D&D 5E 13 Flavors of At-Will Damage

Voort · Jan 2, 2016

Similar to the Master of Minor Magics at www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?464896-Help-me-make-a-Master-of-Minor-Magic , I wanted to see how efficiently a character could have an at-will attack for all thirteen damage types listed in the PHB. Turns out, pretty easily:

First, the thirteen flavors of damage are Acid, Bludgeoning, Cold, Fire, Force, Lightning, Necrotic, Piercing, Poison, Psychic, Radiant, Slashing, and Thunder. Assuming you carry a quarterstaff, dagger, and handaxe to do the three melee types, you need ten cantrips to cover the rest. A Tomelock 3/Sorcerer 1 would have just enough to do it.

Acid- Acid Splash
Bludgeoning- Quarterstaff
Cold- Ray of Frost
Fire- Fire Bolt
Force- Eldritch Blast
Lightning- Shocking Grasp
Necrotic- Chill Touch
Piercing- Dagger
Poison- Poison Spray
Psychic- Vicious Mockery
Radiant- Sacred Flame
Slashing- Handaxe
Thunder- Thunderclap or Booming Blade

A level of Sorcer gives four cantrips (Acid Splash, Fire Bolt, Ray of Frost, Shocking Grasp). The first level of Warlock adds three more cantrips (Chill Touch, Eldritch Blast, Poison Spray). And the Warlock Pact of the Tome adds three cantrips from any class lists (Sacred Flame, Vicious Mockery, and either Thunderclap or Booming Blade from the Elemental Evil or Sword Coast supplements).

This build leaves no room for any other cantrips like Light or Minor Illusion. If needed for utility, the Magic Initiate feat would give two cantrips, or a level of Arcane Cleric would give five additional cantrips.

Z. H. Darkstar · Jan 4, 2016

Lightning Lash from the SCAG is another source of at-will lightning damage. It, Thunderclap, and Boom Blade are on the Warlock and Sorcerer lists, so those can be acquired naturally via levels for those who don't want to waste a Tome cantrip on a damaging spell. If you grab Shillelagh, then your quarterstaff attacks use Cha instead of Str.

pdegan2814 · Jan 5, 2016

That's.....kind of beautiful

I'd probably go ahead and take Shillelagh as one of the Tome cantrips. You're already going to want high Cha and decent Dex/Con with that build, no need to worry about Str too. Still leaves the handaxe as the redheaded stepchild, though. If there was a way to gain proficiency with a whip, that's the only weapon I know of that does slashing damage which you can use Dex for.

Voort · Jan 6, 2016

pdegan2814 said:
If there was a way to gain proficiency with a whip, that's the only weapon I know of that does slashing damage which you can use Dex for.

A scimitar would also work. Sadly, I think feats or extra multi-classing are the only ways to add a martial weapon proficiency.

Z. H. Darkstar · Jan 6, 2016

Voort said:
A scimitar would also work. Sadly, I think feats or extra multi-classing are the only ways to add a martial weapon proficiency.

Yes, but truthfully you don't need to have all three types of weapon damage represented when you have Shillelagh. Most creatures that have resistance to weapon damage types are overcome by using magical weapons. Having all 13 types of damage at your disposal is a nice gimmick, but will hardly see real use of all 13 types on a regular basis.

However, for the purposes of this thought exercise, I found a way to deal piercing damage with Cha as the attack modifier. Add 1 level of Bard or take Magic Initiate (Bard) to gain Vicious Mockery. Then use the freed up Tome cantrip slot to take Thorn Whip from the Druid list.

D&D 5E 13 Flavors of At-Will Damage

Voort

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