspelled. This is pure auto-damage with no chance to stop it, within a 10ft radius of the player. In addition, they gain that added radiant damage to weapon attacks. I find the ability too powerful to avoid requiring some sort of sacrifice, for both balance and flavor effects. Plus, the character has racial healing abilities as well, so they can deal with a round or two of self-inflicted damage. Overall, I'm dissatisfied with the idea that a player can pick a sub-race that is so decidedly powerful without paying something.
You guys are missing a lot of things when it comes to this race. Let's ignore the fact that they descended from celestials, or that their alignment can change their sub race. Radiant consumption allows for very little teamplay within the immediate area of them. They can't receive touch spells without damaging the caster, and if you're worried about 10-15 points of radiant damage a round at mid-high level gameplay, I worry about your choice and CR of monsters.
So the resistance is applied and damage even rounded down as usual. But the dmg is low (10 for creatures without resistance and 4/5 with resistance per round at character lvl 19/20) this is not much and the situations where you can use it efficiently are rare. For maximum effect you would be surrounded by 25 lvl 20 encounter worthy enemies... and in this case 250+20 extra dmg output per round would not make a huge difference in your horrible end. And if it does, be glad you took this rare sub-race 200 hours game time before, just to be prepared for this once in a lifetime happening ;)
Except of course your DM likes designing challenges where your special abilities come in handy more often. Why not? Saving the party from being sucked dry by 100 attacking stinges, by running through them as radiant tourch is a cool memory ^_^
I'm a big fan of the Aasimar in 5e, but I'm having trouble with a mechanical question. The Scourge Aasimar can do radiant area damage when they activate their racial power, and this damage hurts them as well. However, the race inherently has resistance to radiant damage. Should I, as a DM, cut the damage in half, or require that it bypass the Aasimar's natural resistance since it's (in the flavor of the ability) overloading its own radiant power to harm its enemies? For clarification, I have asked Wizards staff about this on an official helpline, and they weren't able to definitively tell me one way or the other.
Nothing in the wording of Radiant Consumption says that the radiant damage applied at the end of your turn bypasses/ignores resistance or immunity. Therefore, the resistance applies. The fact that you are the source of the radiant damage in question plays no part in the calculation.
I have a different question Aasimar in that when it comes to their angelic guide and celestial heritage. Is the guide a general thing or does it have to be a Deva. My player is leaning more towards the Egyptian Gods as her heritage but I wasn’t sure how that would blend with the Deva/Angelic guide.
I have a different question Aasimar in that when it comes to their angelic guide and celestial heritage. Is the guide a general thing or does it have to be a Deva. My player is leaning more towards the Egyptian Gods as her heritage but I wasn’t sure how that would blend with the Deva/Angelic guide.
The actual text says "usually a deva", so as written it can be something else.
Yeah, it would definitely be necessary to discuss it with them. My difficulty with applying the resistance is that this is a racial ability, not a spell or even, as with previous editions, spell-like ability. There is no save against the damage, and it can't be counterspelled. This is pure auto-damage with no chance to stop it, within a 10ft radius of the player. In addition, they gain that added radiant damage to weapon attacks. I find the ability too powerful to avoid requiring some sort of sacrifice, for both balance and flavor effects. Plus, the character has racial healing abilities as well, so they can deal with a round or two of self-inflicted damage. Overall, I'm dissatisfied with the idea that a player can pick a sub-race that is so decidedly powerful without paying something.
It is an ok ability. I don't really understand where the concerns about it being overpowered comes from unless it is due to the nature of your campaign. The ability can only be used once/long rest. In the games I play in where there could be 4-6 combat encounters in a day, this ability has the potential to make one fight a bit easier, except that the ability damages both the character and any other creatures within 10'.
Again typically in the games I play or run, combats will typically run 2-5 rounds. If they run longer it is either due to reinforcements arriving or just due to clean up - the winner of the battle has become clear and the party isn't burning resources to finish it more quickly.
In addition, the ability harms everyone, allies, enemies and even the character. This makes it much more difficult to use without also harming your group members.
