Double resistance

[sammy]

The dwarven Fighter in my group I DM has a resistance to fire and necrotic, both at 5. They ran into a Deathpriest of Orcus, who has a ray that does necrotic AND fire. He hit the dwarf, and did 9 damage. Does the dwarf resist ALL of it (since 5 + 5 = 10), or does only the first 5 kick in, so he would take 4 points of damage?

Thanks in advance,

Sammy

 

[tiornys]

He resists 5 of the damage, not all of it. You can find the relevant text in the update to the PHB:

Keywords [Revision]
Player’s Handbook, page 55
Replace the second and third sentences of the fourth paragraph with the
following: “Also, resistance doesn’t reduce damage unless the target has
resistance to each type of damage from the attack, and then only the weakest of
the resistances applies. For example, a character who has resist 10 lightning and
resist 5 thunder who takes 15 lightning and thunder damage takes 10 damage
because the resistance value to the combined damage types is limited by the
lesser of the two resistances.”

Note that the PHB's original text would have had him resisting all of the damage, as it would have divided into 5 necrotic and 4 fire damage.

t~

 

[Syrsuro]

He only resists five. The only way that he would resist 10 would be if the ray did 5 fire and 5 necrotic (rather than 10 of both).

Also note, from the errata:

Keywords [Revision]
Player’s Handbook, page 55
Replace the second and third sentences of the fourth paragraph with the
following: “Also, resistance doesn’t reduce damage unless the target has
resistance to each type of damage from the attack, and then only the weakest of the resistances applies. For example, a character who has resist 10 lightning and resist 5 thunder who takes 15 lightning and thunder damage takes 10 damage because the resistance value to the combined damage types is limited by the lesser of the two resistances.”

Carl​