[RPG] ny way to actually impose disadvantage (not just cancel advantage) on saving throws against spells for a creature with Magic Resistance

advantage-and-disadvantagednd-5esaving-throwspell-resistance

Many creatures in D&D 5e have a feature called Magic Resistance. One such is the Archmage:

Magic Resistance. The archmage has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

So the Archmage has advantage on saving throws against magical effects. Suppose I wanted to weaken the Archmage's resistance to magic – I use some effect that gives disadvantage on the saving throw for my spell. Normally, this would balance out to a straight roll, as the rules for advantage and disadvantage say:

If circumstances cause a roll to have both advantage and disadvantage, you are considered to have neither of them, and you roll one d20. This is true even if multiple circumstances impose disadvantage and only one grants advantage or vice versa. In such a situation, you have neither advantage nor disadvantage.

This seems to set a baseline for a straight roll on saves against magical effects, that the Archmage can never roll at disadvantage against magical effects.

But is there a way to get around this? Keep in mind, such an ability must respect the specific beats general rule:

That said, many racial traits, class features, spells, magic items, monster abilities, and other game elements break the general rules in some way, creating an exception to how the rest of the game works. Remember this: If a specific rule contradicts a general rule, the specific rule wins.

The general rule here is that advantage and disadvantage balance out to a single die roll, so getting around Magic Resistance must either specifically override the rule for advantage and disadvantage, or eliminate Magic Resistance entirely.

Is there any way (e.g. magic item, class feature, spell, etc.) to force a creature with Magic Resistance to make a save against a magical effect with disadvantage?


While writing this up I did find this closed question which asks generally how to combat creatures with Magical Resistance, I intend this to be a (hopefully) more focused version of that question.

Best Answer

To my knowledge there is no feature that lets you give super-disadvantage and override a present advantage. So the only option is to take away the Magic Resistance feaure. While there is no specific way for that, there is:

Polymorph

The 4th level spell polymorph and its big brother true polymorph are able to completely overwrite the statblock of a creature. It is replaced by that of a beast. Since the Magic Resistance feature is part of the statblock, that is lost as well.

While they do get to save againts the transformation, they only roll 1 save, and once it sticks their saves will not only be without advantage, but their modifiers are also likely in the gutter as well!

You might have a bit of trouble targeting them with other effects as they are now a beast and not what they were before, but effects that could affect both will persist even when polymorph wears off.

You also cannot damage them properly, but in exchange they are helpless as well.