Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Illithidbix Mar 19, 2015 18:52:16	Following my prior threads: The few mechanical implications of Alignment: http://community.wizards.com/forum/product-and-general-dd-discussions/threads/4190291 The few mechanical implications of... bludgeoning, slashing or piercing damage: http://community.wizards.com/forum/rules-questions/threads/4191681   5E is very chilled about when you give out magical items. But one key thing to consider is how many magical weapons the party has when dealing with non-magical weapon resistant/immune creatures.   I think the biggest difference a magical weapon makes to a fightery type isn't the small bonus to hit/damage but rather whether they are full effective against all monsters or if they have to turn to the spellcasters for some of them.   On the flip side, a fight where the fighters are trying to pin down a werewolf with shoves and grapples rather than attacks, so that the spellcasters can cantrip spam it to death could be pretty cool. Simiarly if a stonking great weapon fighter is forced to resort to the silvered dagger they have looted to fight the werewolf. And if magic weapons are available too early then it simply never enters the game   Challenge rating serves a useful rough guideline as to “You must be this big to fight this monster”  and at what level you first expect to encounter them. When putting together an encounter or adventure, especially at lower levels, exercise caution when using monsters whose challenge rating is higher than the party’s average level.
#2 Matau99 Mar 19, 2015 19:27:15	One side note--Magic Stone is a great spell to give to your party so they can all do magic damage.
#3 Byakugan01 Mar 20, 2015 3:22:53	Specter appears to be missing from your list....They are CR 1 and resistant to all damage, except psychic and force I believe.     If your party of 4-7 does not have at least 1 person who can do magic damage, there is something very wrong with party configuration.   A Warlock, Cleric, Wizard, Sorcerer, Druid, or Bard all have a high likelyhood of taking a damage cantrip.   Magic stone, Eldritch blast, Sacred Flame, Shilleleigh, Vicious Mockery, any of the wizard attack cantrips.  That isnt even counting the 1st level spells, which expands the list to spells that deal a range from 3d4+3 to 3d6 to 3d8 4d6 to 3d10.    If your party gets past 2nd level and they havent bought any silvered weapons or taken any damage spells then they deserve to get killed by a jackelware.
#4 Illithidbix Mar 20, 2015 3:41:30	Byakugan01 wrote:
#5 Atrophus Jun 03, 2015 4:48:51	Well i have to say that resistance to non-magical damage actually is a big bonus for the party. Looking at the dungeon masters workshop monsters under CR 5 get their hitpoint maximum halved, so in the end the 0815-fighter will do his normal damageoutput (half damage against half hitpoint = 100% efficiency, if you forget about the rounding down of uneven numbers) while the spellcasters or the ones with enchanted stuff do double the damage. So in the end the resilience of extraplanar or extraordinairy mobs turned into a big disadvantage with the new edition... At least since every class except the barbarian can aquire magic means at level 1 to 3. And with groups of 66% spellcasters at average until know i kinda fear to put devils and stuff into encounters: It should feel like theres coming a great threat from hell but in the end they are just the biggest jokes adventurers can imagine by now.   And the immunity is also easily overcome without magic: I remember reading about improvised damage in the DMG that suggested 3d4 or so for pouring burning coal over enemies. Now the fighters can just take that jackal-were and hold him into their campfire until he expires (at least i would allow fully restraining him if four superstrong people hold him down with one guy at every limb and all rolling a halfway acceptable athletic check against him, as its not likely to have four dudes that have no magic and no strenght).
#6 Xeviat-DM Jun 03, 2015 13:34:14	I've been looking at the scaling of monster attack bonuses vs. player AC bonuses and think the designers expect some amount of magic gear to go out at some point or another. Especially since druids and monks get magic attacks at 6th level.   It is interesting to see that low level damage resistant creatures are functionally weaker. Maybe instead of halfing their hp, just reduce it by 3/4ths, since half hp makes it normal for "half" the traditional party and double for the other half.