How do I beat Energy Resistance/Immunity

[Particle_Man]

I was thinking about being some kind of Evoker mage (or something that does Elemental damage) but was trying to see how I can beat Energy Resistance/Immunity. Even the lowly Dretch Demon has Fire/Cold/Acid Resistance 10 and flat out immunity to Lightning.

Is there a class ability, feat, etc., that can bypass Energy Immunities/Resistance? I am trying to get this going right from level 1 if possible.

I mean I know mages can do better things that just damage their opponents, but is there a way to at least make this less difficult?

[Geddy2112]

The elemental spell will allow you to change half of a spells damage to another type, and avoid some resistances. The winter witch prestige class gets the ability to half cold resistance at level 3, and bypass half of a creature's cold resistance/immunity entirely at level 8. If they are getting immunity from a spell, the dispel magic will help. With three ranks in an appropriate knowledge, the feat esoteric advantage (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/esoteric-advantage) will let you knock 2 off a creature's energy resistance which is not much, but helps. There is nothing I know of that reduces or bypasses resistance/immunity at level 1.

The best idea is to hit your knowledge checks and know what spells not to throw at something.

[Kurald Galain]

The elemental spell will allow you to change half of a spells damage to another type, and avoid some resistances.

Be aware that this doesn't actually work.

Suppose a creature has resist fire 10. You can throw him a fireball for 30 damage, which will do 20. OR, you could jump through some hoops to make it a fire/cold ball, dealing 15 fire and 15 cold damage... which again will be 20. Yeah, not so effective as it seems...

[Geddy2112]

Be aware that this doesn't actually work.

Suppose a creature has resist fire 10. You can throw him a fireball for 30 damage, which will do 20. OR, you could jump through some hoops to make it a fire/cold ball, dealing 15 fire and 15 cold damage... which again will be 20. Yeah, not so effective as it seems...

Certainly not for 30 fire damage when they resist 10. If the creature had fire resist 30, then a 30 damage fireball now does 15 damage instead of zero. If the creature is immune to fire, then again you get 15 damage over zero. It does work, although I agree it is not a very effective way of going about it...

[TheCorsairMalac]

The Spellthief class from Complete Adventurer can forego 1d6 Sneak Attack damage to steal energy resistance. Starting at 3rd level they can steal 10 points of resistance in one hit. Doesn't stack with itself, but allows no save either. In cases where an enemy is immune to an element, the spellthief gains the same resistance, but unfortunately doesn't harm the victim's resistance at all.

EDIT: Also replied without noticing the Pathfinder tag. My bad.

[Coretron03]

If you got your knowledges checks up (easy as a wizard) you could identify what resistances the monster has then use the admixture wizard school (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/wizard/arcane-schools/paizo---arcane-schools/classic-arcane-schools/evocation/admixture) to swap any of your blasts types around up to 3+int times per day.

[Particle_Man]

Sadly, Energy Admixture only allows variation among the "Fab Four" (which the Dretch, for instance, has immunity to one of and resist 10 to the other three). I need something that would change a fireball into a sonic ball or force ball.

[BlackDog918]

Point of order here, lads. Elemental Spell allows energy substitution rather than splitting, if preferred.

Benefit: Choose one energy type: acid, cold, electricity, or fire. You may replace a spell’s normal damage with that energy type or split the spell’s damage, so that half is of that energy type and half is of its normal type.

[Firest Kathon]

I think the answer depends on how often enemies with these resistances come up in your campaign. If it's just the rare demon summoned by the BBEG or something like this, you can just focus on other enemies or throw out some magic missiles (or sit back and relax) while your other party members take care of the demon (it's a team game after all, you do not need to take care of all problems yourself).

If, on the other hand, resistant enemies will make up a reasonable proportion of the encounters, you will have to look into the suggestions the others made here. It may be enough to pick up one or two useful force evocation spells (https://www.google.de/search?q=site:d20pfsrd.com+%22evocation+%5Bforce%5 D%22+inurl:all-spells&oq=site:d20pfsrd.com+%22evocation+%5Bforce%5D%22+i nurl:all-spells).

[Crake]

I believe there's a +1 metamagic feat each for both cold and fire damage that a) deals half damage to creatures normally immune, and b) overcomes resistances completely.

The fire one is scorching spell, while the cold one is piercing cold in sandstorm and frostburn respectively.

Edit: Was reading this on my phone and didn't see the pathfinder tag, ignore me.

[Slithery D]

Studied Spell (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/metamagic-feats/studied-spell-metamagic) is a +2 metamagic that lets you make a Knowledge check in order to ignore all racial sources of DR or energy resistance for a single spell target. (So a Devil loses it's normal electricity resistance, but not any granted by a Resist Energy spell.)

It's unclear whether "energy resistance" is intended to include energy immunities.