While trying to pick a damage type for a new dragonborn PC's dragon I breath I calculated these statistics on the resistances and vulnerabilities of all the monsters in the 4e Monster Manual from level 1 to 33. Hopefully these are of interest for picking powers in general:
Obviously, resistance to fire and necrotic are much (5-6X) more common than anything else. Poison resistance is also more common than other attack modes.
Vulnerabilities are much more rare- and the only significant one is radiant vulnerability for undead.
Finally, a look at immunities:
Disease and poison are the only common immunities (all the undead), but
fire is more common than acid, cold, thunder, or lightning.
It seems that fire, necrotic, and poison are substandard energy types.
A power that uses these energy types had better have some extra feature to make up for that.
Dragonborn should choose lightning or cold for breath. Fire and poison should be avoided unless the player has a roleplaying reason to choose them.
Code:
# resistance to: % of all (487) monsters
1 all 0.21%
14 acid 2.87%
14 cold 2.87%
1 force 0.21%
12 insubstantial 2.46%
65 fire 13.35%
11 lightning 2.26%
61 necrotic 12.53%
23 poison 4.72%
1 psychic 0.21%
11 thunder 2.26%
9 radiant 1.85%
12 variable 2.46%
8 ½ from melee & ranged 1.64%
3 other 0.62%
209 total with resistance 42.92%
278 total without resistance 57.08%Obviously, resistance to fire and necrotic are much (5-6X) more common than anything else. Poison resistance is also more common than other attack modes.
Code:
# vulnerable to: % of all (487) monsters
0 acid 0.0%
3 cold 0.62%
6 fire 1.23%
0 lightning 0.0%
2 necrotic 0.41%
0 poison 0.0%
0 psychic 0.0%
0 thunder 0.0%
44 radiant 9.03%
8 area and close 1.64%
63 total with vulnerability 12.94%
424 total without vulnerability 87.06%Vulnerabilities are much more rare- and the only significant one is radiant vulnerability for undead.
Finally, a look at immunities:
Code:
# immune to: % of all (487) monsters
0 acid 0.00%
1 cold 0.21%
6 fire 1.23%
2 lightning 0.41%
87 poison 17.86%
0 thunder 0.00%
2 necrotic 0.41%
0 radiant 0.00%
2 filth fever 0.41%
4 chaos phage 0.82%
5 charm 1.03%
9 sleep 1.85%
26 fear 5.34%
88 disease 18.07%
3 illusion 0.62%
2 push/pull/slide 0.41%
2 knocked prone 0.41%
16 petrification 3.29%
1 moon frenzy 0.21%
11 gaze 2.26%
147 total with immunity 30.18%
340 total without immunity 69.82%Disease and poison are the only common immunities (all the undead), but
fire is more common than acid, cold, thunder, or lightning.
It seems that fire, necrotic, and poison are substandard energy types.
A power that uses these energy types had better have some extra feature to make up for that.
Dragonborn should choose lightning or cold for breath. Fire and poison should be avoided unless the player has a roleplaying reason to choose them.
