Hey all, I'm starting a campaign with a group of newbies as a first time dm and recently ran into a small problem. I had the party fight small horde of low level demons, including one that when attacked let off a poisen gas. Well my party has a warforged barbarian who attacked one of these guys and when I asked him to roll against the poisen cloud (with advantage because he's a warforged) he said he didn't have to because he didn't have to breathe. I felt dumb then let him go on without rolling leading to him carrying the fight. My question is are warforged immune to poisen gas and other gas based attacks? Thanks for the help!
Which demon specifically? The poison gas/not needing to breathe interaction is an interesting one - cloudkill specifies that even if you don’t need to breathe the spell still affects you, but I don’t know if the demon does. However, the fact the warforged has resistance to poison damage and advantage on saves against being poisoned I would have thought is a perfectly acceptable representation of not inhaling the gas and just being exposed to it.
redpelt has the right of it: if it's an official monster from the books then the statblock will probably say something in the power about opponents who don't breathe being immune, else breathing just isn't a factor. if it's something you made up yourself, maybe next time the lead demon has a clacking, slobbering rust monster mouth hungry for fantasy-robot skin.
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As the above have said but you can also think about it in terms of an allergic reaction similar to Poison Ivy (the plant not the comic book villain), if you come into contact with it there is a chance the poison ivy will cause a reaction resulting in painful inflammation etc. So if the fiendish gas might have plant like spores flaoting in it and if it comes into contact with you, regardless of whether you need to breathe or not, there is a chance the poison will induce some toxic reaction as your physical body reacts to the posion.
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I agree... it's less hassle to just establish that poison gas is caustic to the skin, rather than necessarily needing to be directly inhaled to work. Otherwise even non-warforged could just hold their breath and run through clouds of poison. By default, anyone with at least a 10 in CON can hold their breath for at least a minute... the length of an entire battle.
Broadly speaking, "gases" in D&D will absorb through/react with flesh, as the attacks simply say "creatures in X area", not "creatures in X area who breathe in the gas". You can't hold your breath or not breathe to be unaffected by spells like Cloudkill (which even specifically calls out that it works on contact), a green dragon's breath attack, etc. The resistance to poison damage and advantage on saves against the condition already cover the protection they get from their nature.
Ace has it right. Poison gasses affect you even if you do not have to breathe, unless the description says otherwise. Note, in real life, all the really nasty poison gasses affect you even if you are not breathing. Mustard Gas, the main poison gas from WWI was known for blinding people and causing massive skin damage. So does my personal horror nightmare the gas produced from burning logs of Manchineel trees found in Florida.
There is a reason why military gas masks always cover the eyes at a bare minimum.
It was a few drenches. I'd figure that he'd have advantage on poison weapons like dart guns but immune to just gas.i could be wrong though just want to clarify lol.
I'd figure holding your breath would i.pair fighting though, and getting hit would knock yhe breath out of you. I might just rethink how I use enemies in the future. It was really an over sight on my part to rely on it to much.
I gotcha, I might rule that he is immune to less powerful poisen to let him have a special role but if not I'll just let him know gas effects his "skin".
I'd figure holding your breath would i.pair fighting though, and getting hit would knock yhe breath out of you. I might just rethink how I use enemies in the future. It was really an over sight on my part to rely on it to much.
The DM is always free to adjust the rules to what makes sense for them and their table, but going purely off of the rules as written, no additional rules are in place for how much effort you can exert while holding your breath... you can hold your breath just as long sitting comfortably in a chair or jogging through the woods. I think that the rules were written primarily with underwater exploration in mind, so the idea seems to be that the game is deliberately designed so that you could engage in combat underwater without just immediately drowning if you don't have some means of breathing water.
It was a few drenches. I'd figure that he'd have advantage on poison weapons like dart guns but immune to just gas.i could be wrong though just want to clarify lol.
If a character has immunity to a particular effect, it will say so either in the character's description or the effect's description.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Thanks for the help. Sometimes I forget that the rules aren't absolute lol. I'll let him know it's not RAE and it might differ by dm but in my game he would be immune to not super potent gasses. I'll probably compare it to mist vs smog so he doesn't try to run into dragons breath.
On topic of holding one’s breath, you could treat it like holding concentration on a spell, where if you get hit you make a CON save or something like that.
To my mind, this is very very simple: If it doesn't flat out state in the description of warforged that they're immune to poison gas - then they are not immune to poison gas. End of discussion.
And what it does say is that they have resistance, and advantage on saves. Since that's literally there in writing, that's what you get.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
To my mind, this is very very simple: If it doesn't flat out state in the description of warforged that they're immune to poison gas - then they are not immune to poison gas. End of discussion.
And what it does say is that they have resistance, and advantage on saves. Since that's literally there in writing, that's what you get.
Or if the description of the effect says that creatures that don't need to breathe are immune to the effect.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
This is a good opportunity to educate yourself and your players on how to understand and apply the rules around resistances and immunities in 5E D&D. First off, the warforged Constructed Resilience trait describes the character's benefit with regard to poison in the game (among other things):
Constructed Resilience
You were created to have remarkable fortitude, represented by the following benefits:
You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and you have resistance to poison damage.
You don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe.
You are immune to disease.
You don’t need to sleep, and magic can’t put you to sleep.
Note that in 5E there is the poisoned condition and poison damage, and the first bullet point of the Constructed Resilience feature applies to both (the advantage on saves applies when threatened with both the poisoned condition and taking damage, and resistance means the character only takes half of any poison damage). Then, we need to read the description Dretch's Fetid Cloud action option:
Fetid Cloud (1/Day). A 10-foot radius of disgusting green gas extends out from the dretch. The gas spreads around corners, and its area is lightly obscured. It lasts for 1 minute or until a strong wind disperses it. Any creature that starts its turn in that area must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the start of its next turn. While poisoned in this way, the target can take either an action or a bonus action on its turn, not both, and can't take reactions.
