Immunity to 1 spell of each level

[Schwann145]

If you could make your character immune to a single spell, from any spell list, of each level 1-9, which spells would you choose and why?

[Eldariel]

What could this immunity entail? Immunity to direct effects on you? Immunity to protection granted to an enemy by the spell? Immunity to buffs given by the spell? Immunity to terrain alteration by the spell? Immunity to summons created by the spell? Much depends on how broad "immunity" is in this sense. Forcecage for example is a huge spell to be immune to, but most traditional forms of immunity don't interact with it.

[Schwann145]

What could this immunity entail? Immunity to direct effects on you? Immunity to protection granted to an enemy by the spell? Immunity to buffs given by the spell? Immunity to terrain alteration by the spell? Immunity to summons created by the spell? Much depends on how broad "immunity" is in this sense. Forcecage for example is a huge spell to be immune to, but most traditional forms of immunity don't interact with it.

All of the above. As in, you simply ignore all of the effects of said spell if they would interact with you.
Take zero damage from a Fireball. Walk through a Force Cage. Ignore a Time Stop. Strike a foe as if they weren't protected by a Mirror Image. Etc.

[Eldariel]

Hmm...

Level 3 is definitely Dispel Magic (Counterspell is easier to deal with).

Level 8 is Antimagic Field (being able to walk around fully magically in an AMF is great).

Level 9 is a...tough call between Shapechange, True Polymorph, and Wish. Probably ultimately Wish because there's no other real protection against getting Wished out of existence if someone is willing to sacrifice their spellcasting for it.

Level 7, Simulacrum [though this gets a bit wonky: if the Simulacrum e.g. creates a castle or repositions the continents, I run the risk of basically being stuck in a parallel world]. Another big one would be Teleport though, again, I don't exactly know how Teleport immunity could be applied to enemy but preventing them from Teleporting in or out seems incredibly useful. But Simulacrum more so.

Level 6, eh, probably Contingency [I'm assuming like Contingency simply couldn't trigger with regards to this immune character].

Level 2, Pyrotechnics (being able to walk around in smoke able to see everything while nobody can see you is just hilarious and great and doesn't even take Concentration).

Level 1, Shield (remove that final stop from being able to Magic Missile anything dead).

Level 4 is the toughest call. Maybe Find Greater Steed? I dunno how immunity to that would work but it seems useful if my presence made Greater Steed riders unable to fly (though less great if I was so immune that I couldn't ride it myself so maybe not such a great plan after all). Resilient Sphere seems like a nice call though: being able to use Contingency: Resilient Sphere and then act through it like it didn't exist seems great.

Level 5 is another tough call. Wall of Force could be deployed in a similar manner to Resilient Sphere, which is probably the most useful thing on this level.

[LudicSavant]

Don't just think about immunity to things that are normally dangerous to you -- think about the way you can abuse this offensively. For example you can just stand in your own hazardous AoEs.

Heck, if you're immune to all effects of a spell, would that even let you do things like Overchannel forever? Are you immune to the half damage transfer of Warding Bond? Can you walk through your own Wall of Force? Etc.

[Rukelnikov]

Hmm...

Level 9 is a...tough call between Shapechange, True Polymorph, and Wish. Probably ultimately Wish because there's no other real protection against getting Wished out of existence if someone is willing to sacrifice their spellcasting for it.

Level 7, Simulacrum [though this gets a bit wonky: if the Simulacrum e.g. creates a castle or repositions the continents, I run the risk of basically being stuck in a parallel world]. Another big one would be Teleport though, again, I don't exactly know how Teleport immunity could be applied to enemy but preventing them from Teleporting in or out seems incredibly useful. But Simulacrum more so.

Level 6, eh, probably Contingency [I'm assuming like Contingency simply couldn't trigger with regards to this immune character].

Level 4 is the toughest call. Maybe Find Greater Steed? I dunno how immunity to that would work but it seems useful if my presence made Greater Steed riders unable to fly (though less great if I was so immune that I couldn't ride it myself so maybe not such a great plan after all). Resilient Sphere seems like a nice call though: being able to use Contingency: Resilient Sphere and then act through it like it didn't exist seems great.

