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The summon draconic spirit spell states (FToD, p. 21):

When you cast this spell, choose a family of dragon: chromatic, gem, or metallic. The creature resembles a dragon of the chosen family, which determines certain traits in its stat block.

Does the Chromatic Draconic Spirit get resistance to Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, and Poison? Or is it a choice of one damage type?

Some of my fellow DMs believe that because the spell says the creature resembles a dragon of the chosen family, a chromatic spirit would have to look like one of the Chromatic dragons (Black for example) and that it would only get resistance to the damage usually associated with that type of chromatic dragon (Acid for Black dragons).

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The spirit has resistance to all the types listed for the chosen type.

The draconic spirit’s stat block in the summon draconic spirit reads (FToD, p. 21):

Damage Resistances (Chromatic and Metallic Only) acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison

Damage Resistances (Gem Only) force, necrotic, psychic, radiant, thunder

Reading further, the Shared Resistances description makes it clear that whichever form you select gets all of the resistances listed:

Shared Resistances. When you summon the dragon, choose one of its damage resistances. You have resistance to the chosen damage type until the spell ends.

This feature makes it clear that the spirit has more than one resistance for you to choose from.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Yeah, that was more or less my arguments. They argue that the lack of an and/or in the lists of resistance make it ambiguous. \$\endgroup\$
    – Ryan Chaplin
    Commented Dec 6, 2021 at 3:20
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Ryan Chaplin the list of resistences or immunities in stat blocks never have "and", with the exception of "bludgeoning, piercing, and slahsing from nonmagical..." so their argument is bogus. \$\endgroup\$
    – JMekker
    Commented Dec 6, 2021 at 16:25

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