Resist 5 - how does it work

[Istar]

How does Resist damage actually work.

Say the enemy attacks you and hits, and does.

10 weapon damage and 10 additional fire damage.

Does your resist kick in on both of these, or is just resist on 5 out of the 20.

Our DM was hitting us with these ranged attacks, they inflicted many conditions, but also did damage as above.

The way he read it out individually, I resisted a heap of it.

He then started wondering out aloud if he did it right.
As it was a total of 20 damage from the 1 attack, even though the damage was 2 different types.

 

[Pentius]

Most attacks don't do separate damage types. A flaming sword, for example, would just be fire damage. A fire and ice spell would do X fire and ice damage(all mixed together). If he's specifically separating it like that, then I could see an argument for separate resists working on each type, but for mixed types of damage, you need to resist both types to avoid any of the damage.

 

[wedgeski]

I thought I knew the answer to this, then checked the Glossary entry on the Compendium and realised that I did not, in fact, know the answer after all. I'm going to let someone more knowledgeable than me handle the definition of "Combined Damage Types" because I suspect it's quite thorny.

 

[Istar]

Most attacks don't do separate damage types. A flaming sword, for example, would just be fire damage. A fire and ice spell would do X fire and ice damage(all mixed together). If he's specifically separating it like that, then I could see an argument for separate resists working on each type, but for mixed types of damage, you need to resist both types to avoid any of the damage.

He was rolling seperately for each damage type, after the hit.

2D8 normal damage

Plus

2D6 Fire

 

[Pentius]

Yeah, for completely separate damage types and rolls, I don't see why resist wouldn't work twice, if you resisted each type. The attack is almost certainly homebrew, so he may think differently, but there you have it.

 

[Grydan]

I thought I knew the answer to this, then checked the Glossary entry on the Compendium and realised that I did not, in fact, know the answer after all. I'm going to let someone more knowledgeable than me handle the definition of "Combined Damage Types" because I suspect it's quite thorny.

They've changed how it works at least once, which can add to the confusion. Someone using the Player's Handbook without errata and updates is going to have a very different answer than someone with a more up-to-date source.

[MENTION=80713]Istar[/MENTION] I believe you had the right of it.

Weapon damage isn't a type: attacks that don't have a specific damage type listed do untyped damage. Any time an attack does both untyped and typed damage, the two are listed separately.

While two or more types of damage can be combined in an attack, untyped never combines. It either gets over-written (a flaming weapon's At-Will power turns all untyped damage into fire damage), or has some amount of typed damage done in addition to it.

As those damages are listed separately, even if they're coming from the same attack, they are resisted separately.

 

[Nullzone]

I rule it per attack.

If you have Resist 5 all and take 2d8 weapon+2d6 fire damage from a single attack roll, you resist 5 damage from the sum total.

If you have Resist 2 all and Resist 10 fire, and take the same 2d8 weapon+2d6 fire from a single attack roll, you're going to resist 2.

If you have Resist 2 all and Resist 10 fire, and take 2d8 weapon damage, plus 2d6 fire from the secondary attack, then you resist 12.

 

[Oldtimer]

I would rule that you resist 5 of the total 20.

If you have Resist X All, you could resist all the damage, but if you had Resist X Fire, you would only resist the fire part of it and at least 10 points (the untyped weapon damage) would go through.

 

[Colmarr]

Yeah, for completely separate damage types and rolls, I don't see why resist wouldn't work twice, if you resisted each type. The attack is almost certainly homebrew, so he may think differently, but there you have it.

FWIW, I believe that some of the MM1 fire giants did AdX untyped damage and BdY fire damage, so this may not be a homebrew power at all.

I personally would find it strange that a creature with 'resist all 5' resists 5 points of damage from a "2d10" attack, but resists 10 from a "1d10 and 1d10" attack, so I would rule the other way, but I don't think RAW (or at least the rules compendium) has a clear answer for this... probably because that method of recording damage was abandoned before it was written.

 

[Mengu]

I recall using a number of monsters who do this, such monsters certainly exist. Recently I used an Orium Dragon Wyrmling, who does 1d8+6 damage plus 1d6 acid damage. If you have resist acid, it would only apply to the acid portion of the damage. So for instance if DM rolled a 3 on the d6, and PC had resist 5 acid, PC would take no damage from the acid, but none of the untyped damage is reduced. If the PC has resist 5 all, then both the untyped damage, and the acid damage would be reduced by 5. They are separate damage rolls, and the resistance will apply separately.