What element would "radiation" be?

[Pbartender]

What element would "radiation" be in D&D? Fire?

For example, radiation from xrays, gamma rays, etc. or "plutonium."

I'd treat it as untyped magical energy damage, much like the searing light, sunbeam, and sunburst spells.

Radiation has far more in common with light, than it does with fire, but if you want resistances and immunities to apply to it, fire makes a good second choice.


Alternatively, you could also call it "negative energy" damage.


A third option would be to not treat it as energy damage at all, but instead treat it as a ranged poison or disease that deals Constitution damage.

 

[Nifft]

"Anachronium". Like gunpowder.

Cheers, -- N

 

[freyar]

I'd treat it as untyped magical energy damage, much like the searing light, sunbeam, and sunburst spells.

Radiation has far more in common with light, than it does with fire, but if you want resistances and immunities to apply to it, fire makes a good second choice.

I'd agree with this on the whole. There are numerous types of radiation, but most commonly we'd think of electromagnetic radiation including light, microwaves, radio waves, X-rays, and gamma rays.

In terms of radioactive material, I felt that sickstone in the WotC Far Corners of the World archive here and here. Similar, but not a complete analogy is the bilestone in Dungeon 144's Savage Tide adventure.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

The 2e Planescape supplement Inner Planes described this area called the "Glowing Dunes" which had an effect a lot like radiation. It was in the border area between the Paraelemental Plane of Magma and the Quasielemental Plane of Radiance.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

Depends on if you think of light as a particle or a wave.

If a particle, call it fire damage. If a wave, call it air (or perhaps sonic, but that just seems weird).

Alternatively, you could also call it "negative energy" damage.

Now this answer I like, although the historian/anthropologist in me says that I might be more prone to call it positive energy. Thinking that non-manmade radiation largely comes from the heavenly bodies (stars, mostly) and stars give off light, I think most non-scientific cultures would see that more along the lines of positive energy.

 

[Captain Howdy]

If you think about it in relation to the elemental planes, the plane of earth would have the radioactive material in it. As substances like uranium, thorium, k40, etc go through their half lives, they are releasing the particles that cause damage to a persons tissue. However, the damage it would cause would be most comparable to fire or, as was said earlier, spells like searing light. In my opinion, I would call it a mix of positive energy and fire damage.

 

[Ry]

Negative energy (if it kills you) or positive energy (if it gives you super powers)

 

[Kwitchit]

k40, etc go through their half lives, they are releasing the particles that cause damage to a persons tissue.

[physicspedant]Potassium-40 decays by electron-capture, which releases no radiation but turns it into Argon-40. A good thing too, as our bodies contain an appreciable amount of the stuff...[/physicspedant]
Anyway, I'd type radiation damage as either "generic energy" or "unholy" (like an evil version of the "divine" damage in Flame Strike.

 

[+5 Keyboard!]

If you had to give something with really high radiation levels an energy descriptor, I would go with fire. And give it a secondary disease effect.

 

[Deekin]

A sickness/posion.

MSRD on Radiation