Pitted my players against some Bearded Devils (2024). Said fiends have magic Resistance - The devil has Advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Player (Star Druid) casts Summon Dragon - You call forth a Dragon spirit. It manifests in an unoccupied space that you can see within range and uses the Draconic Spirit stat block. The creature disappears when it drops to 0 Hit Points or when the spell ends. Rend. Breath Weapon.Dexterity Saving Throw: DC equals your spell save DC, each creature in a 30-foot Cone.
My question: do the melee attacks (Rend) from the Dragon spirit get mitigated by the Devil’s magic resistance, given it’s a magical creature that was magically conjured? How about the damage of its breath weapon?
Likely RAW are that none of the attacks from the summoned draconic spirit trigger the magic resistance. Incidentally, breath weapons in the stat blocks I checked don't contain any words saying they're magical.
That said, I voted based on what makes the most sense. The effect of the spell is to create a summoned creature. The creature itself isn't doing magical damage with its claws. Common sense tells me that a breath weapon is magical, so it makes sense to have the magic resistance apply to that.
An attack is not a saving throw so magical resistance doesn't affect it. The breath is the real question. Is the breath action of a summoned creature a magical effect? Most people would say yes. If you want a magic resistance that affects attack rolls the Rakshasa has one.
RAW/per SAC, breath attacks are not magical because those effects that qualify are specifically described as magical. Thus the Bearded Devil gets no benefit from its Magic Resistance feature against anything a Draconic Spirit does. For some context:
A feature from Summon Construct:
Stony Lethargy (Stone Only). When a creature starts its turn within 10 feet of the spirit, the spirit can target it with magical energy if the spirit can see it. Wisdom Saving Throw: DC equals your spell save DC, the target. Failure: Until the start of its next turn, the target can’t make Opportunity Attacks, and its Speed is halved.
The Breath Weapon from Summon Dragon:
Breath Weapon.Dexterity Saving Throw: DC equals your spell save DC, each creature in a 30-foot Cone. Failure:2d6 damage of a type this spirit has Resistance to (your choice when you cast the spell). Success: Half damage.
A creature with Magic Resistance has advantage against Stony Lethargy because the description specifically calls it out as magical, while there is no such verbiage for Breath Weapon.
Generally speaking, for a monster (or in this case, a summoned creature), unless its abilities are described as magical, or it casts a spell (either on its own or using a magic item), I'd say its attacks or effects aren't magical.
Understand now that a Dragon’s breath weapon is biological rather than magical.
Well not really but not "Magical" either. The below is from the 2014 SAC and while outdated it holds a broader explanation of the concept that still holds true.
Is the breath weapon of a dragon magical?
If you cast antimagic field, don armor of invulnerability, or use another feature of the game that protects against magical or nonmagical effects, you might ask yourself, “Will this protect me against a dragon’s breath?” The breath weapon of a typical dragon isn’t considered magical, so antimagic field won’t help you but armor of invulnerability will.
You might be thinking, “Dragons seem pretty magical to me.” And yes, they are extraordinary! Their description even says they’re magical. But our game makes a distinction between two types of magic:
the background magic that is part of the D&D multiverse’s physics and the physiology of many D&D creatures
the concentrated magical energy that is contained in a magic item or channeled to create a spell or other focused magical effect
In D&D, the first type of magic is part of nature. It is no more dispellable than the wind. A monster like a dragon exists because of that magic-enhanced nature. The second type of magic is what the rules are concerned about. When a rule refers to something being magical, it’s referring to that second type. Determining whether a game feature is magical is straightforward. Ask yourself these questions about the feature:
Is it a magic item?
Is it a spell? Or does it let you create the effects of a spell that’s mentioned in its description?
Is it a spell attack?
Is it fueled by the use of spell slots?
Does its description say it’s magical?
If your answer to any of those questions is yes, the feature is magical.
Let’s look at a white dragon’s Cold Breath and ask ourselves those questions. First, Cold Breath isn’t a magic item. Second, its description mentions no spell. Third, it’s not a spell attack. Fourth, the word “magical” appears nowhere in its description. Our conclusion: Cold Breath is not considered a magical game effect, even though we know that dragons are amazing, supernatural beings.
I am going to disagree with regards to Breath Weapon, while for a normal dragon it would not be a magical effect, in this case the source is a summon that is the result of a spell which has a non-instantaneous duration. As such the Dragon itself is a magical effect (it is from an active spell) and it's breath weapon should be considered one too. I do agree that the attack rolls however would be unaffected, those are attack rolls, not saving throws.
Personally I could lean either way on this one and see legitimacy to both sides of the breath weapon being a magical effect or not being a magical effect but as I read Summon Dragon, I believe that the Dragon itself counting as a magical effect is relevant.
The summoning brings the creature into being. Magic keeps the creature here, but unless the attacks of the creature mention that they are magical, they are not and therefore not subject to magic resistance.
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Playing D&D since 1982
Have played every version of the game since Basic (Red Box Set), except that abomination sometimes called 4e.
The summoning brings the creature into being. Magic keeps the creature here, but unless the attacks of the creature mention that they are magical, they are not and therefore not subject to magic resistance.
But the creature, the summon dragon is still a magical effect from a spell, and thus it's actions are also magical effects since they result from the spell (as does using the stat block), the summon is an active spell effect and it can be dispelled using dispel magic.
It is not like the Steed from Find Steed or Skeletons from Animate Dead, where the spell has an instantaneous duration where they can no longer be dispel since there is no longer an active spell. I'm going to err on the side of caution( until further clarified by Sage Advice) that I would consider the breath and attacks to be magical in nature as the creature performing them is a magical effect powered from a spell slot.
