Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 shintashi Jul 03, 2015 8:52:31	Back in the old days, rings of fire resistance, and spells that allowed you to reduce damage from hostile planes or climate or whatever, they didn't reduce the damage of breath weapons from dragons, or fireballs and cones of cold to 0. They reduced the damage, typically by about 1/2, but not to zero.   BUT,   what they did do, what reduce some minor stuff to zero. You could stick your hand in a fireplace or touch a candle. You didn't have to freeze to death in the cold mountains. You could survive on elemental planes as readily as your home plane.   There was a minor amount of damage reduced to zero. Sometimes it was 10 or less, sometimes it was 4 or less, and sometimes it was labeled "normal", like "normal, non magical fires".   My point is, we could probably use a minor effect of damage immunity with some of these magic items and spells. I have no idea where the number determining amount reduced might be, but I thought something like a Relevant ability score bonus. That would keep the numbers down to 1-5, generally. Proficiency bonus is 2-6, but has the problem of fluctuating. Some people don't have a Constitution higher than 10.   I would argue for something along the lines of 1 point minimum, maybe Con bonus, with a minimum of 1, or 1 + Con bonus, min 1?   This is just an idea I was thinking about. The problem with halving damage of tiny numbers is it is still fatal over time, and that doesn't really give the impression of resistance, so much as a feeling of rolling lower on damage.   Like when you put on oven mitts to touch a hot cookie sheet, or play with liquid nitrogen, can you imagine if instead of burning/frost biting 4 fingers, they "reduced" your damage to 2 destroyed fingers? I don't think people would use the oven mitts at all.
#2 Tempest_Stormwind Jul 03, 2015 10:24:08	There is a concept for this that you are looking for - it's called Damage Threshold (DMG 119, 247). It's used when statting up objects - damage less than that threshold is considered superficial and doesn't hit the object's HP. Damage over that value is treated normally - that is, it's not damage reduction, it's conditional immunity against weak effects. What you're proposing is something like this:   Ring of Fire Resistance: (ring, rare, requires attunement) - The wearer of this ring has resistance against fire damage, and a fire damage threshold equal to their proficiency bonus.   (Requires attunement because it follows the precedent of the Ring of Resistance. Replace "fire" as necessary. This specific phrasing - "fire damage threshold" is new, but it's shorthand for the full rules text, which would look like "Against fire damage, you are considered to have a damage threshold equal to your proficiency bonus. This threshold does not apply to damage from other types." Note that a creature who is dealt 5 fire damage from grabbing a hot poker, for instance, has it reduced to 2 (cut in half from resistance), which is lower than the damage threshold, so he takes no damage at all. If he had been dealt 10 fire damage from a Hellish Rebuke spell, he'd cut in in half from resistance to 5, but since 5 is higher than the threshold, he takes 5 damage normally. Against a Cone of Cold, neither kicks in, since the damage threshold only applies against fire. If he's hit with a Flame Tongue, the resistance and threshold only apply to the fire part, not the sword part.)   Obviously the exact numbers may need tweaking, but that sounds like the phrasing you want. Damage thresholds give you the conditional immunity to weak stuff without also translating into damage reduction on serious stuff.
#3 MechaPilot Jul 03, 2015 12:13:20	Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you round fractions down?  Wouldn't taking 1 fire damage when you have resistance, result in taking none because the 0.5 damage gets rounded down?
#4 shintashi Jul 03, 2015 14:23:24	MechaPilot wrote: