Lowering Spell Resistance

Manxome · Post by **Manxome** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 6:22 pm

So, I seem to recall when I was reading through the SRD that I encountered a passage saying that spell resistance could be lowered as a free action, and subsequently reading another part that said it was a standard action. I also seem to recall recently reading someone from this forum (I think it was Frank) commenting on this contradiction.

Now someone's asking me about it, and I'm having trouble finding the free action reference. Can anyone help me out, or am I making this up?

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 8:25 pm

It gets more crazy than that. On page 177 of the PHB it says that you can voluntarily fail a saving throw and that you can wave your SR at the same time. In short: it's a non-action you can do on other people's turns. But see that's on the left hand column. On the right hand column of the same damn page it tells you that lowering SR is a standard action you have to do on your own turn.

-Username17

Manxome · Post by **Manxome** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 9:06 pm

Thanks.

Though as it turns out, I don't actually have a PHB, so if someone happens to know where to find that passage in the SRD (if it's there), that would still be handy.

I did find this:

Voluntarily Giving up a Saving Throw wrote:A creature can voluntarily forego a saving throw and willingly accept a spell’s result. Even a character with a special resistance to magic can suppress this quality.

Is that the passage in question?

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 9:10 pm

Yeah. The version in the PHB has some examples, but whatever.

-Username17

Manxome · Post by **Manxome** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 9:12 pm

Ah. It's not entirely obvious to me that "special resistance to magic" would necessarily include spell resistance, what with all the exception-based design, though that certainly sounds plausible. I don't suppose SR is one of the examples in the PHB?

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 9:35 pm

One of the examples is lowering "immunity to magical sleep" which at the time was defined as "infinite spell resistance against sleep effects."

The text is even more incongruous now that immunity has since been redefined to mean actual non-interaction.

-Username17

Arcane-surge · Post by **Arcane-surge** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 10:10 pm

Page 177 of the PHB, under spell resistance, actually says it takes a standard action to lower it (ick). Is that changed somewhere?

Bigode · Post by **Bigode** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 11:47 pm

Arcane-surge wrote:Page 177 of the PHB, under spell resistance, actually says it takes a standard action to lower it (ick). Is that changed somewhere?

It's contradicted on the same page, as per Frank's first post.

Ice9 · Post by **Ice9** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:23 am

Possibly it would be a standard action to lower it without voluntarily failing your saving throw? Although I have no idea why you'd want to do this.

Or yeah, more likely the text is just in contradiction with itself.

SunTzuWarmaster · Post by **SunTzuWarmaster** » Sat Nov 01, 2008 5:56 pm

Ask your DM.