Impact of Characters with Resistances

[Rechan]

Many moons ago, a poster on EnWorld made a great suggestion: that you should reward a player's character choices by putting them in a situation where they excel. For instance, as a DM, let the monster marked by the fighter or paladin attack someone else, so the fighter gets an extra attack/paladin does damage, so they get to showboat their powers.

The specific example was, "I have a tiefling in my party. I love throwing fire users at her, because that fire resistance makes her shine."

I liked this idea. However, recently, I was wondering how much of an impact this would have in an encounter (and an adventure) if you did this. How often should you use monsters your players have better defense or offense against, and how often should those monsters attack the PC with the defense?

The initial thought occurred to me after I was setting up my campaign. In it, main area of the whole campaign is a jungle. Many, many monsters use poison. An Amulet of Poison would make a great item to drop into a treasure, but then, how often should I throw poison-using monsters at the PCs, and how often should those poison-users attack the amulet barer? The same could be said for various items that harm monsters that grapple the user, etc.

I, the DM, know that monster is going to be selecting a sub-par choice even before it makes the attack. So should I exercise it often? And, once the monster would realize "Hey, this is a bad idea", they would shift their attacks to someone who is not as well defended against their attacks. Is that good, because the PC's item is making the monster avoid them now, or bad, because the PC isn't getting to exercise that item (like the Tiefling with the fire resistance who can't get the fire users to shoot at him).

After all. As a DM, I want the PCs to enjoy their loot/abilities. On the other hand, I don't want to put duct tape and foam on the enemies and hold the proverbial punches. I want each battle to be rough and tumble and be a bit dangerous.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Well, if a defender has the amulet of poison, then you can do both.

 

[DracoSuave]

I plan on groundbounding Scorching Bursts in RPGA this weekend as a tiefling.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I liked this idea. However, recently, I was wondering how much of an impact this would have in an encounter (and an adventure) if you did this. How often should you use monsters your players have better defense or offense against, and how often should those monsters attack the PC with the defense?

I'd say that you should do it when it's dramatically interesting.

Take shooting fire at the tiefling, for example. If every fire-using creature shoots fire at the tiefling, realises it doesn't work well, and switches targets, then it becomes mundane and quite boring.

If, however, an important villain / powerful elite monster / big scary dragon does it, burns a bunch of people but the tiefling gets to stand tall and ignore it, then it's dramatically interesting and memorable. Give the tiefling player a +1 to hit next round or something to pep it up a bit (maybe don't tell the player?).

Let monsters learn from their mistakes, but let them make mistakes first. After all, if you're looking at a bunch of adventurers, how are the monsters going to know that one is a fighter (rather than a Cleric, Paladin or other heavy-armour using class?) How can you spot a Wizard compared to a Warlock, Swordmage or Druid? Enemies should learn fast, if they're smart, but they should make mistakes. It makes everything more interesting IMO.

 

[Rafe]

The specific example was, "I have a tiefling in my party. I love throwing fire users at her, because that fire resistance makes her shine."

I liked this idea. However, recently, I was wondering how much of an impact this would have in an encounter (and an adventure) if you did this. How often should you use monsters your players have better defense or offense against, and how often should those monsters attack the PC with the defense?

I would say: Don't meta-DM. While you want a race's or class' abilities to shine, do so under conditions that make sense. It's doubtful that a creature with fire damage abilities knows that a tiefling has resists. Then again, you might rule that anything infernal or abyssal would know this, though other creatures wouldn't.

Mathew_Freeman's idea is a good one. The best times to spotlight any ability or power is when it's dramatically appropriate/interesting to do so.

 

[Syrsuro]

It is a good idea to throw encounters at the characters which play to their strengths as that lets the characters shine.

It is a good idea to throw encounters at the characters which play to their weaknesses as that challenges them and makes them think.




In other words - it is a good idea to throw encounters at the characters. Period. Regardless of type.

They will just get different forms of enjoyment out of the two types and thus the only real rule is don't do either exclusively.

Carl

 

[Starfox]

In the OPs example, I think that fire resistance would be pretty obvious. But is there a direct way for a critter to tell if the target is resistant to poison - especially if that resistance takes the form of a bonus/auto-success at saving throws against continuing damage?

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I don´t know how ften i tried to use sleep on elves and half elves in 3rd edition... as a DM... really...

and usually i have just let it pass when either the wizard didn´t notice that he deals with elves or doesn´t know much about elves...

so you should just "forget" that your character has resistances against something... and make either tactical decisions without that information or use the usual: "roll out who is attacked" method...

 

[Tale]

If the enemies are doing something that particular players have better defense against, then the players should be helping you make them feel awesome by soaking it up, as it were.

However, they likely won't. hah

 

[Ulthwithian]

Well, the way I see this, you should use powers against the resistant character, but only powers that make sense (beyond the 'oops, didn't know that' stage).

In a way, such 'rattlesnake' abilities are their own reward. If a Tiefling's fire resistance means that he's rarely/never targeted by fire attacks... isn't that useful in its own right? If the Tiefling is a squishy (like so many are), this redirects damage to the 'correct' sources. If the Tiefling is a Defender, then the monster has its own dilemma of whether to take the penalties associated with the Mark, or do sub-par damage to the Tiefling.

I saw this played out in a rather dramatic fashion yesterday with our Dark Pact Warlock. When I first read the Dark Spiral Aura, I was not impressed. 'It doesn't do anything!' was my first response. But then I saw it in play. It has huge rattlesnake potential. Once the Dark Spiral Aura activates, the enemies don't want to attack the warlock. This is of immediate benefit to the Warlock. This also is a positive reinforcement. The longer you don't attack the Warlock, the more powerful the Aura becomes, triggering a greater deterrent.

In any event, I would treat resistances in much the same way.