D&D General Air, Earth, and Water Damage

[Misanthrope Prime]

I once played an eladrin wildfire druid with a homebrew rule: as her season changed, the damage of her wildfire abilities changed to match: so in summer mode she was a wildfire druid, in winter mode she was a wildfrost druid, spring was lightning and autumn was acid. There's a loose elemental association here (spring = air, summer = fire, autumn = earth, and winter = cold).

This applied to produce flame, any spell granted by the subclass, and subclass features (like the companion's attack).

I was never really satisfied with autumn being acid, but I've never come up with an answer that sat particularly well instead. I suppose spring = radiant and autumn = necrotic could work, but that has potential balance issues. I never really found a good answer for "earth damage" in DnD.

I'd associate necrotic with autumn, since it's all about "decay" and it's not too powerful since lots of undead resist necrotic. By that logic lightning could also be swapped out for radiant for spring since radiant means "life magic" too.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Or save from pressure as several pounds of water are hitting several square inches of your body at a specific point.

my brother in ilmater that's called piercing damage

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Personally, I think the association of air to lightning/electricity by way of storms is far stronger than the association of water to cold by way of ice. Ice is a result of cold acting on water, not really an inherent water thing IMO. But that's a matter of taste.

Most adventurers are warm-blooded mammals with a body temperature of ~37 degrees Celsius. Water at room temperature is significantly colder than body temperature (to say nothing of large masses of water like the ocean or lakes outside in cold temperatures). Water is significantly colder than adventurers, and it will suck the heat out of them if they are in contact with it long enough; if they are in contact with it for a short enough period of time, this is called sweating, but if you're floating in the ocean for hours, it becomes hypothermia.

 

[Remathilis]

Incorrect move for cannon turtles.View attachment 438296
Blastoise?

Blastoise Use Hydro Pump

View attachment 438297

Yeah but what is doing the damage? Scalding water? Hypothermia? Water pressure? The reason fire hoses are used in rioters is that it's fairly non-lethal, so maybe we should bring back non-lethal damage?

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Yeah but what is doing the damage? Scalding water? Hypothermia? Water pressure? The reason fire hoses are used in rioters is that it's fairly non-lethal, so maybe we should bring back non-lethal damage?

Under 5e rules you could have a firehose be a bludgeoning melee attack with a range of like 60 feet (kind of like thorn whip) and then choose to do nonlethal damage if the target falls to 0 HP; I guess in this case "choosing" is "aiming for center mass instead of the head or neck and turning a punch to the face into a bellyflop"

 

[CreamCloud0]

D&D doesn't have any rules regarding what each kind of damage is and how they differ from one another. Instead, they just use examples of what they are. Lightning damage is a Blue Dragon's breath weapon or being shocked by a Tinker Gnome's invention. Bludgeoning damage is what you get from any blunt object that hits you or an object. Force damage is what you get from being hit by pure magic.

okay so, i don't think that air, earth, water or plant deal damage in like, specific ways that can be given examples of, but i do think those things interact with the world in specific ways that ought to be recognized by damage calculations which i think requires them be recognized as distinct damage types, being hit by a blast of water or projectile dirtball might not really do anything that couldn't be called bludgeoning, but, IMO it would(should) have extra effect against a fire elemental because water and earth smother fire, wind magic specifically messes up flying creatures that rely on air currents and such, plants use the nutrients from the ground and consume water and so might be extra effective against a stone golem or liquid creature or suchlike.

 

[Corinnguard]

okay so, i don't think that air, earth, water or plant deal damage in like, specific ways that can be given examples of, but i do think those things interact with the world in specific ways that ought to be recognized by damage calculations which i think requires them be recognized as distinct damage types, being hit by a blast of water or projectile dirtball might not really do anything that couldn't be called bludgeoning, but, IMO it would(should) have extra effect against a fire elemental because water and earth smother fire, wind magic specifically messes up flying creatures that rely on air currents and such, plants use the nutrients from the ground and consume water and so might be extra effective against a stone golem or liquid creature or suchlike.

One projectile dirtball, courtesy of Ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms. Time to fight dirty.

Mireball
3rd-level conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 150 feet (15-foot-radius sphere)
Components: V, S, M (a tiny ball of guano and mud)
Duration: 1 minute
Class: Bard, Bender (earth), Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock
A blob of gloopy mud splunks from your pointed finger to a point you choose within range, where it splooges with a wet burp into an explosion of sludge. Each creature in a 15-foot-radius sphere centered on that point must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, a target takes 3d10 bludgeoning damage and is knocked prone. On a successful one, it takes half as much damage and is not knocked prone.
In addition, all surfaces within the area become covered in unpredictably slick and sticky patches of mud for the duration. The first time a creature moves through the muddy area on its turn, it must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw against your spell save DC or fall prone. A creature moving through the area at half speed doesn’t need to make the saving throw. Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d10 for each slot level above 3rd.

 

[Corinnguard]

Yeah but what is doing the damage? Scalding water? Hypothermia? Water pressure? The reason fire hoses are used in rioters is that it's fairly non-lethal, so maybe we should bring back non-lethal damage?

Why was non-lethal damage removed? An inquiring mind wants to know.

 

[Remathilis]

Why was non-lethal damage removed? An inquiring mind wants to know.

It was very difficult because they were tracked separately and thus you had to track two different types of damage and make sure they were aligned.

For example, a fighter with 20 HP takes 12 damage. He has 8 hp left. He gets punched for 6 points of non-lethal. He gets hit with another sword blow. If he takes more than 2 but less than 8 damage, he's knocked unconscious because his remaining hp < his non-lethal damage. If he takes 8 or more damage, he starts dying normally and the non-lethal damage is a nonfactor. If he takes 1 HP, he's still up because his total HP (7) is higher than his non-lethal damage (6). If he got 4 points of healing, it would raise his total up for 8 to 12 (out of 20) and lower his non-lethal from 6 to 2.

Anyway, it was a pain to track and ended up with more than a few instances where a character should have been knocked out rounds ago but the comparison of current HP to non-lethal damage was missed, negating the point.

 

[cbwjm]

Why was non-lethal damage removed? An inquiring mind wants to know.

I think because you can decide to be nonlethal when reducing a foe to 0 hp.