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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sir Brennen" data-source="post: 4687205" data-attributes="member: 553">Well, the SKR article is merely pointing out how immunities can break down logically at the extremes, and with 4E including Epic play built in, extremes can be part of the existing play experience. Now maybe using the heart of a star or bowels of a fire god are beyond the realm of practical play (but hey, this is a fantasy game), but what about a 3E giant wading through a pool of lava (not an unlikely hazard when facing fire giants) or the breath weapon of a Red Great Wyrm (24d10 fire)? Just how "immune" should a creature of flesh and blood with "immunity to fire" be? It's going to be a matter of personal taste for a DM, but with resistances, at least they can set the threshold to something they feel makes sense.I was also pointing out that 4E seems to have followed this path, and taken alot of these immunities out and replaced them with differing levels of resistance.For instance, red dragons are no longer immune to fire in 4E. But an ancient red dragon could exist comfortably in his volcano-caverns lair with his Resist 40 fire. However, his fire aura alone would be enough to cook a red dragon wyrmling (Resist 5 fire) to death. Fire giants have only Resist 15 fire, while the related - but more elemental in nature - Fire Titans have Resist 30.Total immunity to fire seems to be reserved for those creatures which could logically exist within a conflagration, such as efreets and pyroclastic dragons.Looking at the resistances of creatures across various levels, I don't think a feat which allowed a specialist to ignore an amount of resistance equal to their level against their chosen element of specialty would be out of line. Or maybe a feat which gave 5 points of penetration of a select resistance, and then a paragon path which made it equal to the character's level.I still don't see making resistances into defenses as a good solution - they would either have to be low enough that an attack could still reasonably overcome it, thus making the creature still fairly vulnerable to its own natural environment, or high enough to allow it to live where one would expect, which would then basically change it from "resistant" to "immune" when it comes to attacks by the players using that element, with the exception of the occasional critical.I also don't see the "just make attacks untyped" approach. Not only does it really break down some of the few remaining simulationist aspects of the game ("I can do full damage to a fire elemental with my fireball, because all instances of the word 'fire' in this sentence are just fluff."), but it chops out huge chunks of potential design space for powers, items and creatures.</blockquote>

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