I mean, most of these are iffy at best, lets say you are "immune" to shapechange, that means you couldn't be transformed by it, but if the enemy becomes a dragon and flies up, can you just go to where they were standing and attack there? Even if they didn't shapechange, they may not be there to begin with.

Take it a step further, if you were "immune" to Teleport for sure you couldn't be teleported, but if an enemy teleported, could you just attack the square they were standing before casting it and attack them? For how long? 1 round later? 3 days later? Until they move? And if they move 10 ft to the right after tping, can you attack the spot 10 ft to the right of where they were before teleporting and hit them?

Most of those seem counterintuitive, and hard to gauge, there are lots of interactions that would end up being hard judgement calls.

IMO the way to make it more or less quantifiable is that YOU, the immune character, don't register such spells, but you don't make OTHERS immune to them. So if you are immune to shapechange you can't be transformed, but if the enemy shapechanges they can still fire their breath weapon at you.

Contingency though, I think would work depending on the trigger, if it is when someone hits me, it wouldn't work if you hit them, because contingency can't interact with you, if it is when my HP drops to half, and you hit them and drop their HP to half, it would still trigger, as you have nothing to do with the condition.

[Eldariel]

I mean, most of these are iffy at best, lets say you are "immune" to shapechange, that means you couldn't be transformed by it, but if the enemy becomes a dragon and flies up, can you just go to where they were standing and attack there? Even if they didn't shapechange, they may not be there to begin with.

Take it a step further, if you were "immune" to Teleport for sure you couldn't be teleported, but if an enemy teleported, could you just attack the square they were standing before casting it and attack them? For how long? 1 round later? 3 days later? Until they move? And if they move 10 ft to the right after tping, can you attack the spot 10 ft to the right of where they were before teleporting and hit them?

Most of those seem counterintuitive, and hard to gauge, there are lots of interactions that would end up being hard judgement calls.

IMO the way to make it more or less quantifiable is that YOU, the immune character, don't register such spells, but you don't make OTHERS immune to them. So if you are immune to shapechange you can't be transformed, but if the enemy shapechanges they can still fire their breath weapon at you.

Contingency though, I think would work depending on the trigger, if it is when someone hits me, it wouldn't work if you hit them, because contingency can't interact with you, if it is when my HP drops to half, and you hit them and drop their HP to half, it would still trigger, as you have nothing to do with the condition.

Which is why I asked about how total the effect is. If it truly is "complete immunity" as in "my existence is completely unaffected by this spell", it allows doing some bonkers stuff (though it gets difficult on the metaphysical level). OTOH if we restrict it to restricting stuff away from only personal effect, then definitely just stack up on stuff like Forcecages and Antimagic Fields to have one-way protection from bull****. Antimagic Field and Demiplane + Glyph of Warding stack makes for a pretty brutal buff stack that can pretty much do anything for instance.

[Kane0]

Based mostly on what has annoyed me most as a player in the past.

Ray of frost
Shield or fog cloud
Blindness/deafness
Counterspell or dispel
Banishment
Wall of force
Disintegrate
Forcecage
Maze or Feeblemind
Wish

If I were answering this from a DM point of view there would be some changes but that largely comes down to ‘what do my players spam’

Edit: reverse gravity! I knew i missed one

[nickl_2000]

Shield - It's mostly just annoying.
Darkness - Allows a melee character to be effective when you warlock ally spams darkness
Fireball - I like tanks, this not only protect me from enemies but allows my teammates to drop are fireball on top of me.
Banishment - it's just an annoying spell that removes me from a fight for to long
Cone of Cold - See fireball reasoning
Disentegrate
Forcecage
Maze - Anything to avoid being stuck out of combat for the entire time.
Wish - Yup, this could be anything... so just in case.


Turns out I want protection against my allies nearly as much as my enemies

[Dalinar]

Does being immune to Wish mean you can cast it without the backlash?

