Magic/Spell resistance

[ManOnTheMoon]

There are some spells that create a natural event. For instance, the Gust of Wind spell creates a line of strong wind 60 feet long and 10 feet wide. If a character is caught in this gust, they must make a Strength saving throw or be pushed back by 15 feet.

If a character is resistant to magic, do they get advantage on the Strength save?

[Man_Over_Game]

There are some spells that create a natural event. For instance, the Gust of Wind spell creates a line of strong wind 60 feet long and 10 feet wide. If a character is caught in this gust, they must make a Strength saving throw or be pushed back by 15 feet.

If a character is resistant to magic, do they get advantage on the Strength save?

If the attack/saving throw is listed with the spell description, it's part of the spell, and so it's magical.

That's not just wind being magically moved, that's magical wind.

[ManOnTheMoon]

If the attack/saving throw is listed with the spell description, it's part of the spell, and so it's magical.

That's not just wind being magically moved, that's magical wind.

What about the parts of the spell that do not require a saving throw? For instance, in the Gust of Wind, movement and range attacks are affected. If you are resistant to magic, how do you deal with those parts of the spell?

[Man_Over_Game]

What about the parts of the spell that do not require a saving throw? For instance, in the Gust of Wind, movement and range attacks are affected. If you are resistant to magic, how do you deal with those parts of the spell?

Generally, they do not interact. For something that DOES interact, you could look at something like Antimagic field, or something like the Rakshasa's passive magic shield effect.

A Saving Throw implies a particularly strong magical effect. "Resistance" implies that it mitigates strong effects rather than applying full immunity. So it makes sense why minor magical effects would still apply, but major ones (like being knocked down) might not.

[ManOnTheMoon]

Generally, they do not interact. For something that DOES interact, you could look at something like Antimagic field, or something like the Rakshasa's passive magic shield effect.

A Saving Throw implies a particularly strong magical effect. "Resistance" implies that it mitigates strong effects rather than applying full immunity. So it makes sense why minor magical effects would still apply, but major ones (like being knocked down) might not.

Thank you so much for your response. I really appreciate it.

So, just to be clear, in the case of Gust of Wind, the non-saving throw parts of the spell will affect the whole party regardless of the outcome of the saving throw to be pushed back 15 feet?

[Man_Over_Game]

Thank you so much for your response. I really appreciate it.

So, just to be clear, in the case of Gust of Wind, the non-saving throw parts of the spell will affect the whole party regardless of the outcome of the saving throw to be pushed back 15 feet?

Correct! The only thing that most forms of Magic Resistance provide are either:

Halved damage from spells.
Advantage on Saving Throws.

Besides very rare instances where spells are disabled (like with Rakshasas or in an Antimagic field), all other aspects of a spell work normally.

[Teaguethebean]

I like that for some reason yuan ti are better at dodging cups that flew off the table.

[darknite]

I'm not a fan of the limited expression of magic resistance. Shouldn't someone firing a ranged magical attack have disadvantage on their attack roll? Shouldn't an attempt to counterspell a caster with magic resistance be done at disadvantage? It's just such a narrow implementation.

[Man_Over_Game]

I'm not a fan of the limited expression of magic resistance. Shouldn't someone firing a ranged magical attack have disadvantage on their attack roll? Shouldn't an attempt to counterspell a caster with magic resistance be done at disadvantage? It's just such a narrow implementation.

It probably has more to do with making sure things aren't oppressive.

Attacks normally prioritize on damage. Magic Resistance normally halves spell damage you receive. So whether the attack hits or misses, it's still 50% as effective due to the feature. Making it cause Disadvantage reduces it even further down to 30% or so, which is unnecessary. That'd be the equivalent of saying that Heavy Armor Master should cause Disadvantage AND -3 damage on relevant attacks, which becomes overkill and unfun, as you get more and more limited to how you can play against it.

In the end, you want to be able to adapt and react, and adding more "No" effects to an already powerful feature actually worsens the game, as the battles cease to revolve around good tactics and the results are effectively determined before initiative has been rolled (you can play, or you can't, with nothing you can do to sway things in either direction).

It's turning the game from Chess into Poker.

[darknite]

Magic Resistance normally gives advantage to a save vs spell or magical effect. That can mean half damage or resisting the paralysis of a Hold Person or taking no damage as in Disintegrate. A choice was made to make it effect only saves but no other elements of magical effect. It can stay like that, though it would be nice if there were expanded, and yes, more limiting, versions of this sort of ability.

[Goldlizard]

In my world, I have a species of beasts that develops a Rakasha's Magic shield trait as it grows, stronger beasts becoming immune to higher and higher levels of magic, and the last level (Cr18) are incredibly rare and immune to 8th level and lower. wish the trait was used more often