Resist and Conditions

[Arcesilaus]

An example and subsequent question:

A halfling prowler attacks the party ranger, slashing him with his short sword, and then makes the Secondary Attack, as listed: +8 vs. Fortitude; the target takes ongoing 3 poison damage and is slowed (save ends both). The ranger, luckily, happens to be wearing Deathcut Hide Armor, which has Resist poison 5. It seems pretty clear to me that, even if the halfling makes the secondary attack, the ranger will never take the ongoing damage, as the armor sucks it up. My questions:

1. Is the ranger slowed, or is he only affected by additional conditions if he takes damage?

2. Assuming he is NOT affected by the slowed condition, is there any point in asking the player to make a saving throw for the poison, or can we safely pretend it never has any affect? (I'm assuming we can ignore it, I just want to be sure I'm not missing something.)

Thanks,

O

[PsychoticWarrior]

I would think the ranger would still be slowed as there is nothing stating that the slowed condition is dependent upon the ranger taking the ongoing damage. Also giving the Ranger additional protection just for having Resist 5 poison against the slowed condition is a little too generous, imo. There are some very inexpensive magic items that give Resist 5 poison.

[Sebastrd]

Arcesilaus wrote:

An example and subsequent question:

A halfling prowler attacks the party ranger, slashing him with his short sword, and then makes the Secondary Attack, as listed: +8 vs. Fortitude; the target takes ongoing 3 poison damage and is slowed (save ends both). The ranger, luckily, happens to be wearing Deathcut Hide Armor, which has Resist poison 5. It seems pretty clear to me that, even if the halfling makes the secondary attack, the ranger will never take the ongoing damage, as the armor sucks it up. My questions:

1. Is the ranger slowed, or is he only affected by additional conditions if he takes damage?

2. Assuming he is NOT affected by the slowed condition, is there any point in asking the player to make a saving throw for the poison, or can we safely pretend it never has any affect? (I'm assuming we can ignore it, I just want to be sure I'm not missing something.)

Thanks,

O

The ranger is slowed.

[Arcesilaus]

Sebastrd wrote:

The ranger is slowed.

Any references to this fact? or just your opinion?

O

[The-Last-Rogue]

Hmm. . . I think rules as written would dictate the ranger is slowed, but the obvious inference is that the poison is what slows him. I could see it going either way. Personally, as a DM, I could see myself letting it slide the first time, hinting that his armor is fighting off the poison, then the next time letting slow happen as his armor can only do so much.

[Matthew Koelbl]

Mainly repeating what others have said, but here goes:

Arcesilaus wrote:

1. Is the ranger slowed, or is he only affected by additional conditions if he takes damage?

The ranger is slowed. The books could be clearer on this, but from what I can tell, "Resist" will only reduce damage from a specific damage type, but not negate accompanying conditions - even if it fully negates the damage. "Immune", on the other hand, does negate both damage and conditions (see page 282 of the Monster Manual).

That said - while by the Rules As Written, he is still affected by the slow (since he has no ability saying he is unaffected by it), a DM could certainly have a houserule that negating the damage of an attack also negates accompanying effects.

Arcesilaus wrote:

2. Assuming he is NOT affected by the slowed condition, is there any point in asking the player to make a saving throw for the poison, or can we safely pretend it never has any affect? (I'm assuming we can ignore it, I just want to be sure I'm not missing something.)

In the vast majority of situations, if he is afflicted by a condition that isn't actually able to damage or affect him, it should be safe to assume he will just eventually save and doesn't need to roll it out. In some very specific situations, you might need to worry about it, such as if the character might need to remove the equipment granting them the resistance, or some other effect might trigger off the condition.

Example: Say a Fighter gets set on fire and is taking Ongoing 5 Fire damage - but is wearing Black Iron Plate, which provides Fire Resist 5. After they end the fight, however, they immediately need to get across a chasm which has a very narrow ledge across it - the fighter takes off his armor first to avoid the armor check penalties. It is highly unlikely he is still on fire, given he is likely to save in the time it takes to end the fight and take off his armor - but the possibility is still there. Most DMs won't worry about it, but some might.

There might also be other effects at play - one enemy might have an attack that dazes creatures afflicted by ongoing fire damage. Even though the fighter is unaffected by the fire damage, he would still be a valid target for this new attack. Etc.

Again, that said, a DM could easily houserule otherwise, such as by saying that if an effect can't hurt a character, it goes away as soon as it is placed upon them, or something similar. While not the actual rules, it is hardly an unreasonable change to make.