On top of all that, the damage is pretty pathetic. 1/2 level is 2 points of damage at 5th level, 5 points at level 11, 8 points at level 17 and a maximum of 10 points at level 20. Any idea what sort of damage spirit guardians does? 3d8 averages 13.5 (save for 1/2) - radiant - with a 15' radius and halved movement. So at best, this ability is significantly worse than a mini-spirit guardians that is only usable once/day.
In conclusion, I don't really see any reason to consider this ability too powerful unless you are somehow allowing it to be used every fight during the day.
Yeah, it would definitely be necessary to discuss it with them. My difficulty with applying the resistance is that this is a racial ability, not a spell or even, as with previous editions, spell-like ability. There is no save against the damage, and it can't be counterspelled. This is pure auto-damage with no chance to stop it, within a 10ft radius of the player. In addition, they gain that added radiant damage to weapon attacks. I find the ability too powerful to avoid requiring some sort of sacrifice, for both balance and flavor effects. Plus, the character has racial healing abilities as well, so they can deal with a round or two of self-inflicted damage. Overall, I'm dissatisfied with the idea that a player can pick a sub-race that is so decidedly powerful without paying something.
It is an ok ability. I don't really understand where the concerns about it being overpowered comes from unless it is due to the nature of your campaign. The ability can only be used once/long rest. In the games I play in where there could be 4-6 combat encounters in a day, this ability has the potential to make one fight a bit easier, except that the ability damages both the character and any other creatures within 10'.
Again typically in the games I play or run, combats will typically run 2-5 rounds. If they run longer it is either due to reinforcements arriving or just due to clean up - the winner of the battle has become clear and the party isn't burning resources to finish it more quickly.
In addition, the ability harms everyone, allies, enemies and even the character. This makes it much more difficult to use without also harming your group members.
On top of all that, the damage is pretty pathetic. 1/2 level is 2 points of damage at 5th level, 5 points at level 11, 8 points at level 17 and a maximum of 10 points at level 20. Any idea what sort of damage spirit guardians does? 3d8 averages 13.5 (save for 1/2) - radiant - with a 15' radius and halved movement. So at best, this ability is significantly worse than a mini-spirit guardians that is only usable once/day.
In conclusion, I don't really see any reason to consider this ability too powerful unless you are somehow allowing it to be used every fight during the day.
DI’d you realize that you were responding to a post from over two years ago?
I'm a big fan of the Aasimar in 5e, but I'm having trouble with a mechanical question. The Scourge Aasimar can do radiant area damage when they activate their racial power, and this damage hurts them as well. However, the race inherently has resistance to radiant damage. Should I, as a DM, cut the damage in half, or require that it bypass the Aasimar's natural resistance since it's (in the flavor of the ability) overloading its own radiant power to harm its enemies? For clarification, I have asked Wizards staff about this on an official helpline, and they weren't able to definitively tell me one way or the other.
In my opinion you should take the resistance into consideration.
When something inflicts damage to the creature using it and doesn't want that damage to be resisted if they happen to have resistance, or ignored if they happen to have immunity, it specifies "this damage cannot be reduced in any way."
So unless errata comes along that clarifies that being intended to be included in the Scourge Aasimar feature, it's by the book to let the Aaismar's resistance apply.
From the Rules as Written (RAW) perspective, yeah, I'd apply the damage from the racial power, and give them the benefit of the resistance.
From the Rules as Interpreted perspective, if you think that's silly in your game, cut it. It shouldn't be a game breaker either way - making it a great spot for each DM to house rule if they don't like RAW focused rulings.
http://www.sageadvice.eu/2017/01/09/volos-guides-aasimar-take-damage-when-using-their-racial-power/
Sage Advice answer by Jeremy Crawford. It is intended that you you damage yourself and apply the Resistance. So you would take half damage from your effect.
I agree that this is the rule. I don't like the answer though. It's radiant equal to half your level, rounded up. Cutting it in half again is both overly lenient on the player, and seems counter to the flavor of the ability. The point is that they're burning themselves up to hurt their opponents. Letting them take almost nothing in damage for a racial area damage effect seems lame. I acknowledge that my interpretation is a house rule.
Have you considered changing the Damage done by Scourge Aasimar? Maybe have it be Fire damage instead of Radiant? That way there isn't an exception where the PC is resistant to all radiant damage except his own. It makes it similar to the Phoenix Sorcerer which is maybe why Wizards went this route.
