Looking for Some Undead-Fighting Suggestions

[Kereea]

Hi! I'll be joining an online campaign soon as the Bard and was just wondering if anyone had suggestions about fighting undead, since that's going to be a focus of a lot of the campaign. While we haven't had our official Session Zero yet, I'm most likely to be a Valor Bard (gold ancestry Dragonborn) given the loadout of the other classes (unless the Artificer feels they'll need more arcane backup in which case I may go Lore). Other classes claimed are Barbarian, Paladin, and Cleric.

Thing is, in the campaigns I've played previously, undead have not had a very big role as enemies. So I'm not super experienced in handling them, or even what their weaknesses are/tend to be and just general build stuff. Other than generally fire works well against non-flaming undead. So any suggestions for general things to keep in mind would be appreciated. Like, going to go out on the limb and say Friends and Charm Person are going to be more useful for roleplay with living sentients than undead fighting. But seriously, any general thoughts would help.

[Expired]

Undead are weak to Radiant damage (it negates their abilities) and resistant/immune to Necrotic damage. Your party is well-suited to a campaign focusing on fighting undead as the Cleric will have Channel Divinity: Turn Undead and the Paladin will have Divine Smite which will do extra damage to them (an additional d8).

As a Valor Bard (which allows you to use medium armor and a shield and you definitely should), I strongly suggest using one of your Magical Secrets for a spell that allows you to maximize your Action Economy (Action+Bonus Action+Reaction) like Spiritual Weapon/Bigby's Hand for your Bonus Action and maybe Counterspell/Absorb Elements/Booming Blade+War Caster for your Reaction. An AoO with War Caster will allow you to cast a spell instead of an attack, which can be invaluable.

[Zayol]

Undead are weak to Radiant damage (it negates their abilities) and resistant/immune to Necrotic damage. Your party is well-suited to a campaign focusing on fighting undead as the Cleric will have Channel Divinity: Turn Undead and the Paladin will have Divine Smite which will do extra damage to them (an additional d8).

As a Valor Bard (which allows you to use medium armor and a shield and you definitely should), I strongly suggest using one of your Magical Secrets for a spell that allows you to maximize your Action Economy (Action+Bonus Action+Reaction) like Spiritual Weapon/Bigby's Hand for your Bonus Action and maybe Counterspell/Absorb Elements/Booming Blade+War Caster for your Reaction. An AoO with War Caster will allow you to cast a spell instead of an attack, which can be invaluable.

This is wrong, very little undead are actually resistant or immune to necrotic damage and no they also do not have a weakness or vulnerability to radiant dmg and such in 5e.

Next part was dead on though ,Paladins and clerics can be good vs undead through their spells + turn undead, channel divinity etc, rangers can also be a good choice vs undead if you select undead as favored enemy, gloom stalker in particular could be fun to use, considering they get the ability that once they are in shadows or darkness of any kind they become invisible to anything that relies on dark vision, in this case a high majority of undead focuses on dark vision, making you invisible and free to attack from range without undead knowing where you are.

[MrStabby]

Undead are not universally vulnerable to radiant damage but on average it is still really good against them. Between no immunity or resistance to radiant in undead, some actual vulnerability as in shadows, stopping regeneration as in vampires or for finishing off zombies radiant damage is a pain for undead to handle.

[stoutstien]

Hi! I'll be joining an online campaign soon as the Bard and was just wondering if anyone had suggestions about fighting undead, since that's going to be a focus of a lot of the campaign. While we haven't had our official Session Zero yet, I'm most likely to be a Valor Bard (gold ancestry Dragonborn) given the loadout of the other classes (unless the Artificer feels they'll need more arcane backup in which case I may go Lore). Other classes claimed are Barbarian, Paladin, and Cleric.

Thing is, in the campaigns I've played previously, undead have not had a very big role as enemies. So I'm not super experienced in handling them, or even what their weaknesses are/tend to be and just general build stuff. Other than generally fire works well against non-flaming undead. So any suggestions for general things to keep in mind would be appreciated. Like, going to go out on the limb and say Friends and Charm Person are going to be more useful for roleplay with living sentients than undead fighting. But seriously, any general thoughts would help.

Something to keep in mind is that not all undead are equal. The majority of undead are not mindless and some are down right clever and cunning. there are some similarities between all the undead but as far as planning for damage types for vulnerabilities and resistance is more of a case by case than any overall similarities.

You have a cleric and a pally so I wouldn't worry about not having enough tools to deal with undead. I would probably focus more on solving other issues that might arise. I doubt every NPC you deal with is going to be undead so you don't want to put all your eggs in one basket and not have the tools for other problems.

If you do want to go for the combat front The base bard spell list may seem lacking in undead tools due to charm effects not working but the big ones still work (distanant whispers, faerie fire) and illusions can work (keep an eye out for the ones that explicitly don't work on undead like phantasmal force).

If you're going to spend some time on the front line as a valor bard you could grab destructive wave off the pally list. Safe for using with nearby party and it's a pretty large area with damage and a potential prone effect.