Ensnaring Strike Magical Damage?

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Pretty simple I hope. Does a creature with resistance to non magical damage have resistance to the damage from Ensnaring Strike?

[PhantomSoul]

It's damage from a spell, so it's magical (there's a Sage Advice Compendium*), but those resistances also tend to specify that the resistance only applies to damage from non-magical weapons anyway.

* (p. 18)

Is the breath weapon of a dragon magical? If you cast
antimagic field, don armor of invulnerability, or use another
feature of the game that protects against magical or non-
magical effects, you might ask yourself, “Will this protect
me against a dragon’s breath?” The breath weapon of a
typical dragon isn’t considered magical, so antimagic field
won’t help you but armor of invulnerability will.
You might be thinking, “Dragons seem pretty magical
to me.” And yes, they are extraordinary! Their description
even says they’re magical. But our game makes a distinc-
tion between two types of magic:
• the background magic that is part of the D&D
multiverse’s physics and the physiology of many
D&D creatures
• the concentrated magical energy that is contained in a
magic item or channeled to create a spell or other focused
magical effect
In D&D, the first type of magic is part of nature. It is no
more dispellable than the wind. A monster like a dragon
exists because of that magic-enhanced nature. The second
type of magic is what the rules are concerned about. When
a rule refers to something being magical, it’s referring to
that second type. Determining whether a game feature is
magical is straightforward. Ask yourself these questions
about the feature:
• Is it a magic item?
• Is it a spell? Or does it let you create the effects of a spell
that’s mentioned in its description?
• Is it a spell attack?
• Is it fueled by the use of spell slots?
• Does its description say it’s magical?
If your answer to any of those questions is yes, the feature
is magical.
Let’s look at a white dragon’s Cold Breath and ask our-
selves those questions. First, Cold Breath isn’t a magic
item. Second, its description mentions no spell. Third, it’s
not a spell attack. Fourth, the word “magical” appears no-
where in its description. Our conclusion: Cold Breath is not
considered a magical game effect, even though we know
that dragons are amazing, supernatural beings.