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Thundersteel
2019-03-30, 11:56 AM
So I was thinking about the more esoteric damage types in D&D.
Imagine yourself in the perspective of a coroner in Waterdeep. A magical serial killer is on the loose, and he's killed every victim with a different type of magic.
Some of these are very clear - the one killed with fire damage was burned, the one with cold is frozen, and so on.
But what does a body killed with necrotic damage look like? Or radiant damage? Does a body killed with psychic damage just sort of drop dead with no external causes?

The Glyphstone
2019-03-30, 01:03 PM
I imagine necrotic damage as literally sucking the life out of someone. Someone killed by necrotic energy would probably look shriveled up and prematurely aged.

Radiant damage is probably very close to fire damage.

Psychic damage would probably depend on the spell used. A fear-based psychic attack might leave its victims with a terrified expression on their face despite no other physical marks on the body.

Beleriphon
2019-03-30, 04:02 PM
Radiant I'd imagine would be more like superheated burns, nearly instant cauterization of wounds.

JMS
2019-03-30, 06:29 PM
To get realy estoric, go to 3.5, and take a look at desiccation damage (Sandstorm) and City Damage (Cityscape?)

lightningcat
2019-03-30, 06:44 PM
I always thought of Radiant damge as leaving corpes looking cooked, with additional damage around the eyes.

LordEntrails
2019-03-30, 08:39 PM
Well, of course any coroner who cares about cause would have some divination capabilities. So rather than just inquiring about the magic or damage type, they could divine a portrait of the killer. And a timeline, and perhaps things like race, family, birth place, etc.

Gotta remember, magic works both ways!

Phhase
2019-03-30, 09:38 PM
For Radiant, just imagine lightsaber wounds.

For Necrotic, either the aging thing the others mentioned, or some kind of aggressive rotting/turning to dust type wounds.

For Psychic, add characteristics like bleeding from the eyes or nose, or even a headless corpse ('cause it exploded of course).

Force might be hard. Perhaps Magic Missile has a characteristic clustered wound pattern.

For Acid, chemical burns, collateral splash, acrid smell, etc.

For Lightning, scorching at the point of impact and down the body on the path it took to the ground. Also residual static charge and hair standing on end, or tensed/otherwise twisted muscles.

For Poison, depends on the type and mechanism of killing. Look up some actual poisons (Cyanide-frothing at the mouth, Strychnine-arched back/tense muscles, Ricin-blood loss, bloody discharge from orfices, etc.).

Sonic might get interesting/messy. If it's a sudden shock based attack (like Thunderwave), then the body might be gibbed (torn apart) or at least bear the marks of a great impact. High frequency attacks like Shatter, however, would more likely shred affected anatomy, perhaps into a fine mist, with a possibility of internal damage as well. Whatever the case is, there would probably be collateral damage, witnesses who heard something (In the case of lightning as well, most likely), and the body would have blood leaking from blasted eardrums.

This has been Phhase's macabre accounting of 5e damage types in a murder mystery setting. Hope you enjoyed!



Well, of course any coroner who cares about cause would have some divination capabilities. So rather than just inquiring about the magic or damage type, they could divine a portrait of the killer.

Mmm, but what if the image was of the killer in disguise? Further intrigue!