D&D 5E (2014) Is magic resistance (namely advantage to saves versus magic) always broken?

[Weiley31]

Don't know if this helps or anything, last night we had a VERY interesting situation that kinda helped with "working around" Spell Resistance's advantage against spells/magical effects.

So, we(the party) encountered a Black Dragon Dracolich last night. The Cleric casted Hex and chose DEX as the disadvantage penalty for it. When the Emerald Gem Dragonborn went to use its Breath Weapon on it, the Dracolich would have to make a DEX saving throw. The Disadvantage on the chosen DEX Saving Throw was brought up, but the DM pointed out the Dracolich's Spell Resistance, would give it advantage since the Breath Weapon of the Gem Dragonborn is magical(with Fizban's calling this out in the Gem Dragonborn write up section).

The Cleric player brought up the disadvantage from Hex and I followed shortly after with pointing out how Advantage/Disadvantage cancel each other out. So, the DM ruled that the Dracolich ends up having to do a straight DEX Saving Throw with no Advantage DESPITE having Spell Resistance being used against the Emerald Gem Dragonborn's Breath Weapon. In a way, the Cleric handicapped it in a way with Hex.

Spoilers: The Dracolich passes it anyway cuz we are level 1 and fighting a DRACOLICH. Our only advantages against it are an Angel Blade, that my Harpy Ranger found with a HIGH Perception roll, and two NPCs( a Tiefling Spellcaster and a Death Knight) who were on our side.

Anywho if one is able to somehow cause a source of Disadvantage to conflict with Spell Resistance then you can somewhat work around it.

 

[Stalker0]

Compared to a full paladin aura magic reesistance isn't that bad, but sure its a very strong ability, worthy of a rare item's power. So it should be balanced in that category.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Hex only gives disadvantage on ability checks, not saves. The GOO warlock level 10 Hex upgrade causes it to give disadvantage on saves, and therefore can cancel Magic Resistance.

 

[Deset Gled]

Advantage/disadvantage was a bit harder to get in 2016.

 

[Distracted DM]

Someone earlier in this thread (much earlier, almost a decade!) pointed out that gnomes get advantage on int wis and cha spell saves- it has a limit in a fashion, unlike the yuan-ti which were quite popular because of said blanket magic resistance. I think having flat magic resistance is too good to start with.. you're starting a character with something powerful, there's not much else to go to from there- what're you gonna try to get, double-advantage? You'll probably avoid classes or features that give advantage on magic saves if you have it all at level 1, won't you? Meh.

That being said... I still think we need separate magic resistance and spell resistance. Monsters get MR, and maybe PCs can get SR. How are they different? How do they work? Well ha, I gotta check to see if dave2008 ever finished his iteration on it! He had a whole thread for it somewhere a while ago.

 

[Tessarael]

I have a character that is a Warlock with an Imp as a Pact of the Chain familiar, granting magic resistance to the Warlock when the Imp is within 10' of them. Magic resistance is nice, but not that powerful in my opinion. There are quite a few combats where they are not within 10' of each other, or the Imp goes down in combat, which also limits how often there is that benefit.

Also worth mentioning is that a Holy Avenger give advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects in a 10' radius, 30' radius if the Paladin wielding it is level 17+. That was a significant factor in a nominally hard battle last session against mummies being only moderately difficult, as we were rolling well for our saving throws.

 

[Distracted DM]

I have a character that is a Warlock with an Imp as a Pact of the Chain familiar, granting magic resistance to the Warlock when the Imp is within 10' of them. Magic resistance is nice, but not that powerful in my opinion. There are quite a few combats where they are not within 10' of each other, or the Imp goes down in combat, which also limits how often there is that benefit.

Also worth mentioning is that a Holy Avenger give advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects in a 10' radius, 30' radius if the Paladin wielding it is level 17+. That was a significant factor in a nominally hard battle last session against mummies being only moderately difficult, as we were rolling well for our saving throws.

Definitely, though a holy avenger is a legendary weapon only attuneable by a paladin... so to be going up against mummies at a level where they'd be swinging one of those around doesn't seem too terrible, unless it's a bunch of mummy lords?

Re: the imp thing yeah, that's a limiter because of the imp potentially getting killed in a fight via aoe or ranged attacks etc. Though I imagine anyone getting that benefit will insist on shoving their imp in a backpack where they get complete cover and won't be subject to attacks.

 

[Tessarael]

Definitely, though a holy avenger is a legendary weapon only attuneable by a paladin... so to be going up against mummies at a level where they'd be swinging one of those around doesn't seem too terrible, unless it's a bunch of mummy lords?

I think it was one mummy lord and two mummies. We are level 7, with five player characters. Level 7 is rather early to get a Holy Avenger, but the DM has been quite generous with loot. A PC did take a level in Herald to be able to make use of it.

Not sure on the encounter CR. We had forewarning from a Divination spell that fire would be effective against them. If we'd failed more of the saving throws vs. paralyzation and fear, we would have been in significantly more trouble.