[RPG] Are your resistances optional

damage-resistancednd-5espells

I'm looking to use life transference as a healing spell, but I don't want my resistance to necrotic damage to get in the way.

The School of Necromancy wizard has the Inured to Undeath feature:

Beginning at 10th level, you have resistance to necrotic damage, and your hit point maximum can't be reduced. You have spent so much time dealing with undead and the forces that animate them that you have become inured to some of their worst effects.

The description of life transference, a 3rd-level necromancy spell, says:

You take 4d8 necrotic damage, and one creature you choose and can see regains hit points equal to twice the damage you take.

Life transference is one of the very few ways that Wizards can heal.

Can I choose to shut off my resistance to necrotic damage to cast life transference at full power? Without doing so, it would heal a total profit of a 9 health average, and be great waste of a level 3 spell.

(Personally, I'd rather let the wizard take half damage and still heal for full, because why not. Mass healing word is a level 3 spell, uses a bonus action, and with a +4 mod heals 39 average, my suggestion for LT heals 27. But I'd still like to know what the actual answer is.)

Note: I am fairly certain there was an official statement that class features are optional to use, and players can choose to ignore them, but I don't remember the exact statement or where it was, but it would help provide a solution to this question.

Best Answer

By RAW, No.

5E generally uses a plain-English approach to explaining things. When it speaks of optional abilities, it uses words like Can or May. When it speaks of things that are non-optional, it uses words like Must or Is.

With regards to resistance, the rules say...

If a creature or an object has resistance to a damage type, damage of that type is halved against it.

By Thematics, still No.

Resistance is an innate attribute of a creature, so even looking at it thematically, it doesn't make sense that it could be turned off.

A Vampire is resistant to Necrotic Damage because that's the same sort of magic that animates them in the first place. It makes no more sense for them to decide that they want to take full damage from Necrotic damage, than it does for a Red Dragon to decide they feel like taking Fire Damage today. Their resistance to the damage is part of their physical being.

If you want Resistance you can turn on or off, well...that's what spells like Protection from Energy are for.