[noob]

Does being immune to Wish mean you can cast it without the backlash?

It might also mean you are immune to learning it or casting it.
So depending on how far the immunity goes it can be super powerful or a huge problem.(maybe the universe was created by wishful thinking of a gm and thus immunity to wish makes you fail at interacting with that universe or something like that)

[MaxWilson]

Level 9 is a...tough call between Shapechange, True Polymorph, and Wish. Probably ultimately Wish because there's no other real protection against getting Wished out of existence if someone is willing to sacrifice their spellcasting for it.

Would immunity to True Polymorph make you immune to attacks and e.g. the thousands of Wraiths that can be generated by someone True Polymorphed into an Atropal? Because if so I'd pick True Polymorph.

[nickl_2000]

Would immunity to True Polymorph make you immune to attacks and e.g. the thousands of Wraiths that can be generated by someone True Polymorphed into an Atropal? Because if so I'd pick True Polymorph.

Can it be controlled immunity? Because I could see it being nice for an ally to be able to cast True Polymorph on you, but not an enemy

[Pex]

I would not want to be immune to Dispel Magic. If I were then if I was subject to a harmful magical effect that I'm not immune to Dispel Magic could not be used to remove it.

[Eldariel]

I would not want to be immune to Dispel Magic. If I were then if I was subject to a harmful magical effect that I'm not immune to Dispel Magic could not be used to remove it.

Meh, generally you can get rid of those with e.g. Remove Curse or similar.

[Schwann145]

Okay, I'll provide a bit of clarification. :)

So you would personally be immune to the effects on yourself of whichever spell is picked, but a bit of common sense does apply:
•If you are yourself a spellcaster you could still learn and cast the spells you pick, assuming you have access to them as always. However you would still be immune to the effects even when cast by you (so you could Cloudkill around yourself and be fine, or maybe you Bless and everyone gets the benefit except you, etc).
•If you picked a spell that alters you or another physically (True/Polymorph, Shapechange, etc) you wouldn't ignore attacks or abilities from such an enemy (the magic changed them, but the claws, breath weapon, whatever, once changed, isn't contingent on the spell).
•Let's say items or personal spell effects on your person are also granted this immunity, but only while effecting only you or on your person (being able to ignore a Wall of Force is pretty pointless if all your stuff is blocked).
•It would not be a controlled immunity, so whatever you pick you're stuck with the full effects of immunity to it.
•Picking Wish would grant you immunity to the unique effect options of the spell, but not immunity to the "choose a lower level spell to cast" option, unless you're also immune to the picked spell; logic being once picked, it's no longer Wish, it's now the Wished for spell cast.

[Pex]

Level 1: Bane
Level 2: Phantasmal Force
Level 3: Slow
Level 4: Banishment
Level 5: Synaptic Static
Level 6: Disintegrate
Level 7: Forcecage
Level 8: Feeblemind
Level 9: Imprisonment

[WaroftheCrans]

Level 1: bane
Level 2: darkness
Level 3: counterspell
Level 4: resilient sphere.
Level 5: wall of force
Level 6: disintegrate
Level 7: forcecage
Level 8: antimagic field.
Level 9: wish, if i'm immune to the negative effects of casting it, which I would seem to be.
Time stop otherwise, only free wishes beats out 1d4+1 free unrestricted rounds anytime anyone anywhere casts time stop.

4th level was honestly the hardest choice, they've got some nice ones like sickening radiance.

[Durazno]

That might depend on how many spellcasters are out there casting Time Stop, huh?

It could be risky never knowing how long you'll get, but I think that'd actually be a fun conceit to include in an actual game.

[noob]

That might depend on how many spellcasters are out there casting Time Stop, huh?

It could be risky never knowing how long you'll get, but I think that'd actually be a fun conceit to include in an actual game.

You discover there is an artefact rock that casts time stop 1000 times a round and suddenly you are ageing roughly 3500 times faster.
Nobody was aware of the rock that uses timestop over and over and does nothing during those timestops but the person immune to time stop which curiously died of old age a few days later.

