Any means of bypassing Elemental Resistances or Immunity?

[Jerthanis]

Pretty much what it says in the title... is there any feat, PrC or other in any published 3.5 or PF book which allows spells you cast to bypass energy resistances or immunity; for example, letting you damage a fire elemental with your fireballs?

I'd prefer it not be metamagic, since I could just use Energy Substitution in that case. I kind of want to avoid that since I'm kicking around the idea of a Sorcerer and don't want to always need full round action spells in these cases.

[dextercorvia]

There is Searing Spell (Sandstorm), which has the advantage vs. Energy Substitution over creatures with multiple immunities/resistances.

There is also a class in Five Nations called Silver Flame Pyromancer. It converts fire damage to sacred damage, but loses casting levels.

ETA:If you are going Sorcerer with Metamagic, there is the Metamagic Specialist ACF in PHBII which lets you metamagic up a spell a few times per day with no increased casting time. There is also the feat Rapid Metamagic (CM) which you can take at 9th level. It allows you to do the same unlimited times per day.

[Eldan]

There's also Lord of the Uttercold, which changes cold damage to negative energy.

[HunterOfJello]

Unfortunately, our best options are either going to be spell selection (choosing spells that avoid resistance or immunity) and metamagics.

Consecrate Spell and Corrupt Spell both turn half their damage into untyped damage while making them gain the good and evil subtype respectively.

Spells that do untyped damage or have specific descriptions where an amount of their damage overcomes resistances will be your best bet.

There are also prestige classes like those mentioned above that change energy types so that they don't have to deal with specific resistances. Hellfire Warlock works in the same way, albeit for warlock PCs.

~

Another option that a player in my group chose to pursue is to play a sorcerer that mainly chooses Force spells. Very few creatures have resistance or immunity to force damage.

[Kansaschaser]

City Spell [Metamagic] from Cityscape. It infuses any spell with an elemental descriptor (fire, cold, acid, electricity, or sonic) with bits of the city. Half of the damage is the normal elemental descriptor and the other half of the damage is from the city and cannot be resisted with elemental resistance. The best part is that the feat is a +0 level adjustment.

[HunterOfJello]

City Spell [Metamagic] from Cityscape. It infuses any spell with an elemental descriptor (fire, cold, acid, electricity, or sonic) with bits of the city. Half of the damage is the normal elemental descriptor and the other half of the damage is from the city and cannot be resisted with elemental resistance. The best part is that the feat is a +0 level adjustment.

City Spell is pretty good but it has the limitation that, "This investiture only occurs for spells cast within urban environments, defi ned as any area above the size of a small town (DMG 137)."

If the campaign is going to take place inside of a city, then this is definitely a great feat to pick up.

~

Also note is has a prereq of CL 3, if your campaign starts at low level. (Then again you shouldn't be worrying too much about resistances and immunities at low levels.)

[PlzBreakMyCmpAn]

That Kord sub-PrC is the standar

[Person_Man]

FYI, the most efficient way to bypass Elemental Resistance or Immunity is to simply have a spell memorized/known that doesn't rely on Energy damage. That's the beauty of being a caster. Even the Wu Jen and Warmage have non-Energy options. If you're a non-caster who happens to rely on a specific Energy type, then buy a magic item that doesn't.

[Jerthanis]

Consecrate Spell and Corrupt Spell both turn half their damage into untyped damage while making them gain the good and evil subtype respectively.

In which book could I find these feats?

[gbprime]

That Kord sub-PrC is the standar

This.

1 or 2 Levels of Sanctified One of Kord (Complete Champion). The first level doesn't advance spellcasting, but turns every fire spell you cast into untyped damage.

For those that have a hard time meeting the requirements... Searing Spell from Sandstorm. Ignores Fire Resistance, half damage to Fire Immunity, +1 spell level.

[holywhippet]

In which book could I find these feats?

Complete divine. Both are metamagic which increase the spell level by 1 though.

[olentu]

Hmm I don't think anyone mentioned piercing cold yet. As I recall it is basically searing spell for cold but it does not help against cold subtype creatures.