What if they made it possible to create damage types, and gave us rules to apply them to any creature, and any player character? What if they added them as a sub damage type, kinda like a hybrid damage type, where it could be substituted out, kind of like Necrotic/Dark... How would they do it? What damage types would you like to see? I for one have a few that sound really cool.
Requires a major rewrite. New spells to grant resistance and immunity. New spells to do the damage types. Creatures need to be assigned vulnerabilities, resistance, and immunity.
That said, they are planning such a major re-write in a year or two called 5.5, or possibly 6. Already playtesting.
So, if we are doing a major re-write, here is what I would like to see.
First, keep the existing ones:
Slash, puncture, blunt are the weapon types
Fire, Acid, Poison, Cold, Thunder, and Lighting are the normal 'weaker' natural other types that sometimes are duplicated by spells.
Psychic, Necrotic, Radiant, Force are the 'magical purely' types. Rare etc. not found in nromal creatures.
I would like to see: Gravity,Time and Abberant as damage types
Gravity would be caused by internal twisting of gravity based spells, not falling.
Time would be aging.
Abberant or perhaps called Eldritch (but not connected to normal eldritch blast) would be a strange twisting of life, think rick and Morty where Morty tries to make his crush fall in love with him and the entire world turns into strange monsters so they have to leave. I think it is called Kroninberg monsters or something like that.
If you're going to introduce new damage types, it's going to significantly affect the game balance, since you've essentially introduced a bypass for the damage resistances/immunities of all existing monsters. Given their desire for 5E compatibility, I'm not sure they'd introduce such a fundamental change.
For some of the suggested types:
Blood - Unless you're thinking of something wildly different than I am, the existing Poison & Necrotic types would likely cover that
Sound/Noise - we've got that in Thunder damage
Cyber/Tech/Digital - as long as D&D remains a fantasy and not a sci-fi themed game, I don't see them doing anything like this. And if we're talking about electronics, Lightning damage seems like it would fit the bill
Gravity - Force damage would probably work for this, that's what the Explorer's Guide To Wildemount uses for its gravity-themed spells
Time - Again looking at the Wildemount book for reference, their spell "Time Ravage" used Necrotic, which makes sense(aging, decay etc). It reminds me of a scene from The Time Machine when the traveler is watching a corpse age in high speed.
Abberant - If you're talking about messing with people's minds, that sounds like Psychic damage to me. If we're talking about lifeforce, then Necrotic.
Besides merely adding new spells to counter, save, the real advantage to doing new damage types is accessory damage. Radiant blinds, poison creates the poison condition, etc. etc.
Gravity damage would cause any creature to spend 1/2 their movement moving down. If you are already on the ground, that movement is still used and wasted.
Time would not be curable by cure light wounds. It would require a Restoration type spell or a spell that specifically reverses aging.
Aberrant damage would affect the body, not the mind. It would cause disadvantage to Deception, Persuasion, any Strength and any Dexterity based ability check.
I do not believe that force or necrotic is appropriate to duplicate these extra effects.
Also, if you really wanted to, one could reduce the existing damage types:
Radiant? Cold? Fire? Those are really just control of heat. Make them one.
Psychic? Necrotic? Those are both soul magic. Make them one.
The game is better with these damage types split up. I think Gravity, Time and Abberant make for a better game.
I do not think it would change the game all that significantly, if you are saying that it is in fact covered by the rest of the "other" types then it is easily possible to add the "New" types as well. they could just write rules pertaining to creating your own damage types as well as how to switch it out for any monsters types so that way nothing is immune or completely vulnerable to the new thing. but it could add a ton of roleplay fun for both the Dungeon Masters/Game Masters and the Players alike. It could also be used to create terrain and whole worlds with effects that would be really interesting. I believe it would only take a book with a general set of rules as to how to apply this, also if they did this they could also use D&D Beyond to add entirely new content and tools for people to use. Thanks to all of you who have put thought into your answers, I appreciate your responses. I also have been considering adding luck as a skill to players characters, it would be rolled the same as every other ability score, as for what it would be used for i am not entirely sure yet...
Kind of weird, but would like to see a Compression damage type. It would be for like if a Giant Consticter Snake wraps around you, or if you get burried under sand and can't breathe. Normally this would Bludgeoning, but I envision Bludgeoning as more like Blunt Force Trama damage, IDK
Kind of weird, but would like to see a Compression damage type. It would be for like if a Giant Consticter Snake wraps around you, or if you get burried under sand and can't breathe. Normally this would Bludgeoning, but I envision Bludgeoning as more like Blunt Force Trama damage, IDK
That's probably too niche a case to justify its own damage type.
I've been having a hard time placing damage from radiation, but I think necrotic probably does the job without needing a new type.
If you want to get fancy, call it equal parts Necrotic and Fire damage, and resistance/immunity for each type only impacts half the total damage(so immunity to Fire would prevent half, not all of the damage, etc). A bit more math, but it's a potential way to combine damage types for unique effects.
How is thunder damage calculated? Is there anything on it? My characters have dragon’s tongue and Thaumaturgy and I feel as though they’re capable of dealing damage to everyone who can freakin hear them but I have no idea of how to calculate it.
How is thunder damage calculated? Is there anything on it? My characters have dragon’s tongue and Thaumaturgy and I feel as though they’re capable of dealing damage to everyone who can freakin hear them but I have no idea of how to calculate it.
