Magic Resistance seems lack luster...

[TheBarbecueChip]

I'm running an extended Curse of Strahd campaign where the party has reached 12th level and is preparing to lay siege to Castle Ravenloft. I've increased the challenges and Strahd's resources and counter measures accordingly but I've also noticed something. This is my first real experience with prolonged mid to high level play in 5th edition and I'm seeing my party's spell casters dish out some serious damage with just about every casting, from cantrip and up. This is fine. This is expected. Their attacks are pretty much in line with everybody else's damage wise. However, Curse of Strahd, both naturally and due to my meddling, has quite a few Magic Resistant monsters. Monsters who by and large have fairly low ACs.

What I have noticed is that while some hag or demon might be fairly difficult to catch with a Hold Monster spell they can be blown to bits with Eldritch Blast just as easily as a zombie or dire wolf. This seems to defy the whole concept of Magic Resistance, so what I was thinking of doing was adding disadvantage to spell attacks made against monsters with Magic Resistance. Thus all spells would have trouble affecting these types of monsters rather than just half of spells. Does this strike anyone as game breaking?

[Crgaston]

No, it doesn't. It's a nerf to casters and therefore a slight buff to martials in those situations at worst.

However, casters have ways to manufacture Advantage and subsequently attack as normal.

It might suit you better to just give those monsters resistance to magic damage.

[Makorel]

I would second resistance to the damage the magic is doing, specifically the damage type. It sucks to have to roll with disadvantage all the time but if the monster has resistance you're at least grinding them down at a steady pace. The only thing is that if it's specifically Eldritch Blast that's the issue I would be wary about 1. Letting things just have force resistance and 2. Nerfing the Warlock's bread & butter without giving something back in return. I could see a Wizard being fine with their Fireball being resisted because they've got a whole bag of other damage types to substitute but Warlock's so one note it might be a bit too disheartening for the player. If they're fine with it maybe make something up about Strahd researching force resistance to bolster his minions specifically so they can better combat the party.

[TheBarbecueChip]

No, it doesn't. It's a nerf to casters and therefore a slight buff to martials in those situations at worst.

However, casters have ways to manufacture Advantage and subsequently attack as normal.

It might suit you better to just give those monsters resistance to magic damage.

I had considered damage resistance, but it seemed a bridge too far, especially since monsters with magic resistance are also usually resistant to nonmagical weapons, which this being CoS many in the party are still using. I realize that disadvantage can be overcome much more easily than resistance, but at least that encourages intelligent or team based fighting, which is always a good thing IMO. Still, perhaps both are called for.


I would second resistance to the damage the magic is doing, specifically the damage type. It sucks to have to roll with disadvantage all the time but if the monster has resistance you're at least grinding them down at a steady pace. The only thing is that if it's specifically Eldritch Blast that's the issue I would be wary about 1. Letting things just have force resistance and 2. Nerfing the Warlock's bread & butter without giving something back in return. I could see a Wizard being fine with their Fireball being resisted because they've got a whole bag of other damage types to substitute but Warlock's so one note it might be a bit too disheartening for the player. If they're fine with it maybe make something up about Strahd researching force resistance to bolster his minions specifically so they can better combat the party.

It's not all the time. It's about one in ten fights that has a monster or two with MR. And in reference to EB, our party warlock was actually driven out of the party recently and fought as a mini-boss since he embraced the gifts offered by a dark power. The player has since rolled a sorcerer. EB was just because my example monsters are immune to fire (his new primary cantrip being flamebolt). But this is also relevant to the cleric's favorite "tactic" of max level guiding bolt.

Either way, it's not really an issue of the party being too strong or anything like that I'm just looking for ways to add dynamics to combat and prompt a change in tactics other than "hit them harder" or "hit them more." If MR just means utilizing attack based spells rather than save based spells it means less than if it requires the party casters to switch to support spells for the fighters and for the fighters to focus on the resistant target.

[Fable Wright]

Magic resistant monsters with low AC are usually magic-using monsters themselves. And that often means line of sight blocking effects.

Annis Hag's Obscuring Mist. Green Hag has Invisible Passage. All Yugoloths have Darkness + Devil's Sight. Barlgura's Invisibility.

All of these make magical targeting a lot harder, ranged attacks or saves or not.

And somehow, being unable to target monsters, in my experience, is less frustrating than magic attack rolls being at disadvantage. If I'm making an attack roll, it means I'm not forcing saves on multiple monsters. It means I'm not buffing allies. It means that whatever this is, I need to use a very limited set of tools to burn through my precious few resources bringing this thing down now. If I make an attack roll, things have gone FUBAR at level 12.

And you now want said rolls to be at disadvantage.

No, please.

[JakOfAllTirades]

My DM just gives all the monsters we fight more HP. (Usually max HP.) Our group is ok with this.

[TheBarbecueChip]

Magic resistant monsters with low AC are usually magic-using monsters themselves. And that often means line of sight blocking effects.

Annis Hag's Obscuring Mist. Green Hag has Invisible Passage. All Yugoloths have Darkness + Devil's Sight. Barlgura's Invisibility.

All of these make magical targeting a lot harder, ranged attacks or saves or not.

And somehow, being unable to target monsters, in my experience, is less frustrating than magic attack rolls being at disadvantage. If I'm making an attack roll, it means I'm not forcing saves on multiple monsters. It means I'm not buffing allies. It means that whatever this is, I need to use a very limited set of tools to burn through my precious few resources bringing this thing down now. If I make an attack roll, things have gone FUBAR at level 12.

And you now want said rolls to be at disadvantage.

No, please.

You sound like you are playing a very different kind of D&D to my table.


My DM just gives all the monsters we fight more HP. (Usually max HP.) Our group is ok with this.

Yeah, I'm pretty regularly upping HP and AC to make fights last a bit longer and give the monsters more time to pull out unique abilities and progress through "stages", become desperate, etc. Usually if I just play something out of the box my party would drop it with no chance for drama and story telling. Although one time the party set an ambush and everybody sprang on this one guy who I had totally beefed up, but the planning and good rolls meant the party basically ganked him before he could react. Everybody looked at me and was like "I thought you said this guy was a badass?" My response was to explain that even badasses get outnumbered and unlucky

[Fable Wright]

You sound like you are playing a very different kind of D&D to my table.

Entirely possible; we have adventuring days made of 6-8 Deadly+ Encounters and one short rest. Spell slots are PRECIOUS to us.