Of course it is just as simple to say they are resistant to all but their own radiant damage. I guess it is just a matter of what "feels" accurate to you.
It is fairly clear that it is intended that the radiant damage resistance is applied, though as DM you are perfectly withing your right to disregard the resistance. However, be warned that such a change will make the racial feature less usable and the character may be hesitant to use it, unless the character is somewhat suicidal. I would definitely not make such a critical change unless the player was warned about it at the start of character creation.
Yeah, it would definitely be necessary to discuss it with them. My difficulty with applying the resistance is that this is a racial ability, not a spell or even, as with previous editions, spell-like ability. There is no save against the damage, and it can't be counterspelled. This is pure auto-damage with no chance to stop it, within a 10ft radius of the player. In addition, they gain that added radiant damage to weapon attacks. I find the ability too powerful to avoid requiring some sort of sacrifice, for both balance and flavor effects. Plus, the character has racial healing abilities as well, so they can deal with a round or two of self-inflicted damage. Overall, I'm dissatisfied with the idea that a player can pick a sub-race that is so decidedly powerful without paying something.
You guys are missing a lot of things when it comes to this race. Let's ignore the fact that they descended from celestials, or that their alignment can change their sub race. Radiant consumption allows for very little teamplay within the immediate area of them. They can't receive touch spells without damaging the caster, and if you're worried about 10-15 points of radiant damage a round at mid-high level gameplay, I worry about your choice and CR of monsters.
In the sage advice link above Jeremy only says that the text is correct and damage is taken, not much more.
But here he says clearly, nothing changes the fact that an Aasimar resists radiant damage:
https://www.sageadvice.eu/2017/03/01/do-aasimar-resist-their-own-radiant-damage-from-the-aura/
So the resistance is applied and damage even rounded down as usual. But the dmg is low (10 for creatures without resistance and 4/5 with resistance per round at character lvl 19/20) this is not much and the situations where you can use it efficiently are rare. For maximum effect you would be surrounded by 25 lvl 20 encounter worthy enemies... and in this case 250+20 extra dmg output per round would not make a huge difference in your horrible end. And if it does, be glad you took this rare sub-race 200 hours game time before, just to be prepared for this once in a lifetime happening ;)
Except of course your DM likes designing challenges where your special abilities come in handy more often. Why not? Saving the party from being sucked dry by 100 attacking stinges, by running through them as radiant tourch is a cool memory ^_^
Nothing in the wording of Radiant Consumption says that the radiant damage applied at the end of your turn bypasses/ignores resistance or immunity. Therefore, the resistance applies. The fact that you are the source of the radiant damage in question plays no part in the calculation.
I have a different question Aasimar in that when it comes to their angelic guide and celestial heritage. Is the guide a general thing or does it have to be a Deva. My player is leaning more towards the Egyptian Gods as her heritage but I wasn’t sure how that would blend with the Deva/Angelic guide.
The actual text says "usually a deva", so as written it can be something else.
It is an ok ability. I don't really understand where the concerns about it being overpowered comes from unless it is due to the nature of your campaign. The ability can only be used once/long rest. In the games I play in where there could be 4-6 combat encounters in a day, this ability has the potential to make one fight a bit easier, except that the ability damages both the character and any other creatures within 10'.
Again typically in the games I play or run, combats will typically run 2-5 rounds. If they run longer it is either due to reinforcements arriving or just due to clean up - the winner of the battle has become clear and the party isn't burning resources to finish it more quickly.
In addition, the ability harms everyone, allies, enemies and even the character. This makes it much more difficult to use without also harming your group members.
On top of all that, the damage is pretty pathetic. 1/2 level is 2 points of damage at 5th level, 5 points at level 11, 8 points at level 17 and a maximum of 10 points at level 20. Any idea what sort of damage spirit guardians does? 3d8 averages 13.5 (save for 1/2) - radiant - with a 15' radius and halved movement. So at best, this ability is significantly worse than a mini-spirit guardians that is only usable once/day.
In conclusion, I don't really see any reason to consider this ability too powerful unless you are somehow allowing it to be used every fight during the day.
DI’d you realize that you were responding to a post from over two years ago?
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