Hello everyone, this is my first post on D&D Beyond, and I thought this would be a good place to discuss a topic that I've been internally debating for years. If you obtain permanent resistance to the same damage type from two different sources, such as your species and your subclass, there is no additional benefit. This has always bothered me because it means otherwise thematically logical combinations have a feature go to waste. For example, a recent idea of mine is an Infernal Tiefling Draconic Sorcerer, with Fire as her Elemental Affinity, so that I can add my charisma modifier to the damage of Hellish Rebuke. However, Elemental Affinity would also give me Fire Resistance, which I already have because I'm an Infernal Tiefling, meaning that part of Elemental Affinity is effectively wasted. As a DM my house rule is in cases like this I allow the player to choose an alternative damage resistance I deem appropriate, but I can't expect any hypothetical DM to do the same. So, my question is, is the redundant damage resistance enough of an issue to make Infernal Tiefling a poor choice for a fire-resistant subclass? And, in this case, how good is Hellish Rebuke with Elemental Affinity/Adept?
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Before casting a spell, ask yourself, would this spell be more beneficial to you than casting Fireball instead?
Resistance to fire isn't a particularly big feature, so losing out because of doubling also isn't that big a deal. However, it's reasonably likely you have better uses for your reaction than hellish rebuke, and adding your charisma modifier to its damage won't meaningfully change that decision.
I disagree with Pantagruel, IMO Hellish Rebuke is an underrated spell. It is solid damage, and scales so at high levels you have a use for 2nd and 3rd level slots, especially now that Counterspell has been nerfed. Plus Hellish Rebuke isn't limited to attack rolls, any damage including AoE damage can trigger it so even Sorcerers playing into their archetype and avoiding melee can get use out of it.
As for doubling up on damage resistance, well that's the price you pay for optimizing your character for DPR.
Helpful comments, thank you! I think the appeal of Hellish Rebuke is that it's damage you can deal outside your own turn, even if it's not a huge amount of damage for the spell slot. Elemental Affinity in theory augments this and makes it better, but I haven't gotten a chance to test it yet, and I'm not mathematically minded enough to know how frequently the extra damage is meaningful. I think you're both right though, the doubled up resistance isn't a big enough problem to discount Infernal Tiefling entirely. I realized sometime after I posted this that redundant damage resistances aren't a big deal for Draconic Sorcerers anyway, because from level 9 onward, Summon Dragon is a staple spell for us and we can use that to get whatever resistance we need while also improving DPR. I'll take this idea more seriously now!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Before casting a spell, ask yourself, would this spell be more beneficial to you than casting Fireball instead?
Generally speaking a single instance of adding your ability mod to damage per turn falls off pretty hard by the time you're level 5- enemy HP will be enough that while an extra 3-5 per round certainly doesn't hurt, it's not accounting for more than the random variance of your rolls. Having a reaction that can utilize it will help your DPR spike a little more while you've got the slots to spare, but also burn through those slots faster. If you think it sounds good, go for it, but this isn't really something that does enough work to qualify the cornerstone of a build concept; it's just a few bonus points.
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Hello everyone, this is my first post on D&D Beyond, and I thought this would be a good place to discuss a topic that I've been internally debating for years. If you obtain permanent resistance to the same damage type from two different sources, such as your species and your subclass, there is no additional benefit. This has always bothered me because it means otherwise thematically logical combinations have a feature go to waste. For example, a recent idea of mine is an Infernal Tiefling Draconic Sorcerer, with Fire as her Elemental Affinity, so that I can add my charisma modifier to the damage of Hellish Rebuke. However, Elemental Affinity would also give me Fire Resistance, which I already have because I'm an Infernal Tiefling, meaning that part of Elemental Affinity is effectively wasted. As a DM my house rule is in cases like this I allow the player to choose an alternative damage resistance I deem appropriate, but I can't expect any hypothetical DM to do the same. So, my question is, is the redundant damage resistance enough of an issue to make Infernal Tiefling a poor choice for a fire-resistant subclass? And, in this case, how good is Hellish Rebuke with Elemental Affinity/Adept?
Before casting a spell, ask yourself, would this spell be more beneficial to you than casting Fireball instead?
Resistance to fire isn't a particularly big feature, so losing out because of doubling also isn't that big a deal. However, it's reasonably likely you have better uses for your reaction than hellish rebuke, and adding your charisma modifier to its damage won't meaningfully change that decision.
I disagree with Pantagruel, IMO Hellish Rebuke is an underrated spell. It is solid damage, and scales so at high levels you have a use for 2nd and 3rd level slots, especially now that Counterspell has been nerfed. Plus Hellish Rebuke isn't limited to attack rolls, any damage including AoE damage can trigger it so even Sorcerers playing into their archetype and avoiding melee can get use out of it.
As for doubling up on damage resistance, well that's the price you pay for optimizing your character for DPR.
Helpful comments, thank you! I think the appeal of Hellish Rebuke is that it's damage you can deal outside your own turn, even if it's not a huge amount of damage for the spell slot. Elemental Affinity in theory augments this and makes it better, but I haven't gotten a chance to test it yet, and I'm not mathematically minded enough to know how frequently the extra damage is meaningful. I think you're both right though, the doubled up resistance isn't a big enough problem to discount Infernal Tiefling entirely. I realized sometime after I posted this that redundant damage resistances aren't a big deal for Draconic Sorcerers anyway, because from level 9 onward, Summon Dragon is a staple spell for us and we can use that to get whatever resistance we need while also improving DPR. I'll take this idea more seriously now!
Before casting a spell, ask yourself, would this spell be more beneficial to you than casting Fireball instead?
Generally speaking a single instance of adding your ability mod to damage per turn falls off pretty hard by the time you're level 5- enemy HP will be enough that while an extra 3-5 per round certainly doesn't hurt, it's not accounting for more than the random variance of your rolls. Having a reaction that can utilize it will help your DPR spike a little more while you've got the slots to spare, but also burn through those slots faster. If you think it sounds good, go for it, but this isn't really something that does enough work to qualify the cornerstone of a build concept; it's just a few bonus points.