fire/cold subtype at the same time!?

[irolltwenties]

Recently i had to cope with a rather unusual problem. A player whose character has the cold subtype (via the wendigo template) has had the spell mantle of the fiery spirit cast upon him (sandstorm page 118) which grants him permanently the fire subtype.
Now i wonder how would you handle this case, would you give him immunity to both elements? would the two subtypes cancel each other out? would the cold subtype be replaced by the fire one? i'd like your opinion on that

 

[FEADIN]

Welcome and happy new year!!!!!!!!
I think that by RAW they stack ending with two immunities

 

[Eldritch_Lord]

If you gain multiple templates, you gain all the benefits and penalties of each, regardless of how logical (or not) their stacking would be. He's immune to both fire and cold.

 

[Runestar]

I think they would stack. There is nothing stopping you from acquiring multiple subtypes, and nothing in their description suggesting they would supersede each other. The same should extend even to seemingly contradictory combinations such as cold+fire subtype.

The para-elementals from manual of the planes have 2 subtypes each.

 

[Herzog]

I think they would indeed stack.

This would mean an immunity to cold and fire, as well as a vulnerability to cold and fire.

In other words, any energy damage that would apply (for instance, because of someone using the Piercing Cold Metamagic Feat) would do an additional 50% damage!

 

[frankthedm]

Recently i had to cope with a rather unusual problem. A player whose character has the cold subtype (via the wendigo template) has had the spell mantle of the fiery spirit cast upon him (sandstorm page 118) which grants him permanently the fire subtype.
Now i wonder how would you handle this case, would you give him immunity to both elements? would the two subtypes cancel each other out? would the cold subtype be replaced by the fire one? i'd like your opinion on that

Raw says they stack, but it's your game, negation of the subtypes or negation of the life of the recipient sound reasonable to me from the conflicting energies involved.

 

[Mark1733]

Technically, the character is an insulator...neither moves through easily. However, it's not really written like that in D&D.

This may complicate things, but if the player is hellbent on having both and you think it's too much, make the character half-n-half. One side can resist heat (by absorbing it), the other side can resist the cold (by discharging the heat). I would play that during combat it's a 50%/50% chance that a direct attack from an energized weapon (fire or cold) hits the vulnerable side. Additionally, any area of effect or magical effects are reduced by half rather than complete immunity.

 

[irolltwenties]

I'm really surprised to have that many answers so quickly, thanks everyone

I tend to believe that by raw you do take more damage but its nullified anyway, i was just not too keen on having a character with regeneration bypassed only by fire, be immune to the same element.

I have to admit that i liked your idea Obistahr, it sounds like a solid idea, neither hampering his character and neither making him invincible

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

He presumably paid for the templates, so I don't think it's that bad...and it is RAW. Note it's very easy to get this scenario: Anyone using Animate Dead to create zombies or skeletons grants them cold immunity...but they retain their own subtypes, so if it was a wyrmling red dragon or something, it's also Fire subtype and now double immune.

And yes, your NPCs should occasionally use the Sandstorm and Frostburn feats that let you ignore immunities and do the extra +50% damage to him, it's only fair. Really, anyone using fire or cold spells frequently probably should have that respective feat, purely from an optimization standpoint...

 

[roguerouge]

He's Ben-Gay incarnate?