All damage type

[j_spencer93]

So i started a similar thread on the 3.5 forum for my own use, so figured i might as well start one here. What are all of the damage types you can find?

melee
Slashing
Piercing
Bludgeoning
Ballistic (if allowed, see UA)

Spell Elements
Fire
Cold
Thunder
Lightning
Acid
Poison

Others
Radiant
Necrotic
Force
Psychic

[Person_Man]

The link above is accurate.

And from a metagame perspective, the only reason to keep track of damage types in the rules is so that you can have a rock/paper/scissors/spock/lizard of damage types and Resistances/Immunities/Vulnerabilities, forcing players to use a wider variety of weapons and/or magic. 1E/2E did this a lot with weapon damage types, so that you couldn't use the same magic weapon and/or weapon specialization against all enemies. 5E doesn't do that particularly well, so its basically there mostly for fluff purposes.

[j_spencer93]

I looked before posting this and didn't find that. Sweet.
Also i use a list of damages mainly for my own fun. Sometimes i simply like to see what types of damages there are, and then make an idea around those.

Also that is alot less damage types then i would have assumed.

[Easy_Lee]

I looked before posting this and didn't find that. Sweet.
Also i use a list of damages mainly for my own fun. Sometimes i simply like to see what types of damages there are, and then make an idea around those.

Also that is alot less damage types then i would have assumed.

This and the overall lack of vulnerabilities conform to the 5e goal of being more simplistic. Note that both poison and fire are oft resisted, meaning a fire or poison-based character is wise to have backup plans.

[j_spencer93]

I could see it growing when more supplements, then again though, it may not.

[Easy_Lee]

I could see it growing when more supplements, then again though, it may not.

That'd be cool, though I would like for more balance among those we do see first. Fire spells, fire creatures, fire resistances, fire immunities, fire just shows up more often than other elemental damage types. Poison is much the same way. We need some balance among the damage types, and more support for those who want to focus on a particular type, than we currently have.

[Wartex1]

The damage type resistances are also designed to balance against particular spells. Fire Bolt is the strongest non-EB cantrip, and Meteor Swarm is incredibly strong, breaking the DMG damage limit for area spells by almost 3x.

[Rowan Wolf]

Might want to change 'melee' to physical

[Easy_Lee]

The damage type resistances are also designed to balance against particular spells. Fire Bolt is the strongest non-EB cantrip, and Meteor Swarm is incredibly strong, breaking the DMG damage limit for area spells by almost 3x.

It's hard to compare balance among the cantrips since they all do different things. Fire bolt, at a d10, does the most damage of the wizard cantrips and can ignite flammable objects. Ray of frost is a D8 but slows the target's speed by 10. Since ray of frost has a rider, it had to do a little less damage. The other cantrips follow the same kind of formula. Poison spray actually does the most damage, but has a range of only 10'.

[Rowan Wolf]

It's hard to compare balance among the cantrips since they all do different things. Fire bolt, at a d10, does the most damage of the wizard cantrips and can ignite flammable objects. Ray of frost is a D8 but slows the target's speed by 10. Since ray of frost has a rider, it had to do a little less damage. The other cantrips follow the same kind of formula. Poison spray actually does the most damage, but has a range of only 10'.

Poison is also one of the more commonly resisted/immune damage type correct?

[Easy_Lee]

Poison is also one of the more commonly resisted/immune damage type correct?

Few resistances at 5 but a whopping 95 immunities in the MM, according to the link above.

[Rowan Wolf]

Few resistances at 5 but a whopping 95 immunities in the MM, according to the link above.

I can only guess some of that is the amount of undead (and demons almost forgot about demons) in the Monster Manual.

[Person_Man]

I can only guess some of that is the amount of undead (and demons almost forgot about demons) in the Monster Manual.

That's correct, all undead in the MM are immune to poison, as are all constructs, demons, elementals, and probably other things I'm forgetting.

And now that I think about it, its a real shame that 5E doesn't use Tags or Keywords or something similar. Rule interactions would be a lot simpler, and it would be a lot easier to balance if they took it into consideration and limited it to 10ish Keywords types.

[Chronos]

For reasons unknown, making rules interactions more complicated was an explicit design goal of 5e.

[j_spencer93]

the lack of tags and keywords is odd to me. Will make it hard for them to expand the game further I would think.

[Chronos]

We've already seen one example of that: Warforged don't work right. They're constructs that are alive, but being alive doesn't change the fact that they're constructs, which means that spells that "don't work on constructs or undead" still don't work on them. If, instead, those spells had said that they only work on living things, and the construct and undead types said that they weren't living, it'd be no problem.

[Rowan Wolf]

That's correct, all undead in the MM are immune to poison, as are all constructs, demons, elementals, and probably other things I'm forgetting.

