Question on resistance from Session 11

Sorry for being late to the party, I'm watching the Dungeons & Drogans videos on YouTube and am up to Session 11 of the second series. In that session the Drogans are fighting some duergar led by Framarth, a duergar spellcaster. Framarth repeatedly hits the group with two area effect powers, Vile Fumes and Brimstone Hail, both of which are doing damage PLUS a secondary effect (blinded, being knocked prone). And Nick / Coltaine, who has some resistance that reduces one of these power's damage to zero asks whether that shouldn't result in him not being affected by the secondary effect.

During the session nobody can find the rules for that. Did you ever resolve the question?

The reason I'm asking is because I noticed that in the video CJ the DM rules that Coltaine still suffers the secondary effect. But other duergar are repeatedly in the target zone of these area effects, and there CJ said that they aren't affected by the spell due to their fire/poison resistance. Shouldn't they have been blinded or knocked prone anyway, if the resistance only prevents the damage part of the power?

Welcome!

That's a great question.

There were actually two issues at play:

1. Whether or not Framarth's attacks targeted her allies
2. Whether or not a creature suffers the effects of a power if they negate the damage

Issue 1 was one I didn't mention during the session, because that wasn't relevant information for the players. In the module, it didn't specify whether Framarth's powers targeted enemies or creatures in the burst. While a rules update clarified that the powers target all creatures, this was information I didn't know at the time.

For issue 2... I was confusing rules on Immunity with rules on Resistance. If Resistance reduces the damage you take to 0, I believe you still suffer the effects of that attack, because I can find no rule that states otherwise.

Updated rules clarified the case of Immunity:

Quote :

A creature that is immune to a damage type (such as cold or fire), a condition (such as dazed or petrified), or another specific effect (such as disease or forced movement) is not affected by it. A creature that is immune to charm, fear, illusion, poison, or sleep is not affected by the nondamaging effects of a power that has that keyword. A creature that is immune to gaze is not affected by powers that have that keyword.

However, Resistance does not equal Immunity.

So, to answer your questions:

Quote :

Did you ever resolve the question?

Yes; the effects still occur, even if damage is completely negated by Resistance.

Quote :

Shouldn't they have been blinded or knocked prone anyway, if the resistance only prevents the damage part of the power?

Those who had Resistance should have, yes. Any who may have had Immunity to poison should not have.

I erred on the side of having Framarth's allies unaffected because:

1. I wasn't sure whether the attacks even targeted allies
2. I wasn't sure whether their high resistance negated the other effects
3. The "tactics" block in the rules stated Framarth didn't care about hitting allies with one of the powers because the allies had Resistance
4. Encounters are generally designed such that the monsters don't hurt each other

When in doubt, I normally err toward the side of an issue that most benefits the players, but in this case, the tone of the module strongly suggested to me that the allies were unaffected. I was wrong.

Ah, that sounds logical. Thank you for the info on the powers targeting all creatures and not just enemies. I did like the idea of a caster with damage of a certain type using area effects to which his allies have resistance, I'll probably use that in one of my adventures.

I very much like your videos, especially the session 2 ones with the MapTools live stream. Getting a lot of good ideas for my own campaign there. Thank you for all that effort. I hope you don't mind me asking rules-lawyering type of questions.

On page 53 in the 4e Player's Handbook it states exactly what Rhykker said. If one effect is resisted, the other effect still applies.