Does the Stunning Strike feature from the Monk class count as a "magical effect" when used against a creature with the magical resistance feature? That is to say, do monsters with this feature get advantage on saves against being stunned by this feature or not?
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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.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Super late to this discussion but I want to make a clarification in case anyone comes looking for this. Monk's attacks are normal physical unarmed strikes, or attacks with weapons they're proficient with, until they reach level 6 and the description of a new feature could lead to confusion against the Magic Resistance feature of an enemy, but here's the exatc thing quoted:
"Starting at 6th level, your unarmed strikes count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage."
Monk's attacks are not magical, but count as such when dealing against resistance and immunities. Or if you want to look at it this way, what logical reason could exist for a level 5 monk to be more powerful than an exact equal monk but at 6 level?
This made me think of kind of a funny comparison... A Monk's Ki-Empowered Strikes are kind of like a Coupon. A coupon is not a form of currency, but can be treated as a replacement for currency under specific conditions.
I think a lot of confusion comes from the flavor text, "Monks make careful study of a magical energy that most monastic traditions call ki."
I once had a DM that thought this meant that as ki is magical energy anything that used ki was therefore magical. Pointing out SAC didn't help he said that is useful if you are unsure how to interpret something in the PHB but in this instance the PHB is clear so there is no need for the SAC.
No, but legendary resistance would help against stunning fist.
Let me tell you, no it does not, lol. If your big baddie rolls really bad, he could burn through all three in a single one of the monk's turns
Edit: my experience with a monk in my CoS campaign was less than favorable for my boy Strahd
The Monk's greatest power is the ability to burn through a boss's Legendary Resistances so the wizard can Polymorph it into a turtle or some nonsense and throw it off a cliff.
No, but legendary resistance would help against stunning fist.
Let me tell you, no it does not, lol. If your big baddie rolls really bad, he could burn through all three in a single one of the monk's turns
Edit: my experience with a monk in my CoS campaign was less than favorable for my boy Strahd
The Monk's greatest power is the ability to burn through a boss's Legendary Resistances so the wizard can Polymorph it into a turtle or some nonsense and throw it off a cliff.
No, but legendary resistance would help against stunning fist.
Let me tell you, no it does not, lol. If your big baddie rolls really bad, he could burn through all three in a single one of the monk's turns
Edit: my experience with a monk in my CoS campaign was less than favorable for my boy Strahd
The Monk's greatest power is the ability to burn through a boss's Legendary Resistances so the wizard can Polymorph it into a turtle or some nonsense and throw it off a cliff.
Except throwing off a cliff won’t do that much :(
Putting it in a box and dropping that box to the bottom of the ocean on the other hand...
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Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Re-imagining unpopular subclasses as part of FIFY WotC. Let us know what you think of our changes!
A trick I heard from someone is the polymorph an enemy into a dolphin on land. They have no walking speed but also breath air so you basically can just leave them like that for the duration of the spell. They can't go anywhere and unlike turning them into a fish, they won't drown and revert.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
A trick I heard from someone is the polymorph an enemy into a dolphin on land. They have no walking speed but also breath air so you basically can just leave them like that for the duration of the spell. They can't go anywhere and unlike turning them into a fish, they won't drown and revert.
My Go-to has always just been a turtle. They're too slow to really get away like something similarly non-threatening like a squirrel or I dunno... a Wombat or something. But they're big enough to pick up. One combo I've pulled off before is polymorph an enemy into a turtle, then toss them into a bag of holding and just let them suffocate in there. Another one I pulled off was to Polymorph one enemy, then throw them at another and drop concentration right before it hits to essentially throw one hobgoblin at another. My DM was pretty generous by letting the hobgoblin maintain momentum from the throw instead of just, y'know... getting back to it's normal body and landing on its feet.
No, but legendary resistance would help against stunning fist.
Let me tell you, no it does not, lol. If your big baddie rolls really bad, he could burn through all three in a single one of the monk's turns
Edit: my experience with a monk in my CoS campaign was less than favorable for my boy Strahd
The Monk's greatest power is the ability to burn through a boss's Legendary Resistances so the wizard can Polymorph it into a turtle or some nonsense and throw it off a cliff.
Except throwing off a cliff won’t do that much :(
Putting it in a box and dropping that box to the bottom of the ocean on the other hand...
Oh, see that’s just *asking* for an episode 14 seasons later when they finally break free and have spent all those years plotting revenge on you… haha
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Does the Stunning Strike feature from the Monk class count as a "magical effect" when used against a creature with the magical resistance feature? That is to say, do monsters with this feature get advantage on saves against being stunned by this feature or not?
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Re-imagining unpopular subclasses as part of FIFY WotC. Let us know what you think of our changes!
From the Sage Advice Compendium:
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
So I'm thinking no, it doesn't count as a magical effect and is not resisted my magic resistance.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
No, but legendary resistance would help against stunning fist.
This made me think of kind of a funny comparison... A Monk's Ki-Empowered Strikes are kind of like a Coupon. A coupon is not a form of currency, but can be treated as a replacement for currency under specific conditions.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
I think a lot of confusion comes from the flavor text, "Monks make careful study of a magical energy that most monastic traditions call ki."
I once had a DM that thought this meant that as ki is magical energy anything that used ki was therefore magical. Pointing out SAC didn't help he said that is useful if you are unsure how to interpret something in the PHB but in this instance the PHB is clear so there is no need for the SAC.
Let me tell you, no it does not, lol. If your big baddie rolls really bad, he could burn through all three in a single one of the monk's turns
Edit: my experience with a monk in my CoS campaign was less than favorable for my boy Strahd
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Re-imagining unpopular subclasses as part of FIFY WotC. Let us know what you think of our changes!
The Monk's greatest power is the ability to burn through a boss's Legendary Resistances so the wizard can Polymorph it into a turtle or some nonsense and throw it off a cliff.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Except throwing off a cliff won’t do that much :(
Putting it in a box and dropping that box to the bottom of the ocean on the other hand...
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Re-imagining unpopular subclasses as part of FIFY WotC. Let us know what you think of our changes!
A trick I heard from someone is the polymorph an enemy into a dolphin on land. They have no walking speed but also breath air so you basically can just leave them like that for the duration of the spell. They can't go anywhere and unlike turning them into a fish, they won't drown and revert.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
My Go-to has always just been a turtle. They're too slow to really get away like something similarly non-threatening like a squirrel or I dunno... a Wombat or something. But they're big enough to pick up. One combo I've pulled off before is polymorph an enemy into a turtle, then toss them into a bag of holding and just let them suffocate in there. Another one I pulled off was to Polymorph one enemy, then throw them at another and drop concentration right before it hits to essentially throw one hobgoblin at another. My DM was pretty generous by letting the hobgoblin maintain momentum from the throw instead of just, y'know... getting back to it's normal body and landing on its feet.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Oh, see that’s just *asking* for an episode 14 seasons later when they finally break free and have spent all those years plotting revenge on you… haha