Stealth Errata Alert (MM2): Immunity

[FireLance]

The latest definition of "Immune" in MM2 states that:

A creature that is immune to a damage type (such as cold or fire), a condition (such as dazed or petrified), or another specific effect (such as disease or forced movement) is not affected by it. A creature that is immune to charm, fear, illusion, poison, or sleep is not affected by the nondamaging effects of a power that has that keyword. A creature that is immune to gaze is not affected by powers that have that keyword.

Among other things, it means that powers with the fear or illusion keyword can still damage creatures immune to fear or illusion, unless they are also immune to the power's damage type. Similarly, a creature immune to poison would also take damage from a power with the poison keyword, unless the power only deals poison damage.

 

[CapnZapp]

Okay, so "true" immunity (where you simply look for your keyword in the power's header; if you find it, no part of that power will work against you in any way, regardless of how those parts are worded) is now restricted to gaze immunity only?

Is this going into the MM (MM1 that is) update file? (Otherwise you'd play according to different rules depending on whether you've bought MM2 or not, no?)

 

[FireLance]

It's in the DDI Compendium glossary, so you are technically "updated" if you have a subscription, even if you don't have MM2. Assuming you think to look it up in the Compendium in the first place, that is.

Now that you bring it up, it implies that immunity to fire means immunity to fire type damage only, and not to any other effects caused by a power with the fire keyword, e.g. the attack roll penalty from witchfire. In a way, it does make a bit of sense, since a creature with fire resistance high enough to take zero damage from the power would still be affected by the other effects. This effectively makes immunity to a damage type nothing more than infinite resistance.

 

[CapnZapp]

This effectively makes immunity to a damage type nothing more than infinite resistance.

So infinite oregano really is oregano immunity then?!

(Seriously, wouldn't it have been easier to (re-)define non-gaze immunity this way, WotC? )

 

[tmatk]

Does this refer only to the initial damage of the attack? Can a creature that's immune to poison suffer ongoing poison damage?

edit - OK, I think I see. Immune to poison means means immune to all the damage AND the non-damaging effect?

 

[FireLance]

edit - OK, I think I see. Immune to poison means means immune to all the damage AND the non-damaging effect?

To be exact, immune to poison means immune (infinite resistance) to poison type damage and non-damaging effects of powers with the poison keyword.

 

[tiornys]

I don't actually think this is errata. This is how I've always interpreted immunity. It is a clarification, and it's much much clearer than it used to be.

Keywords have always been divided into damage types and effect types, so it made sense to me that immunity to a damage type only protected you from the damage of a power. The confusion stemmed from the MM1's use of Poison as its example: Poison is the only keyword that is both a damage keyword and an effect keyword.

t~