This answer from the 2014 SAC isn't in the 2024 one. I'm wondering if one reason could be related to what R3sistance is saying. If so, it's a change to the ruling
Is the damage dealt by a beast from conjure animals considered magical?
The stat block of a conjured creature determines the nature of the creature’s damage, unless the spell says otherwise.
This answer from the 2014 SAC isn't in the 2024 one. I'm wondering if one reason could be related to what R3sistance is saying. If so, it's a change to the ruling
Is the damage dealt by a beast from conjure animals considered magical?
The stat block of a conjured creature determines the nature of the creature’s damage, unless the spell says otherwise.
More likely it wasn’t carried forward because it refers to magical PSB, which isn’t a thing in ‘24.
Actually to some extent I might flip the argument. In 2024 ( and 2014 to a small extent) we have both summoned and conjured “things” to me summoned at least suggests that they existed - somewhere- both before and after their summoning. As such they are a normal entity and their normal attacks are nonmagical unless something specific says they are. On the other hand conjured at least suggests that they are created out of the magical energy of the spell and are, at last potentially, magical in nature and therefore their attacks might be affected by any resistance
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Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
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Pitted my players against some Bearded Devils (2024). Said fiends have magic Resistance - The devil has Advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Player (Star Druid) casts Summon Dragon - You call forth a Dragon spirit. It manifests in an unoccupied space that you can see within range and uses the Draconic Spirit stat block. The creature disappears when it drops to 0 Hit Points or when the spell ends. Rend. Breath Weapon.Dexterity Saving Throw: DC equals your spell save DC, each creature in a 30-foot Cone.
My question: do the melee attacks (Rend) from the Dragon spirit get mitigated by the Devil’s magic resistance, given it’s a magical creature that was magically conjured? How about the damage of its breath weapon?
Likely RAW are that none of the attacks from the summoned draconic spirit trigger the magic resistance. Incidentally, breath weapons in the stat blocks I checked don't contain any words saying they're magical.
That said, I voted based on what makes the most sense. The effect of the spell is to create a summoned creature. The creature itself isn't doing magical damage with its claws. Common sense tells me that a breath weapon is magical, so it makes sense to have the magic resistance apply to that.
An attack is not a saving throw so magical resistance doesn't affect it. The breath is the real question. Is the breath action of a summoned creature a magical effect? Most people would say yes. If you want a magic resistance that affects attack rolls the Rakshasa has one.
RAW/per SAC, breath attacks are not magical because those effects that qualify are specifically described as magical. Thus the Bearded Devil gets no benefit from its Magic Resistance feature against anything a Draconic Spirit does. For some context:
A feature from Summon Construct:
The Breath Weapon from Summon Dragon:
A creature with Magic Resistance has advantage against Stony Lethargy because the description specifically calls it out as magical, while there is no such verbiage for Breath Weapon.
I agree with The_Ace_of_Rogues.
The updated SAC says:
Generally speaking, for a monster (or in this case, a summoned creature), unless its abilities are described as magical, or it casts a spell (either on its own or using a magic item), I'd say its attacks or effects aren't magical.
There are more, but these are some examples of something magical: Beholder's Eye Rays, Darkmantle's Darkness Aura, Harpy's Luring Song, Kenku's Shadow Blade, Mind Flayer Arcanist's Arcane Tentacles or Sphinx of Valor's Roar, Telepathy or Teleportation.
Thank you all for your responses.
Understand now that a Dragon’s breath weapon is biological rather than magical.
Well not really but not "Magical" either. The below is from the 2014 SAC and while outdated it holds a broader explanation of the concept that still holds true.
Basically, there's a whole spectrum of "supernatural" wavelengths that effects can be on, and Magic Resistance only affects a portion of them.
I am going to disagree with regards to Breath Weapon, while for a normal dragon it would not be a magical effect, in this case the source is a summon that is the result of a spell which has a non-instantaneous duration. As such the Dragon itself is a magical effect (it is from an active spell) and it's breath weapon should be considered one too. I do agree that the attack rolls however would be unaffected, those are attack rolls, not saving throws.
Personally I could lean either way on this one and see legitimacy to both sides of the breath weapon being a magical effect or not being a magical effect but as I read Summon Dragon, I believe that the Dragon itself counting as a magical effect is relevant.
The summoning brings the creature into being. Magic keeps the creature here, but unless the attacks of the creature mention that they are magical, they are not and therefore not subject to magic resistance.
Playing D&D since 1982
Have played every version of the game since Basic (Red Box Set), except that abomination sometimes called 4e.
But the creature, the summon dragon is still a magical effect from a spell, and thus it's actions are also magical effects since they result from the spell (as does using the stat block), the summon is an active spell effect and it can be dispelled using dispel magic.
It is not like the Steed from Find Steed or Skeletons from Animate Dead, where the spell has an instantaneous duration where they can no longer be dispel since there is no longer an active spell. I'm going to err on the side of caution( until further clarified by Sage Advice) that I would consider the breath and attacks to be magical in nature as the creature performing them is a magical effect powered from a spell slot.
This answer from the 2014 SAC isn't in the 2024 one. I'm wondering if one reason could be related to what R3sistance is saying. If so, it's a change to the ruling
More likely it wasn’t carried forward because it refers to magical PSB, which isn’t a thing in ‘24.
Actually to some extent I might flip the argument. In 2024 ( and 2014 to a small extent) we have both summoned and conjured “things” to me summoned at least suggests that they existed - somewhere- both before and after their summoning. As such they are a normal entity and their normal attacks are nonmagical unless something specific says they are. On the other hand conjured at least suggests that they are created out of the magical energy of the spell and are, at last potentially, magical in nature and therefore their attacks might be affected by any resistance
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.