D&D 3E/3.5 [3.5] Energy Resistance

[Caliban]

The way Energy Resistance works has changed. It now applies against each individual attack, like DR.

In 3.0, it would just absorb a certain amount of damage per round, so that it was possible to overwhelm it if you did enough attacks:

i.e. A creature with Fire Resistance 20
-- In 3.0, you could cast two fireballs on the creature, each doing 30 points of fire damage. It prevent the first 20 points from the first fireball, and nothing from the second. The creature would take 40 points of damage.
-- In 3.5, you cast two fireballs on the creature, each doing 30 points of damage. It prevents the first 20 points of damge from each fireball. The creature takes 20 points of damage.

This is a pretty big change.

 

[coyote6]

Yup.

Entirely predictable, too, since it's much easier to handle (when you fireball the fiendish critter, you don't have to remember whether the other PC's burning sphere got it before its last action or after), and 3.5e's mania is Simplification*.

*(to an extreme, in a couple of cases, IMO; I was pleasantly surprised to see the rod of wonder )

PS: I think there might be a place or two where phrasing like "per round" is still used; ISTR coming across such a section, though I don't recall where.

 

[James McMurray]

That's true, but generlly the levels of resistance have changed. For instance, Endure Elements no longer allows any resistance at all.

Also, I've rarely been in a situation where an enemy had resistance against a single element and the party decided to try to overwhelm that resistance rather than go around it.

 

[Caliban]

That's true, but generlly the levels of resistance have changed. For instance, Endure Elements no longer allows any resistance at all.

Also, I've rarely been in a situation where an enemy had resistance against a single element and the party decided to try to overwhelm that resistance rather than go around it.

You've never fought multiple huge fiendish black puddings in an enclosed area then... <shudder>

 

[coyote6]

That's true, but generlly the levels of resistance have changed. For instance, Endure Elements no longer allows any resistance at all.

Resist energy now stops 10 pts (down from 12) -- from levels 3-6. At 7th level, it goes to 20, and goes to 30 (higher than most critters' resistances, IIRC) at 11th level.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

is its duration still the same?

I always found the big limit not the per round part but the short duration. Unless I know I'm facing elemental damage it always seemed to be a sub par choice since it expired so quickly. It always seems to be a spell not to be a spell but to eb made into a item.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Raiding the tombs of spellcasting monarchs I see. . . .

You've never fought multiple huge fiendish black puddings in an enclosed area then... <shudder>

 

[DevoutlyApathetic]

You've never fought multiple huge fiendish black puddings in an enclosed area then... <shudder>

Enjoy LG at Origins?

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I think it is an improvement. Less bookkeeping. Consistent with DR. It also makes modest energy resistances more valuable because it was trivial to simply blow through by hammering away with the same damage type, e.g. everyone throw a Javelin of Lightning. The corollary is that monsters no longer require obnoxiously high resistances to maintain the flavor.