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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 8810352" data-attributes="member: 907">Spell Resistance (and formerly Magic Resistance) is/was something completely different (cue Monty Python here). Spell resistance was the ability to completely shrug off direct magic, but did not work against magic acting indirectly (it would prevent you from being dominated, but it wouldn't help if I dominate your buddy and make him attack you). It was also a fairly rare ability, mostly used for highly magical creatures like outsiders, dragons, and some aberrations.What I'm after is something more akin to Pathfinder 2's designation of certain abilities as "Incapacitation" (although using a different method). In PF2, a debuff that can negate a combatants ability to fight entirely, or nearly so, will usually have a tag called Incapacitation. This includes things like blindness, paralyze, charm, and so on. These are things that essentially end a fight. The effect in PF2 is that if you use such an ability on a creature with level higher than double the spell's level (or higher than your level if it's a non-spell), the target improves the result of their save one step (critical failure to failure to success to critical success). This combined with PF2's rapidly escalating numerical values means that such spells are virtually useless against higher-level creatures.I would instead go the other way and have spells and abilities that debuff without incapacitating be more or less automatic. You already have this on some spells – there's no save against hunter's mark, for example. That's because while it is technically a debuff on the target, it acts more like a buff on the caster – the caster deals more damage and has advantage on certain checks. Similarly, while bane technically gives the enemy a penalty to attacks, the net effect is similar to giving yourself/your allies an AC bonus.</blockquote>

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