Damage Vulnerability and Staggering

[Lord Von Becker]

In leaving so few of its' monsters with damage vulnerabilities, 5E misses a lot of chances to let players feel prepared or ingenious for finding a way to exploit that damage type. It's easy to understand why, too - doubling your damage is the sort of thing that can prevent monsters from showing off their cool tricks, and thus deny the DM fun.
This is my alternative to damage doubling.

When a creature takes damage of a type it is vulnerable to, it is staggered. If that creature was concentrating (as on a spell), it staggers before it makes its' save to maintain concentration.

Staggering
When a creature staggers, its' speed is halved, and it has disadvantage on its' next attack roll or saving throw. This condition automatically ends after 1 round.


Commentary much appreciated.

[cajbaj]

I like it. I'm stealing this.

[MoleMage]

I definitely approve of damage vulnerabilities triggering effects instead of just dealing extra damage. I think this is good for a generic effect but would personally like to see some monsters with personalized effects (similar to how radiant damage disables vampire regeneration, but more proactive).

[cajbaj]

Maybe Ghouls or Wights are Turned by taking Radiant or even Fire damage. Maybe Gnolls will bite at themselves after taking Poison damage, as a reference to mange.

[Lord Von Becker]

Thank you both, I got the idea from Megaman Zero. (Lots of good material in that series.)

You have a point about the custom effects, and I'm happy to hear more ideas - I'm not familiar with too many monsters, but I'm planning to steal the "undead who take radiant damage have to save against turning" mechanic for my current campaign.

Is the Stagger effect clear enough, by the way? In particular, I'm hoping the "only one Disadvantage per proc" limit is obvious.

[cajbaj]

It's clear that the disadvantage only applies once, but I'd specify that it only lasts for 1 round.

[Amechra]

*Coughs in SMT*

Granted, in Shin Megami Tensei, exploiting elemental vulnerabilities gives you extra turns, so this is probably more balanced.

I think Staggered should break concentration, as well.

[cajbaj]

Good point, if you damage someone concentrating on something the save that they have disadvantage on is the Concentration save. On one hand it's kind of a lot to break concentration AND half speed AND give disadvantage, all as an actionless rider effect with no saving throw. But on the other hand, making Stagger disadvantage only apply to non-Concentration saves is clunky.

It's very strong but breaking concentration is probably the simplest way to do it.

[Lord Von Becker]

Nah, the point of being good at Concentration is that you can theoretically keep it while blind and on fire. I do like the idea that the rider applies before the concentration save, though - and I now wish I'd remembered my planned save-and-skill rework where proficiency gives advantage, in time to put it in the opening post, because I'm not sure editing it in now would be a great idea.

[Breccia]

This looks like more of an alternative than a replacement. I don't see any reason why we can't have both. Heck, a monster could have both.

[Lord Von Becker]

That'd make the monster go down real quickly when you use it, and I think that sort of plot is generally better handled by giving the thing a lot of resistances. But yes, in principle, we could.