Some of playable species in D&D start out with resistance to types of damages and specific conditions. Depending on the campaign setting and the types of creatures end up fighting, these resistances can constitute a significant advantage, and be a lifesaveser in combat.
Resistances By Player Character Species (2024 Content)
| Species | Benefit |
| Aasimar | Necrotic and radiant damage |
| Aasimar (Fernian) | Fire and necrotic Damage |
| Aasimar (Mabaran) | Necrotic and radiant damage |
| Dragonborn | Acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison based on Draconic Ancestry |
| Dwarf | Poison damage and advantage on saving throws to avoid or end the poisoned condition |
| Elf | Advantage on saving throws to resist or end the charmed condition |
| Tiefling | Poison, necrotic or fire damage, depending on Fiendish Legacy |
There are a lot of items that can confer resistance and immunity to as well.
Your voivode doesn’t really care about all that, with the exception of figuring out how to break through resistance if the players get a little to hardened. If you’re a not a Dungeon Master, don’t read past here. This is for the big kids, and you’d just be spoiling the surprise.
Hot tips for DMs
Its generally not the best idea to break Player Character’s abilities, at least not fully. That said, several conditions and some damage types are granted such broad and easy immunity in that at times, it’s worthwhile to give a monster an ability to break those immunities to keep the player’s guessing.
One example of this is fire damage. Fire damage immunity and resistance is so ubiquitous among higher level PCs that even WotC felt the need to address it. In Chains of Asmodeus, many of the archdevils have a “Hellfire” trait that overcomes. Immunity and resistance to fire damage. Here’s how it’s written in Fierna’s stat block:
Princess of Hellfire. Fire conjured by Fierna becomes Hellfire. It ignores resistances and immunities to fire damage, deals double damage to creatures vulnerable to fire or necrotic damage, can’t be extinguished through any means, and is capable of melting stone or igniting inflammable objects.
I don’t favor that exact wording. I prefer reducing immunity to resistance and ignoring resistance. That way PCs still get a benefit from immunity they may have gone out of their way to get. Also I’m a little confused about that vulnerability clause. Would that mean that vulnerable targets take quadruple damage? That seems like a bit much…
Either way, the most common damage types for resistance are poison and fire. Some species get resistance to necrotic or radiant. The most common conditions to resist are poisoned and charmed. Items and features are most likely to grant immunity and resistance to these damage types and conditions.
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