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In pokémon there are 18 elemental types which have various strengths and weaknesses. For example, consider the following three statements.

  1. Steel is immune to poison.
  2. Steel is resistant to ice .
  3. Steel is weak to fire.

Thus "weaknesses", "resistances" and "immunities" are plural nouns used to describe the defensiveness of an elemental type. On the other hand, consider the following three statements:

  1. Fire is strong against steel.
  2. Ice is ??? against steel.
  3. Poison is ??? against steel.

Thus "strengths" is a plural noun used to describe the offensiveness of an elemental type. However, I need two more adjectives to replace the question marks in the aforementioned sentences.

For the opposite of "resistant" I thought of using "weak". For example, "Ice is weak against steel". However, the plural noun "weaknesses" is already used to describe the defensiveness of an elemental type.

For the opposite of "immune" I thought of using "ineffective". For example, "Poison is ineffective against steel". However, the noun "ineffectiveness" doesn't have a plural. Can you think of single word adjectives and plural nouns for these two cases?

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    I think "ineffective" is a good choice for the counterpart of "immune", forgetting about the plurals. For the counterpart of "resistant" you could have "puny" or "feeble" perhaps? Jul 11, 2016 at 14:26
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    Maybe you'd like potencies: The potency of ice on steel is low, the potency of poison on steel is zero. Here is a table of all the chemicals in the world and their potencies against various materials. (E.g.)
    – Jim
    Jul 11, 2016 at 14:45

1 Answer 1

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Ineffective and Useless respectively.

From M-W:

Ineffective: not capable of performing efficiently

Useless: having or being of no use

As in:

Fire is strong against steel.

Ice is ineffective against steel.

Poison is useless against steel.

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    Also, ineffectual and impotent.
    – DyingIsFun
    Jul 12, 2016 at 16:03

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