James Gasik
We don't talk about Pun-Pun
It wouldn't do much to protect a monster that has a bad save to begin with, but it is an option.Reliable Resistance? If the monster rolls 9 or less on a saving throw, it's a 10?
It wouldn't do much to protect a monster that has a bad save to begin with, but it is an option.Reliable Resistance? If the monster rolls 9 or less on a saving throw, it's a 10?
OK so to be clear, you find the slog comes from "roll two d20s, take the higher."Well first, 4 out of 5 PC's are casters, so there's a lot of saves going around. But it really came to a head when we had a fight with these CR 1/8 fey with magic resistance- there were a lot of them, and just getting through one entangle from the Druid had me going "...this is going to be a thing for the whole campaign. My God, this is going to suck."
EDIT: you're right that I could just roll 2d20 at the same time and it wouldn't really slow things down that much. In the moment, I was irritated by all the die rolls, but my real problem is that it feels like too strong of an advantage, and one that's overused, and it doesn't feel particularly fair to my players.
Now obviously, not every fight is going to have that many opponents with magic resistance, but it feels like a lot of monsters have it, and I'm looking to kill two birds here- one come up with something that works more smoothly, and two be a touch more reasonable with my players. I don't want them thinking I'm going out of my way to nerf their characters, lol. But if an adventure says "and they fight a devil", I would like to use a devil, and not have to go find another creature because I think the party has been facing too many resistant foes.
I could just remove the trait, but I was hoping to find a middle ground.
1: voluntary failed saves.I noticed that both the current and upcoming adventures in my 5e game have a lot of enemies with magic resistance. My party consists of 1 Fighter and four casters, so constantly rolling saves with advantage is going to slow down the game and be pretty obnoxious for the players.
I’m thinking something like:I noticed that both the current and upcoming adventures in my 5e game have a lot of enemies with magic resistance. My party consists of 1 Fighter and four casters, so constantly rolling saves with advantage is going to slow down the game and be pretty obnoxious for the players.
So I'm curious if anyone has a good house rule for magic resistance to make it less onerous. I tried replacing it with "resistance to spell damage", after seeing it on the Archmage, but while that makes rolling saves faster and ensures debilitating effects will land more frequently, it has the same basic issue as "resistance to b/p/s from non-magical weapons", another plague upon the system, and the end result is combats are still a slog.
I started to go there as well but had the same conclusion.Something else I was considering was having limited magic resistance, that only works against certain schools of magic, but I realized afterwards that time would end up being spent for characters to look up the schools of their spells to find out what they are, as generally only Wizards care about such things.
If you have multiples of creatures don't roll individual saves. One roll and apply it to the lot. That is what I've done for years and it works fine.Well first, 4 out of 5 PC's are casters, so there's a lot of saves going around. But it really came to a head when we had a fight with these CR 1/8 fey with magic resistance- there were a lot of them, and just getting through one entangle from the Druid had me going "...this is going to be a thing for the whole campaign. My God, this is going to suck."
I find that to be a big need to casters in general.If you have multiples of creatures don't roll individual saves. One roll and apply it to the lot. That is what I've done for years and it works fine.
I have a couple tricks I've tried, very likely will be unpopular. But before I even utter my D&D blasphemies, it almost sounds like your issue is the interaction between spells with ongoing saves & Magic Resistance being tedious and feeling unfair.Well first, 4 out of 5 PC's are casters, so there's a lot of saves going around. But it really came to a head when we had a fight with these CR 1/8 fey with magic resistance- there were a lot of them, and just getting through one entangle from the Druid had me going "...this is going to be a thing for the whole campaign. My God, this is going to suck."
EDIT: you're right that I could just roll 2d20 at the same time and it wouldn't really slow things down that much. In the moment, I was irritated by all the die rolls, but my real problem is that it feels like too strong of an advantage, and one that's overused, and it doesn't feel particularly fair to my players.
Now obviously, not every fight is going to have that many opponents with magic resistance, but it feels like a lot of monsters have it, and I'm looking to kill two birds here- one come up with something that works more smoothly, and two be a touch more reasonable with my players. I don't want them thinking I'm going out of my way to nerf their characters, lol. But if an adventure says "and they fight a devil", I would like to use a devil, and not have to go find another creature because I think the party has been facing too many resistant foes.
I could just remove the trait, but I was hoping to find a middle ground.
Actually I wouldn't mind that at all if it were an extra line in the monster statblock or description. I think it's a cool idea, probably done in some OSR game somewhere as well :'DSo back to my tricks... I love to make monster-specific alternatives to Magic Resistance (as well as to B-P-S resistances). For example, I ran a coin-themed devil who had Magic Resistance to all spells except those ringing a holy water doused silver bell as a component or those cast by someone who selflessly tithed for a faith they believed in.
Mostly when I suggest this, GMs balk and say "No, too much work, want universal solution." I'm sure you can come up with a better solution to the current Magic Resistance mechanics that could work universally, but my view is it's the one-brush-stroke-fits-all approach that leads to milquetoast design like Magic Resistance. IOW I'm 100% sure that you can do better, but universal Magic Resistance mechanics are never going to feel awesome, they're just going to be better than uninspired.