You'll note that it requires a saving throw to avoid suffering the poisoned condition, so in this case the warforged character would get advantage on that saving throw. But, even though the Fetid Cloud is described as a gas, it doesn't say that it only affects creatures who need to breathe, so the warforged character is not immune to the effect.
Or if the description of the effect says that creatures that don't need to breathe are immune to the effect.
Sure. That too.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
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Hey all, I'm starting a campaign with a group of newbies as a first time dm and recently ran into a small problem. I had the party fight small horde of low level demons, including one that when attacked let off a poisen gas. Well my party has a warforged barbarian who attacked one of these guys and when I asked him to roll against the poisen cloud (with advantage because he's a warforged) he said he didn't have to because he didn't have to breathe. I felt dumb then let him go on without rolling leading to him carrying the fight. My question is are warforged immune to poisen gas and other gas based attacks? Thanks for the help!
Which demon specifically? The poison gas/not needing to breathe interaction is an interesting one - cloudkill specifies that even if you don’t need to breathe the spell still affects you, but I don’t know if the demon does. However, the fact the warforged has resistance to poison damage and advantage on saves against being poisoned I would have thought is a perfectly acceptable representation of not inhaling the gas and just being exposed to it.
Just my two pence.
I can’t remember what’s supposed to go here.
redpelt has the right of it: if it's an official monster from the books then the statblock will probably say something in the power about opponents who don't breathe being immune, else breathing just isn't a factor. if it's something you made up yourself, maybe next time the lead demon has a clacking, slobbering rust monster mouth hungry for fantasy-robot skin.
unhappy at the way in which we lost individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: provide feedback!
As the above have said but you can also think about it in terms of an allergic reaction similar to Poison Ivy (the plant not the comic book villain), if you come into contact with it there is a chance the poison ivy will cause a reaction resulting in painful inflammation etc. So if the fiendish gas might have plant like spores flaoting in it and if it comes into contact with you, regardless of whether you need to breathe or not, there is a chance the poison will induce some toxic reaction as your physical body reacts to the posion.
I agree... it's less hassle to just establish that poison gas is caustic to the skin, rather than necessarily needing to be directly inhaled to work. Otherwise even non-warforged could just hold their breath and run through clouds of poison. By default, anyone with at least a 10 in CON can hold their breath for at least a minute... the length of an entire battle.
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Broadly speaking, "gases" in D&D will absorb through/react with flesh, as the attacks simply say "creatures in X area", not "creatures in X area who breathe in the gas". You can't hold your breath or not breathe to be unaffected by spells like Cloudkill (which even specifically calls out that it works on contact), a green dragon's breath attack, etc. The resistance to poison damage and advantage on saves against the condition already cover the protection they get from their nature.
Ace has it right. Poison gasses affect you even if you do not have to breathe, unless the description says otherwise. Note, in real life, all the really nasty poison gasses affect you even if you are not breathing. Mustard Gas, the main poison gas from WWI was known for blinding people and causing massive skin damage. So does my personal horror nightmare the gas produced from burning logs of Manchineel trees found in Florida.
There is a reason why military gas masks always cover the eyes at a bare minimum.
It was a few drenches. I'd figure that he'd have advantage on poison weapons like dart guns but immune to just gas.i could be wrong though just want to clarify lol.
I love that idea! I'll have to find a way to work them into a future session :)
I'd figure holding your breath would i.pair fighting though, and getting hit would knock yhe breath out of you. I might just rethink how I use enemies in the future. It was really an over sight on my part to rely on it to much.
I gotcha, I might rule that he is immune to less powerful poisen to let him have a special role but if not I'll just let him know gas effects his "skin".
The DM is always free to adjust the rules to what makes sense for them and their table, but going purely off of the rules as written, no additional rules are in place for how much effort you can exert while holding your breath... you can hold your breath just as long sitting comfortably in a chair or jogging through the woods. I think that the rules were written primarily with underwater exploration in mind, so the idea seems to be that the game is deliberately designed so that you could engage in combat underwater without just immediately drowning if you don't have some means of breathing water.
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
If a character has immunity to a particular effect, it will say so either in the character's description or the effect's description.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Thanks for the help. Sometimes I forget that the rules aren't absolute lol. I'll let him know it's not RAE and it might differ by dm but in my game he would be immune to not super potent gasses. I'll probably compare it to mist vs smog so he doesn't try to run into dragons breath.
On topic of holding one’s breath, you could treat it like holding concentration on a spell, where if you get hit you make a CON save or something like that.
To my mind, this is very very simple: If it doesn't flat out state in the description of warforged that they're immune to poison gas - then they are not immune to poison gas. End of discussion.
And what it does say is that they have resistance, and advantage on saves. Since that's literally there in writing, that's what you get.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Or if the description of the effect says that creatures that don't need to breathe are immune to the effect.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
This is a good opportunity to educate yourself and your players on how to understand and apply the rules around resistances and immunities in 5E D&D. First off, the warforged Constructed Resilience trait describes the character's benefit with regard to poison in the game (among other things):
Note that in 5E there is the poisoned condition and poison damage, and the first bullet point of the Constructed Resilience feature applies to both (the advantage on saves applies when threatened with both the poisoned condition and taking damage, and resistance means the character only takes half of any poison damage). Then, we need to read the description Dretch's Fetid Cloud action option:
You'll note that it requires a saving throw to avoid suffering the poisoned condition, so in this case the warforged character would get advantage on that saving throw. But, even though the Fetid Cloud is described as a gas, it doesn't say that it only affects creatures who need to breathe, so the warforged character is not immune to the effect.
Sure. That too.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.