What are Damage types in Dungeons & Dragons - Workshop Wednesday

What are Damage types in Dungeons & Dragons - Workshop Wednesday
I wanted to move away from world building briefly to look at another ruleset that gets overlooked until it comes into play. Damage types. What are they all and why do you need to know?
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[@charlesstarkey205]

One thing I've always wanted to know as bout necrotic damage. Does necrotic damage always reduce max HP no matter what or does a specific ability have to say it will reduce HP

[@TheRPGDaily]

My interpretation is unless it says the Max HP is reduced then it doesn't, So no Necrotic damage doesn't always lower the max HP, but it is frequently used in the abilities that do have that effect.

[@SilverAceOfSpades]

It helps me to think of them as Minecraft. Acid: Ender Dragon breath Bludgeoning: Blaze melee attack, weaponless melee attack, Zombie attack, Slime/Magma Cube attack, etc. Cold: Powder snow (upcoming in Minecraft 1.17) Fire: Blaze ranged attack, lava, walking into fire Force: Guardian lasers Lightning: Getting struck by lightning Necrotic: Wither status effect Piercing: Arrow or trident Poison: Poison status effect Psychic: Cringey Minecraft animations, also realizing that the first 3 letters in my descriptions for necrotic, piercing, and poison spell out WAP Radiant: Smite enchantment Slashing: Sword/axe Thunder: Ravager roar

[@TheRPGDaily]

I love this!

[@alphathesupreme2238]

I think the blaze melee attack should still do at least some fire damage, like 1d4 bludgeoning ,1d4 fire or something

[@yiklongtay6029]

I don't think DnD does enough to differentiate between the different types of damages. Other than descriptive flavor and the rare pokemon style resistances, immunities, and vulnerabilities, I feel like they can do more. It would be really nice if they add some additional effects for nat 20s. I hope to soon test a homebrew of mine Fire and Lightning damage: 1d4 extra damage for every metal piece of equipment and weapons Cold and Poison damage: Effects of the Slow spell until a constitution save Necrotic Damage: Use that max HP mechanic for all necrotic attacks. It's cool Radiant Damage: Blind for 1 round Piercing & Acid damage: 1d4 extra damage until a constitution save Bludgeoning & Thunder damage: Stun for 1 round. Slashing & Psychic: -5 to attack rolls for 1 round. The logic is a disabling attack that messes with their ability to attack. Cut the limbs or cloud the mind.

[@jackgrimble9418]

MOAR! This was nice, some play examples on "How to use types of damage ingame" would be superb.

[@TheRPGDaily]

Thank you so much! examples of play is something I'm working towards figuring out for sure!

[@thatnedudedemartin8834]

What type of damage would water do? Like drowning and such.

[@erickchristensen746]

That’s already explained in 5th edition, Water itself isn’t an element damage type since it’s inherently harmless until used in harmful ways. Water deals various types of damage depending on the condition, most commonly Bludgeoning as Water crushes with pressure, but cold water can do cold damage in some cases and in extreme cases water can deal Piercing or Slashing damage when the pressure is high enough.

[@kenlewis9557]

Not complaining about the vid as I think it’s an accurate reflection of the players handbook i a. Just disappointed that nobody in d and d has looked at the effect of damage being budgeoned doesn’t just mean you are bludgeoned! Surely it would have an impact on how well you hit back. A slash or pierce attack would surely cause blood loss etc

[@scorpion1429]

Really useful video thanks so much!

[@TheRPGDaily]

Glad it was helpful!

[@brunoborello8309]

I have a question. I want to do a Warlock Celestial Patron Aasimar character, and the problem is: the Aasimar has a racial feature that grants me resistance to radiant damage, and in 6th level the Celestial Patron gives me an ability called Radiant Soul, which grants me (again) resistance to radiant damage. The question is: do these resistances stack in some form?

[@TheRPGDaily]

Generally, when you have a scenario like that, the resistances would not stack to create an extra resistance. But that is also a question for your DM, they may choose to allow it.

[@brunoborello8309]

RPG Daily thanks!!!

