D&D 5E Spell, Item, or Feat?

[doctorbadwolf]

So, I have a character in my Eberron game who used to (in 4e) be able to effectively ignore immunity and resistance to fire damage. He could burn fire elementals.

There isn’t any option for that that I can find in 5e, but it’s part of his story and what makes him special in the fiction, so it needs to be in there somehow.

So, what would you do, assuming you’d do some thing for him?

I am not interested in “don’t do it” responses.

A spell would be some sort of Abjuration that changes how his Spellcasting works while active, and would require concentration.

An item would probably just reduce immunity to resist, on a limited basis, unless it’s legendary, I’d guess.

A feat might be the right fit in 5e, but what exactly should it do? Downgrade immune to resist, downgrade resist? Downgrade whichever a creature has and have any fire spells do extra fire damage against targets effected equal to 1d6 per spell level once per day?

What would you do?

 

[Perun]

There's already the Elemental Adept feat (PHB, p. 166), that lets you ignore resistance to one element (acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder).

I'd suggest making a Improved Elemental Adept feat, with Elemental Adept as a prerequisite, that lets you ignore immunity to the chosen element. It might be better if it actually converted immunity to resistance, but then that seems not enough of a benefit for the expenditure of two feats. I'd still impose some kind of limitation, something along the lines of legendary creatures not being affected, and/or creatures of a certain CR being immune to the effects (e.g. CR of your level +1/2/3 and/or all creatures of CR, say, 18+)...

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

What is the flavour of the character? How are they able to hurt things that are immune to fire with fire?

You could improve on the Elemental Adept feat as Perun suggests.

If they're connected with the Silver Flame, you could give then an ability that allows them to cast a Fire damage spell to deal Radiant damage instead. Perhaps reduce the dice by one step depending if there is a cost.

 

[rgoodbb]

I think one of the Dragon Masks stated something like
You have resistance to X
If you already have resistance to X, you now have immunity to X
If you have immunity to X, you now heal any damage to take from X

I equally may have dreamed that though

 

[DEFCON 1]

Seeing as how facing off against monsters that are resistant or immune to fire damage is entirely based upon when the DM throws one at the party... if I was the DM I'd just grandfather in your 4E PC and say that your PC can attack fire-resistant monsters normally, and fire-immune monsters only have resistance.

It is such a minor feature bonus that I would never make you spend any resources to have it. It's for all intents and purposes almost just a roleplay feature based on how little you'd probably ever get to use it, so giving it to you "for free" wouldn't bother me at all.

 

[TwoSix]

Assuming this was one of the PCs in a game I was running, I would just give the PC the ability to ignore fire resistance and immunity as a boon. It's probably worth about an uncommon item or so.

Out of curiosity, is asking DMs for special advantages not in the book something people don't normally do? We do it in my games all the time.

 

[Oofta]

Would it be an option to do spell research? So instead of "flame bolt" you have "ice bolt"?

That or elemental adept (with perhaps an improved version).

 

[billd91]

There's already the Elemental Adept feat (PHB, p. 166), that lets you ignore resistance to one element (acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder).

I'd suggest making a Improved Elemental Adept feat, with Elemental Adept as a prerequisite, that lets you ignore immunity to the chosen element. It might be better if it actually converted immunity to resistance, but then that seems not enough of a benefit for the expenditure of two feats. I'd still impose some kind of limitation, something along the lines of legendary creatures not being affected, and/or creatures of a certain CR being immune to the effects (e.g. CR of your level +1/2/3 and/or all creatures of CR, say, 18+)...

I'd go with an Improved Elemental Adept feat. It would require Elemental Adept as a prerequisite and step Damage Immunity to the chosen element down to Damage Resistance. I wouldn't limit it by the CR of the creature at all. Since that's also probably a bit weak as a feat considering Elemental Adept itself offers a bit more than ignoring Damage Resistance to the element in question, I'd also have it add the spellcaster's casting stat to damage for all spells doing the chosen element's damage. It's a nice little boost but not overpowering since it would top out at +5.

 

[DND_Reborn]

How ever you do it, I would never get rid of immunity. At best, something that makes immunity into resistance and resistance would become nothing is as far as I would go with it.

Maybe a metamagic, or a feat as other suggest would be fine. An item would also be okay, but it depends on how much of such things you want in your game.

My first choices as a DM would be a metamagic or bloodline feature.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

What is the flavour of the character? How are they able to hurt things that are immune to fire with fire?

You could improve on the Elemental Adept feat as Perun suggests.

If they're connected with the Silver Flame, you could give then an ability that allows them to cast a Fire damage spell to deal Radiant damage instead. Perhaps reduce the dice by one step depending if there is a cost.

They’re a kobold wizard, and because they’re a PC wizard in Eberron, potentially one of the greatest minds of the age.

We had thought of something connected to Syberis allowing him to turn fire into radiant.