Thunder damage is just another damage type. It doesn't require any special calculations or have any special behavior.
Thaumaturgy doesn't do damage of any kind. I am not sure what "dragon's tongue" you're referring to. Can you elaborate?
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What if they made it possible to create damage types, and gave us rules to apply them to any creature, and any player character? What if they added them as a sub damage type, kinda like a hybrid damage type, where it could be substituted out, kind of like Necrotic/Dark... How would they do it? What damage types would you like to see? I for one have a few that sound really cool.
Damage types I would like to see:
Blood
Sound/Noise
Cyber/Tech/Digital
ETC... let's hear what ideas you all have.
I just thought this could be a fun conversation.
Requires a major rewrite. New spells to grant resistance and immunity. New spells to do the damage types. Creatures need to be assigned vulnerabilities, resistance, and immunity.
That said, they are planning such a major re-write in a year or two called 5.5, or possibly 6. Already playtesting.
So, if we are doing a major re-write, here is what I would like to see.
First, keep the existing ones:
I would like to see: Gravity, Time and Abberant as damage types
Gravity would be caused by internal twisting of gravity based spells, not falling.
Time would be aging.
Abberant or perhaps called Eldritch (but not connected to normal eldritch blast) would be a strange twisting of life, think rick and Morty where Morty tries to make his crush fall in love with him and the entire world turns into strange monsters so they have to leave. I think it is called Kroninberg monsters or something like that.
If you're going to introduce new damage types, it's going to significantly affect the game balance, since you've essentially introduced a bypass for the damage resistances/immunities of all existing monsters. Given their desire for 5E compatibility, I'm not sure they'd introduce such a fundamental change.
For some of the suggested types:
Blood - Unless you're thinking of something wildly different than I am, the existing Poison & Necrotic types would likely cover that
Sound/Noise - we've got that in Thunder damage
Cyber/Tech/Digital - as long as D&D remains a fantasy and not a sci-fi themed game, I don't see them doing anything like this. And if we're talking about electronics, Lightning damage seems like it would fit the bill
Gravity - Force damage would probably work for this, that's what the Explorer's Guide To Wildemount uses for its gravity-themed spells
Time - Again looking at the Wildemount book for reference, their spell "Time Ravage" used Necrotic, which makes sense(aging, decay etc). It reminds me of a scene from The Time Machine when the traveler is watching a corpse age in high speed.
Abberant - If you're talking about messing with people's minds, that sounds like Psychic damage to me. If we're talking about lifeforce, then Necrotic.
Besides merely adding new spells to counter, save, the real advantage to doing new damage types is accessory damage. Radiant blinds, poison creates the poison condition, etc. etc.
Gravity damage would cause any creature to spend 1/2 their movement moving down. If you are already on the ground, that movement is still used and wasted.
Time would not be curable by cure light wounds. It would require a Restoration type spell or a spell that specifically reverses aging.
Aberrant damage would affect the body, not the mind. It would cause disadvantage to Deception, Persuasion, any Strength and any Dexterity based ability check.
I do not believe that force or necrotic is appropriate to duplicate these extra effects.
Also, if you really wanted to, one could reduce the existing damage types:
Radiant? Cold? Fire? Those are really just control of heat. Make them one.
Psychic? Necrotic? Those are both soul magic. Make them one.
The game is better with these damage types split up. I think Gravity, Time and Abberant make for a better game.
I do not think it would change the game all that significantly, if you are saying that it is in fact covered by the rest of the "other" types then it is easily possible to add the "New" types as well. they could just write rules pertaining to creating your own damage types as well as how to switch it out for any monsters types so that way nothing is immune or completely vulnerable to the new thing. but it could add a ton of roleplay fun for both the Dungeon Masters/Game Masters and the Players alike. It could also be used to create terrain and whole worlds with effects that would be really interesting. I believe it would only take a book with a general set of rules as to how to apply this, also if they did this they could also use D&D Beyond to add entirely new content and tools for people to use. Thanks to all of you who have put thought into your answers, I appreciate your responses. I also have been considering adding luck as a skill to players characters, it would be rolled the same as every other ability score, as for what it would be used for i am not entirely sure yet...
Kind of weird, but would like to see a Compression damage type. It would be for like if a Giant Consticter Snake wraps around you, or if you get burried under sand and can't breathe. Normally this would Bludgeoning, but I envision Bludgeoning as more like Blunt Force Trama damage, IDK
Hi Chat
That's probably too niche a case to justify its own damage type.
I've been having a hard time placing damage from radiation, but I think necrotic probably does the job without needing a new type.
If you want to get fancy, call it equal parts Necrotic and Fire damage, and resistance/immunity for each type only impacts half the total damage(so immunity to Fire would prevent half, not all of the damage, etc). A bit more math, but it's a potential way to combine damage types for unique effects.
How is thunder damage calculated? Is there anything on it? My characters have dragon’s tongue and Thaumaturgy and I feel as though they’re capable of dealing damage to everyone who can freakin hear them but I have no idea of how to calculate it.
Thunder damage is just another damage type. It doesn't require any special calculations or have any special behavior.
Thaumaturgy doesn't do damage of any kind. I am not sure what "dragon's tongue" you're referring to. Can you elaborate?