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Message: <blockquote data-quote="IanB" data-source="post: 4814919" data-attributes="member: 1473">There are good game balance reasons to keep vulnerabilities and immunities to a minimum in 4e.Start with the fact that characters have a fairly minimal number of powers compared to earlier editions. A character who picks all fire powers, for example, in order to stick to a theme, could just be flat out screwed by immune fire monsters in prior editions, and no longer has the ability to come back the next day with a loadout of cold spells instead, or whatever. In 4e immunities are very rare, so while the character might be weaker in encounters with fire resistant monsters, he will very rarely be outright useless. This nod to thematic character building is, I think, the most important reason to avoid outright immunities in monster design, because it works in service of actually role-playing.Vulnerabilities also tend to create large differences in player power vs. different types of creatures. Minimizing vulnerabilities means an adventure writer can create challenges without having to spend too much time worrying about certain character configurations trivializing the challenge.Undead are the big exception, which I think was something of a mistake; divine classes are filled to the brim with radiant powers but there aren't really very many in other classes so the challenge level a particular encounter might have for a group with no divine characters is quite a lot higher than for one without divine characters, especially if you need radiant damage to shut down some incredibly powerful aura effect (see: mad wraith.)</blockquote>

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