Damage Types
Every damaging ability has a damage type. Common damage types include:
| Damage Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Piercing | Damage that pierces armor, such as from a dagger or arrow |
| Slashing | Damage that cuts through flesh, such as from a sword or axe |
| Bludgeoning | Damage that crushes or bashes, such as from a mace or hammer |
| Fire | Damage from heat or flames, such as from a fireball or dragon's breath |
| Cold | Damage from extreme cold, such as from an ice spell or a white dragon |
| Lightning | Damage from electricity, such as from a lightning bolt or storm giant's axe |
| Acid | Damage from corrosive substances, such as from an acid splash or black dragon |
| Poison | Damage from toxins, such as from a poison spray or a giant spider's bite |
| Psychic | Damage from mental attacks, such as from a mind blast or a psychic |
| Radiant | Damage from holy energy, such as from a sunbeam or a celestial's smite |
| Necrotic | Damage from unholy energy, such as from a chill touch |
Multiple Damage Types
Any given weapon or power can have multiple damage types. For instance, a flaming sword might deal both slashing and fire damage. A paladin might call down a Smite spell that inflicts radiant fire damage.
In these cases, regardless of how the wording is (the standard is "radiant fire" or "piercing lightning", but "fire and radiant" or "piercing and lightning" are also allowed as synonyms), the damage is treated as such:
- The attack deals one instance of damage, unless otherwise specified.
- Thus: 3d8 + 10 radiant fire damage, with the 3d8 rolled as 16 (4, 5, 7), would deal 26 damage total, not 13 radiant and 13 fire.
- The damage type of the attack is both energy types. What this means is that the attacker can choose any of the damage types, based on the target's vulnerabilities and resistances. For instance, if the target is resistant to fire but vulnerable to radiant, the attacker can choose to treat the attack as radiant damage, and thus deal double damage. In that example, the fire resistance doesn't matter; the attack does double damage.