D&D 5E Magic Resistance: What was Old is New

dave2008

Legend
I am making some changes to the format / layout of my monster stat blocks. As part of this process I am thinking about return to old school (1e) magic resistance instead of the current 5e version. For those who don't know, here is what 1e had to say about magic resistance:

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So here is the simplified 5e version I am thinking of:

ver 3.
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And here is a sample stat block. The DM would need to roll at or below 18 - the spell's caster level. So an 8 or lower for a 10th level Wizard.

ver 3.
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What do you think? Is this better or worse than Advantage on Saving Throws and/or Legendary Resistance? Is it to complicated or time consuming? Could it be improved?
 
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I am making some changes to the format / layout of my monster stat blocks. As part of this process I am thinking about return to old school (1e) magic resistance instead of the current 5e version. For those who don't know, here is what 1e had to say about magic resistance:

View attachment 389806
View attachment 389807

So here is the simplified 5e version I am thinking of:
View attachment 389817

And here is a sample stat block. The DM would need to roll at or below 18 - the spell's caster level. So an 8 or lower for a 10th level Wizard.
View attachment 389819

What do you think? Is this better or worse than Advantage on Saving Throws and/or Legendary Resistance? Is it to complicated or time consuming? Could it be improved?
I strongly support this idea. I feel like it better models the idea that magic sometimes just doesn't work on some creatures much better than 5e.
 

It seems a lot more complicated than the current version. I'm also not a big fan of the "breaks existing spells" thing- if MR is supposed to be defensive, this swings pretty far toward an offensive use.
I wondered about that, but that was in the 1e description and never realized until now. I never played it that way as a DM back in the day - woe is me!

Not sure if it is to punitive or not, not a lot of monsters are likely to have MR and definitely not high MR. Take my wall of force example. If I go by 1e numbers a red abishai (CR 19) would have an MR of 18 and a caster needs to be at least level 9 to cast wall of force. So the best case scenario of that devil is an effective MR of 9, but a level 9 Wizard shouldn't be taking on a CR 19 monster. More likely a level 15 wizard, which would reduce the abishai's MR to 3. Most of your spells will get through that.
 


I think I’d prefer it if the creature could simply ignore the wall of force rather than destroy it. That fits better with the idea of it being resistant to magic.
That makes sense, and goes along with the part from 1e that I forgot to clarify: magic resistance only nullifies the magic for the creature with magic resistance. A fireball still affects everyone else in the area of effect, just not the magic resistant daemon. I will add that back in and revise the part about it shattering the magic.
 


Ok, I have revised the OP with version 2 which removes the breaking an existing spell and makes few other tweaks. Does this look better?
It seems a lot more complicated than the current version. I'm also not a big fan of the "breaks existing spells" thing- if MR is supposed to be defensive, this swings pretty far toward an offensive use.

I think I’d prefer it if the creature could simply ignore the wall of force rather than destroy it. That fits better with the idea of it being resistant to magic.
 

So, your MR is the target for a special roll which just adds the caster level???
Subtract the caster level. So for the abishai with MR 18 a spell cast by a 12th level Wizard would give it an effective MR of 6. The devil would need to roll a 6 or lower to nullify the spell. This is basically the same as the 1e % system, but translated to a d20.
 

I went for a simpler version for my Baldur's Gate II campaign. Every 5% of magic resistance is +1 to saves against spells. The drow mercs the party faced in the Underdark had +10 on saves vs. spells. It adequately simulates the original "My magic isn't very effective!" problem without adding any new math to the system.
 

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