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So at level 14, the Circle of Spores druid from the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica gets the Fungal Body feature, which gives them immunity to the blinded, deafened, stunned and poisoned conditions and ignores the extra damage on a crit.

A player I have thinks that "the poisoned condition = poison damage" and that the Circle of Spores should be immune to poison damage. I disagree. Is there an official ruling? It seems cut and dry to me, but he continues to disagree.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Related: Do creatures that are hit with poison attacks (or take poison damage) become Poisoned? \$\endgroup\$
    – divibisan
    Commented Apr 9, 2019 at 22:55
  • \$\begingroup\$ What is the exact wording of the feature in ravnica? I only have access to the UA version and it isn't well written. \$\endgroup\$
    – linksassin
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 0:07
  • \$\begingroup\$ @linksassin: See my comment on Dale's answer. \$\endgroup\$
    – V2Blast
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 0:21
  • \$\begingroup\$ @V2Blast Thanks for that. Unfortunately it didn't clear up the relevant wording which is still vague. But it's nice to be accurate. \$\endgroup\$
    – linksassin
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 0:25

2 Answers 2

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From Circle of Spores:

Fungal Body

At 14th level, the fungal spores in your body alter you: you can’t be blinded, deafened, frightened, or poisoned, and if an attack is a critical hit against you, it doesn’t deal its extra damage to you.

From Poisoned:

A poisoned creature has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.

The druid cannot be poisoned: check.

From Damage Types:

Different attacks, damaging spells, and other harmful effects deal different types of damage. Damage types have no rules of their own, but other rules, such as damage resistance, rely on the types.

Does the ability give damage resistance or immunity to poison damage: no.

Contrast this with Dwarven Resilience:

You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage.

This is nice and clear compared to the UA stuff - but UA is often poorly drafted: maybe deliberately, maybe not.

The poisoned condition and poison damage are not the same thing. It may make thematic sense that someone who cannot be poisoned should not take damage from poison but if it doesn't say it it doesn't happen.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Note that the wording of the feature in the published version of the subclass (GGTR, p. 27) is very slightly different: "At 14th level, the fungal spores in your body alter you: you can’t be blinded, deafened, frightened, or poisoned, and any critical hit against you counts as a normal hit instead, unless you’re incapacitated." \$\endgroup\$
    – V2Blast
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 0:19
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    \$\begingroup\$ Even though I upvoted this answer the most critical and best part of your answer (comparing it to Dwarven Resilience) is buried by the information dealing with the condition immunity, which is not in question. I think if you edited the first part out, it would be a better answer, personally. \$\endgroup\$
    – Rykara
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 0:55
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Rykara feel free to edit it if you can make it better \$\endgroup\$
    – Dale M
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 1:20
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Conditions are not damage types

The Fungal Body feature states:

At 14th level, the fungal spores in your body alter you: you can’t be blinded, deafened, frightened, or poisoned, and any critical hit against you counts as a normal hit instead, unless you’re incapacitated.

Your player's confusion may be based on the fact that the ability does not specify that you "gain immunity to the poisoned condition" it merely says "you can't be poisoned" which is somewhat vague. However poisoned is a condition which states:

A poisoned creature has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.

This is what the character is immune too. Immunity to the condition does not mean immunity to the damage type.

An examples of this is that condition and damage immunities are listed separately in monster stat blocks. I have been unable to find a creature with immunity to the damage type that does not also have immunity to the condition but the fact that they are listed separately is enough to know they are not the same thing.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I think the condition and damage resistances are treated separately in the MM because it's possible to reduce immunity to poison damage to just resistance but the condition is not able to be reduced. \$\endgroup\$
    – Rykara
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 0:49
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Rykara They are separate because they are different things. Whether or not you can modify something isn't relevant. \$\endgroup\$
    – linksassin
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 1:14

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