[WaroftheCrans]

You discover there is an artefact rock that casts time stop 1000 times a round and suddenly you are ageing roughly 3500 times faster.
Nobody was aware of the rock that uses timestop over and over and does nothing during those timestops but the person immune to time stop which curiously died of old age a few days later.

Time stop causes on time to actually pass, and you won't age any faster. Besides, immortality from old age isn't too hard to attain, and you've literally got all the time in the world. This artefact is my new best friend.

[noob]

Time stop causes on time to actually pass, and you won't age any faster. Besides, immortality from old age isn't too hard to attain, and you've literally got all the time in the world. This artefact is my new best friend.

Time stop does actually stop the time of creatures except for creatures immune to it in 5e.

You briefly stop the flow of time for everyone but yourself. No time passes for other creatures, while you take 1d4 + 1 turns in a row, during which you can use actions and move as normal.
But since you are immune to it you just have 1d4+1 real rounds of real time and you age, get more hungry and thirsty and so on during those.
So yes from the pov of people who are not immune to time stop they see you aged in what looked like no time for them.
So if you are born immune to time stop then it is quite likely you will die of thirst almost immediately if there is that artifact rock.
In fact from reading the description of time stop that artifact is even more broken: time stop only freezes creatures so that artifact means that vegetation destroys all the buildings in a few days and visibly acts super fast from the pov of all the people without time stop immunity (because plants are not creature unless they are able to fight adventurers).
Also it looks as if the seasons were happening super fast from the pov of all the creatures that are not immune to time stop unless the cycle of the seasons is made by creatures too.
Finally all the celestial bodies would move super fast unless they are also moved around by creatures.

[WaroftheCrans]

The flavor text, read: rules text, makes it clear that time does not progress forwards. Or are we saying that watches for instance progress forwards by somewhere between 12 and 30 seconds every time someone casts time stop, that the sun progresses further in the sky?

I mean, if we are taking this really weird and nonsensical non-interpretation as how time stop works than everyone but my character is doomed in this world. Night passes to day and day to night in roughly a 12 second cycle. Material goods rot and crumble, it's necessary to eat your food very quick and entirely subsist on plants or live animals. Fire likely to spread unmitigated at every turn, and the only liveable places will be fireproofed caves. Even castles won't really work, 3500 years is a lot to weather the elements for and they would have to do that every year. It would be like Bradbury's novella, a cruel and mercurious world where people must grow faster.

If my character is immune at birth , and not by the choice he makes here (presumably at the start of his adventuring career), then I suppose he'll be even more likely join the catastrophically high infant mortality rate there must be. He'll be uncared for nearly always and just die.

However presupposing my character makes it to the age of majority and makes his choice, he'll be the only one to live a good life. Presuming that the first 6 hour he gets for free are wasted because he has no clue what's happening, every time after that he gains a level. Whether it's through killing the Tarrasque or any other high cr monster with ease, he'll level extraordinarily quick. Divination magic can help him find any magic items he wants and only traps can harm him. When he starts to reach old age, he has options if he hasn't already used them. He can either extend his life span through one of the conventional means, or seek out a druid, give him a piece of you, pay him to reincarnated you and then commit seppuku right in front of him. Or magic jar something that's practically immortal or true polymorph into a dragon (soon to be ancient) or do literally anything you want. You're the only one who isn't living in hell because of this DM fiat artifact.

Go rule the universe!

Even without that backwards interpretation making it impossible for anyone to rival Time-Stop Timmy, Timmy still rules if the rock of doom exists. Everything he could do before he can still do.

Note: that rock would make another character casting haste on time stop Timmy hilarious. Its ten rounds of concentration for the caster, so 35000 rounds for Timmy with 1 round of stun. Other spells are similarly hilarious.

So this rock is still Timmy's best friend and this attempt to screw him by creating it is made of fail.

Edit: I'm left with this really funny mental picture of whoever maintains the clock face in the town square shaking his fist at the sky and cursing wizards every time he has to change the time back to match his handheld watch.