And now that I think about it, its a real shame that 5E doesn't use Tags or Keywords or something similar. Rule interactions would be a lot simpler, and it would be a lot easier to balance if they took it into consideration and limited it to 10ish Keywords types.

So it's a typo/mistake that vampires and vampire spawn lack the immunity to poison?

[j_spencer93]

Both of those sound like a problem. I see the warforged problem, as for vampires i hope it is.

[Fralex]

We've already seen one example of that: Warforged don't work right. They're constructs that are alive, but being alive doesn't change the fact that they're constructs, which means that spells that "don't work on constructs or undead" still don't work on them. If, instead, those spells had said that they only work on living things, and the construct and undead types said that they weren't living, it'd be no problem.

Oh, but warforged aren't constructs. They're humanoids with some construct-like characteristics. They really should've made this more clear like it was in the playtest; on the UA article there's no mention of this at all. Unless they really did change it... Hmm. Weird. Has anyone asked for clarification?


I prefer to put poison and acid in their own category, separate from the elemental damage types. Plus, then there's exactly four elemental damages, one for each element (Fire = fire, water = cold, air = lightning, earth = thunder).

[j_spencer93]

Oh, but warforged aren't constructs. They're humanoids with some construct-like characteristics. They really should've made this more clear like it was in the playtest; on the UA article there's no mention of this at all. Unless they really did change it... Hmm. Weird. Has anyone asked for clarification?


I prefer to put poison and acid in their own category, separate from the elemental damage types. Plus, then there's exactly four elemental damages, one for each element (Fire = fire, water = cold, air = lightning, earth = thunder).

Earth being thunder is odd since thunder is basically renamed sonic.
As for the Warforged, they are constructs though. Always have been. 5.0 just doesn't handle them right. Actually thinking we might get 1 book per setting in 5.0 and hopefully that clears stuff up.

[Person_Man]

So it's a typo/mistake that vampires and vampire spawn lack the immunity to poison?

I'm guessing so. Literally every other undead I've looked at in the Monster Manual is Immune to Poison.

But again, such inconsistencies are common if you don't have a strict Key Word/Tagging system with clearly defined Types/Templates/Whatever.

[Fralex]

Earth being thunder is odd since thunder is basically renamed sonic.

That's why I chose it, though! Thunder damage is caused by a concussive shockwave of sound, so it's the most "physical" of the energy-themed damages, just as earth is the most physical element. An earthquake is a shockwave. Thunder damage just has a very "solid" aspect that I feel is a good encapsulation of what "earth energy" would be like. It works, I swear!

[Chronos]

Personally, I like to divide them up into four categories:

Weapon: Piercing, slashing, bludgeoning
Energy: Fire, cold, lightning, radiant, thunder
Chemical: Acid, poison
Magical: Force, necrotic, psychic

Yes, I know that radiant and necrotic are set up as opposites, usually corresponding to "good" and "evil". But light is a sort of energy, and one can envision a sufficiently-bright nonmagical light doing damage, but force, necrotic, and psychic damage really can't exist nonmagically.

[j_spencer93]

That's why I chose it, though! Thunder damage is caused by a concussive shockwave of sound, so it's the most "physical" of the energy-themed damages, just as earth is the most physical element. An earthquake is a shockwave. Thunder damage just has a very "solid" aspect that I feel is a good encapsulation of what "earth energy" would be like. It works, I swear!

lol never said it didn't work or i thought differently. I simply mean the word "thunder" sounds odd when being said to be close to the same as earth

[DireSickFish]

I always found Acid associated with earth. Maybe it was because sonic was it's own special thing and that meant acid was the only one left over to be the earth damage type. In 5th ed a lot of the air/earth damage spells are actually seen to do physical damage which I think is neat. Don't know why it never occurred to me that being hit with a big rock would be bludgeoning....

[j_spencer93]

I always found Acid associated with earth. Maybe it was because sonic was it's own special thing and that meant acid was the only one left over to be the earth damage type. In 5th ed a lot of the air/earth damage spells are actually seen to do physical damage which I think is neat. Don't know why it never occurred to me that being hit with a big rock would be bludgeoning....

in 3.5 it was. Several elemental feats, when you choose earth, gave acid effects. Most earth spells though did bludgeoning.

[Fralex]

Yeah, I've just never really liked acid being linked with earth. It's a liquid (like water), that burns (like fire), and is connected to oxidation (like air). It never really felt like it had any particular loyalty to one element or another. Thunder, though, I could totally see coming from earth. There's some weird new-agey thing about healing using crystal vibrations, right? I dunno, it's hard to attribute any sort of energy to earth, but powerful battering vibrations seem to fit for me.

[Easy_Lee]

Thundering fits for Earth. Air is less certain for me; lightning works, but I can't help but associate lightning with fire after ATLA. I also prefer fire to be more about destruction and air about mobility, but few things are more destructive than lightning.