[@snowboundwhale6860]

I don't understand why poison is it's own damage type, and not just a status effect, with "poison damage" instances being acid or necrotic instead.

[@KingSnakeRE4]

If thunder damage is applied through sound waves what happens when you shoot a thunder damage chromatic orb into an enemy that is inside the area of a silence spell? Would the chromatic orb do nothing? This happened too our group last night and as a dm, I had to describe this to my players, since the mage that cast the chromatic orb could learn the silence spell I asked him to make a arcana check to recognize the effect of the silence spell so that he could change the damage type.

[@victormedina1600]

Creatures that are within the silenced area are immune to thunder damage. So if you want to use Chromatic Orb in that situation, you need to change the damage type.

[@DonFranke]

I have a question about vulnerability and resistance. I'm currently playing a lvl 3 Beartotem Barbarian / lvl 10 Moon Duid multiclass and my favorite elemental is the Earth Elemental. Since i get every trait from the chosen beast/elemental i get vulnerability to thunder damage in my wild shaped, but can still rage which would give me resistance. How do they interact? Does it cancel out or do i get the resistance/vulnerability to that type of damage?

[@TheRPGDaily]

This is a really good question that I think has been overcomplicated. The long answer is the book says "Resistance and then vulnerability are applied after all other modifiers to damage." To me this is saying you first halve the damage applying the resistance, then multiply the halved damage applying the Vulnerability. This accounts for the sometimes 1/2 hp that gets rounded down depending on how the DM rules it. So 25 thunder damage halved is 12.5 or 12. 12x2 is 24, you saved yourself 1 point by taking it step by step. I personally would probably have these cancel each other out for simplicity.

[@Headphoney]

Looking at a monster it says vulnerability, resistance and immunities. When it says immunities, does that mean that the monster will take 0 dmg instead of half like with resistance?

[@TheRPGDaily]

That's exactly what that means! 👍

[@wh3nderson95]

I have a question. When something that is Resistent to Slashing/Blundgeoning/Piercing does that mean if the creature is taking magical Slashing/Blundgeoning/Piercing. Does that get halved as well?

[@enoraltheoutcast]

Usually it is specified as "resistant to bludgeoning/piercing/slashing damage from non-magical sources." But if it's not... Maybe it is resistant to it regardless

[@jeffjaeger739]

what about radiant and necrotic?

[@davidclout6286]

This video was great. Very helpful. Very comprehensive. Very cool. Thanks a lot. You’ve earned a sub. I do have one extra question regarding how to roll damage. When you swing say a great axe the damage type says “1d12 + 3 slashing” what does the “+ 3 slashing” mean and how do I roll for it?

[@TheRPGDaily]

Thanks for the sub! Ans good question! When you find damage amount listed as your example that +3 refers to the strength or dexterity modifier of the character attacking. which almost always comes into play with physical attacks. To resolve it, you would roll the D12 (12 sided die) then add the 3 to whatever you rolled and that would be your damage for that attack. The word "slashing" is just letting you know the type of damage the weapon does, Great axes deal slashing damage, Daggers deal piercing damage etc. Does this help with your question?

[@Zr0din]

Is there such a thing as magic damage? I got into an argument about the thorn whip spell. When attacking a creature with piercing resistance (peryton) or immunity (ghost) does the thorn whip cantrip bypass this resistance because of the magical source? I believe the answer is no. Also if you are higher in level and thorn whipping an intangible ghost, would that have any effect (again because of a magical source) or would you need a shilelleigh cantrip minimum to hit that ghost?

[@TheRPGDaily]

Hey, You hit an interesting situation with these creatures and here's how it works. First off Piercing damage is piercing damage so if a creature is resistant to piercing damage thorn whip is effected by that resistance no matter how high level you are when you use it. BUT Peryton and the ghost have the "Resistance to Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from Nonmagical attacks" This means that the resistance only applies when the source of the damage is non-magical, like a mundane dagger or spear. Thorn whip is Magical and so it ignores the resistance and would deal the full damage. For the Ghost, I'm looking at the 5th edition version and only see the same Resistance vs nonmagical attacks, not a full piercing immunity. After this whole rant which edition are you using? because creatures and rules have changed from 3rd and 4th and 5th edition.

[@Zr0din]

​@@TheRPGDaily WOW! So if that's true then things like Shillelagh, Magic Stone, and plus 1 weapons are effectively useless! You take those cantrips (or weapons) to make sure your party has a magic weapon option. But basically you just said everything from a magic source counts as magical for effect and damage purposes. I transmute a tiny twig into a 30ft long Thorn Whip (to me, that's the magic part of the cantrip), and the damage is NOT the magic part. That's the Peircing part that SHOULD be resisted by the Peryton. I mean, it says "1d6 piercing damage" right in the Cantrip description- sounds pretty mundane to me. You (and apparently everyone else) are saying I'm incorrect. This also means if you were fire-resistant, then you would take 10 points of damage from a normal bonfire (or zero if you were immune) but the full 20 points from a firebolt cantrip (5th level and up- if you rolled awesome) or fireball spell because they are magically sourced?!? How does that make ANY sense? What am I missing here? Wizards don't kill fire giants and red dragons with fireballs... do they? Please let me know if / how I'm wrong with the above example. That means things have REALLY changed. It feels like we are ignorning the whole idea of fighting a bad guy and trying to figure out his vulnerability or weaknesses on the fly, because we just need FireBolt to damage a summoned Fire Elemental. This is super counterintuitive to me. This is like applying the logic (where I CAN accept) that player races that can see in darkness but can't see through magical darkness, too wide-ly. Please let me know if I'm getting that wrong. I'm just getting back into the hobby (as a player, haven't looked at any monsters or DM'd a game yet) after a good 20 years off. That kinda blows me away. I guess my interpretation is just from an earlier edition. I was really confident I was right.

[@TheRPGDaily]

@@Zr0din It is really good you are discussing this, and I can totally understand where you're coming from with it. There are a lot of things in this 5th edition that exist to try and simplify things over previous editions and that leaves some head scratching. So let me try to help clarify a bit more. The Big misunderstanding that I see comes from this. In 5E you'll see 2 types of damage resistance. Regular resistance meaning they are resistant to all damage of that type period, no exceptions. This type is just listed as "resistance to Fire damage". Then the second type the resistance that is phrased as "Resistance to Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from Nonmagical attacks" So far I've only ever seen the latter when its referring to Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage. I've never seen "Resistance to Fire Damage from Nonmagical Attacks" So keep this in mind, just because something is resistant to a damage type, doesn't mean that magical attacks negate that resistance. Its a very deliberate phrasing they use in the stat blocks. and the Peryton has that exact phrasing. Continuing on this just a bit more. The Death Slaad has "Resistance to Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Thunder" Those resistances apply all the time no matter the source magical or not. one of your examples. The Fire Elemental, has Damage Immunity to Fire and Poison. So no matter the source Fire and poison won't effect it. But it also has the "Resistance to Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from Nonmagical attacks" Which means when it comes to Bludgeoning Piercing and Slashing. it has resistance unless thats coming from a magical source, a spell, a magic weapon, etc. Is this difference making things more clear? Its really important that this difference is understood. Moving on a little bit to what makes an attack magical. The Monster Manual says "a magical attack is an attack delivered by a spell, a magic item, or another magical source" which mean any spell that as an effect deals damage is magical. Thorn whip yes creates this 30 foot long whip from a branch, but since the damage is listed in the spell description we know that the spell is a part of that damage being dealt and so it is magical. You can also refer to this brief interaction between one of the former designers and a player on twitter www.sageadvice.eu/does-any-piercing-bludgeoning-or-slashing-damage-from-spells-count-as-magical-in-nature/ I really hope this makes things a bit clearer! I think the most important part is just understanding that magical attacks only overcome a very specific type of damage resistance, not all of them. A really annoying part of D&D I've been pondering on in recent months is the idea that DMs should see rules that the players shouldn't and that's why they put a lot of stuff in the DMG and Monster Manual that isn't in the PHB. But to me that's counter productive. so If you get your hands on the other books I highly recommend giving them a read!

[@Zr0din]

@@TheRPGDaily thanks for the clarifications

[@rachdarastrix5251]

When is the best time to use Legendary Resistance?

[@TheRPGDaily]

its really situational, I try to save it for moments that I know are going to wreck my day, like if an adventurer wants to stun my creature, or against some charm spells. It really depends on the fight that's happening and the purpose of the fight. Like if its supposed to be readily winnable while showing your players that they are against more powerful creatures I might use it at the first opportunity.

[@rabbidsquerllz13]

As someone running a game with a powerful monk character, what does unarmed melee damage count as? Bludgeoning?

[@TheRPGDaily]

Yep unarmed strikes are usually bludgeoning, unless the character has something that changes that, like claws.

[@Little_Fred]

So piercing damage don't have any special effect againts armor class?

[@zhangbill1194]

no, It would logically, but 5e likes to simplify things

[@Little_Fred]

@@zhangbill1194 thanks and yep it's better This way

[@erickchristensen746]

@@Little_Fred You can always homebrew it to your liking, the great thing about Rp table top

[@Little_Fred]

@@erickchristensen746 yeah just need to be careful when tryng tô homebrew like me who try to create new AC to mitrhil and adamant armor

[@Little_Fred]

What about magical damage? If you use a spell like fire ball and deal 20 points of damage It will be consider like fire and magical damage or just fire damage?

[@TheRPGDaily]

"Magic" damage isn't really a thing, the only time you see a reference to something like that is when it refers to damage dealt by magical weapons vs non-magical weapons. Fire damage is Fire Damage whether it was done by a spell or a torch. Mechanically speaking they are the same.

[@Little_Fred]

@@TheRPGDaily thanks pal

[@droman608]

The game has Vulnerable which deals 2X dmg, Resistance is 1/2 dmg and Immune negates. The game should include absorption 1/2, 3/4 or full dmg. Also instead of Thunder, it should be changed to Sonic since it’s acoustic. Can’t use sound because then everyone would want to play instruments instead. IMHO.

[@necroarcanistxiii]

That would be Melodic damage. A rickroll, for example, does 20d4 Melodic and 10d6 Troll damage.

[@Regulinecolt009]

Sheesh I'm really late to this video buut What are the advantages and disadvantages of piercing damage compared to slashing??

[@TheRPGDaily]

There's not really any advantages or disadvantages. The damage types are more there to represent how the different weapons work, and for game machanics some creatures may have resistance, immunity, or vulnerability to specific damage types.

[@krittinjumrussri1012]

Not counting the spells, what can deals radiant damage that are common in most campain

[@TheRPGDaily]

I've been looking this up and really haven't found anything that's not magic. unless your looking for magic items with your question, i which case there are quite a few but those are very dependent on the DM

[@krittinjumrussri1012]

Thanks for trying! I was thinking something along the lines of Dark Celestial or Holy Devil in the homebrew department.

[@an8strengthkobold360]

Almost nothing. Radiant is done mostly by celestials which are very rare, the most common is probably cult fanatics who can do clerical magic.

[@moustacheboy9918]

A friend tells me that a DM can deal "real full damage" to an NPC or PC. I'm not really sure about that, does it really exist or did he invent it?

[@TheRPGDaily]

So in 5th edition I've never heard of "Real Full Damage" but I'm not an expert on earlier editions or other game systems so Its possible its from one of the hundreds of others. Best thing to do is ask the DM if that's something they've heard of or used.

[@moustacheboy9918]

@@TheRPGDaily I see, thank you very much from Argentina!!

[@lukecya6207]

MUSIC WASNT LOUD ENOUGH!!!! CAN YOU TURN IT UP PLEASE!!!!!!!! THANKS!!!

[@holysmoke8439]

Well this video was almost completely useless till the end when I think u said the purpose of ten different damages is player immunity and not the way it's delt because that's all the same

[@mattlefler9854]

Music in the background is really distracting and gave me a headache on headphones. Just feedback.

[@HellGod67]

Kinda feels like an explanation for RPG noobs.

[@TheRPGDaily]

Oh it most definitely is.