D&D 5E Do DEAFENED creatures take THUNDER damage?

[DEFCON 1]

The Player's Handbook describes the Thunder damage type as "A concussive burst of sound..."

By the rules, Deafened is a Condition, not a Resistance or Immunity.

So, a Deafened creature still takes damage from Thunder.

That's it right there. "Officially", you just look at the Resistance or Immunity a character has to know if they take damage from an energy type. It's entirely a game mechanic resolution situation. Real-world physics doesn't come into play at all.

That being said... if the DM decided to make a game-time decision that this particular Shambling Mound got resistance to Shatter's damage due to it being immune the Deafened condition, then cool. You just narrate it something along the lines that when the Mound gets hit with the Shatter, the PC notices the moss/vines wobble and flap as though the are dissipating the thunder energy and that it doesn't seem to have as much effect.

After all... DMs are expected to adjust their monsters all the time to produce the types of creatures they want for their encounters, so making this particular Mound resistant to thunder damage is entire consistent with how the game is meant to be played.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Yes. The Silence spell specifically mentions those inside the area is immune to Thunder damage. Otherwise it would be part of the Deafened condition.

The silence spell prevents sound waves from traveling, which is different from being deaf. A deaf person near a massive speaker will still feel the bass rumble or be physically disrupted from being hit with a thunder attack. Silence is more like a vacuum that stops the reverberation from occurring.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Concussion grenades are significantly less deadly than a fragmentation for exactly the reason I said, shockwaves aren't as lethal as shrapnel. You just have to look at a gun to see that the projectile is far more deadly than the shockwave that propels it; air is pretty poor at conveying force. I suspect Sacrosanct is thinking of the episode where they fired a shotgun into a barrel of water and killed all the "fish" inside with the shockwave due to water being much better at conveying force than air.

You're comparing apples and oranges. The entire explosive force of a bullet going off is directing one piece of ammunition down a rifled barrel compared to hundreds of tiny pieces of shrapnel just flung out. A bullet, with a much smaller explosion force behind it, remains lethal for hundreds of meters. Shrapnel from a grenade quickly loses force. I'm also thinking of the episode where they used grenades and put G-force patches on several targets in various scenarios.

 

[jgsugden]

And this discussion is why we have fireballs.

 

[El Mahdi]

Concussion grenades are significantly less deadly than a fragmentation for exactly the reason I said, shockwaves aren't as lethal as shrapnel. You just have to look at a gun to see that the projectile is far more deadly than the shockwave that propels it; air is pretty poor at conveying force. I suspect Sacrosanct is thinking of the episode where they fired a shotgun into a barrel of water and killed all the "fish" inside with the shockwave due to water being much better at conveying force than air.

This is completely inaccurate.

One, not all shockwaves are created equal. (Shockwaves and fragmentation have too many variables to make a blanket statement that one is greater than the other.)

Two, not all grenades have the same amount of explosives or explosive force.

Third, environmental factors play a significant role; such as concussive grenades being far more effective in an enclosed space than a fragmentation grenade.

Fourth, as @Sacrosanct said, a bullet is projected by concentrated explosive force; grenade fragments are not and are only lethal for a very short range (depending on the grenade, from 2 to 10 meters maximum).

Lastly, shockwaves - even small ones, but especially large ones - can be incredibly lethal with little external indication. For instance, many casualties of suicide/terrorist bombs often show no outward injury at all (specifically, no projectile wounds), but x-rays show a completely uniform color rather than internal structures (like a white fog) due to liquefaction of tissue and organs (Israelis see this a lot in blast casualties).

In the example of fish in a barrel: yes, water can transmit a shockwave better than air due to its relative incompressibility, but the bigger factor in your example is that they were in an enclosed space that concentrated the blast - the barrel itself. If they had been in an open body of water, even with proximity exactly the same, lethality would have been significantly lessened.


Anyways, I'm not sure where you're getting your information from, but just so there's no confusion as to veracity or credibility: I'm a retired NCO of 21 years - Air Force, and my AFSCs/positions were aircraft maintenance/avionics technician/flightline expediter - but my last ten of those years was in AF Special Operations and Combat Search and Rescue. I have 21 years of UXO training, specialized training in aircraft/helicopter demolition (necessary to destroy damaged/crashed aircraft and sensitive components in-place to prevent appropriation by enemy forces), worked side-by-side with weapons and EOD personnel - as well as operators (TACP's, PJ's, and even a former Marine sniper) - and served in multiple combat zones. My knowledge and experience is first hand.


Though none of this has to do with D&D or Thunder damage; so, I'll end my participation in this part of the conversation here.

 

[Sacrosanct]

You're Chair Force, so that doesn't count



Yes, I am jealous and I should have gone Air Force lol. Very evident during my first tour in Bosnia and we were living in WWII GP Medium canvas tents with pot belly stoves, and on the other side of the flight line were Air Force in modern nylon air conditioned and heated tents.

 

[Beleriphon]

Concussion grenades are significantly less deadly than a fragmentation for exactly the reason I said, shockwaves aren't as lethal as shrapnel. You just have to look at a gun to see that the projectile is far more deadly than the shockwave that propels it; air is pretty poor at conveying force. I suspect Sacrosanct is thinking of the episode where they fired a shotgun into a barrel of water and killed all the "fish" inside with the shockwave due to water being much better at conveying force than air.

What with liquids being incompressible, I'm not surprised that shockwaves in water are particularly damaging.

 

[El Mahdi]

You're Chair Force, so that doesn't count

Yes, I am jealous and I should have gone Air Force lol. Very evident during my first tour in Bosnia and we were living in WWII GP Medium canvas tents with pot belly stoves, and on the other side of the flight line were Air Force in modern nylon air conditioned and heated tents.

For most of the Air Force, most of the time, you'd probably be right. However, I was assigned to AFSOC/CSAR helicopters for 10 years (Pave Low's and Pave Hawk's). As often as not, we were deployed to austere locations. We're even forward deployed to fire bases occasionally for significant missions. We would work alongside Marine Recon, Army Rangers, and even Navy SEAL's.

There's plenty of Air Force that works in the dirt.

 

[Sacrosanct]

For most of the Air Force, most of the time, you'd probably be right. However, I was assigned to AFSOC/CSAR helicopters for 10 years (Pave Low's and Pave Hawk's). As often as not, we were deployed to austere locations. We're even forward deployed to fire bases occasionally for significant missions. We would work alongside Marine Recon, Army Rangers, and even Navy SEAL's.

There's plenty of Air Force that works in the dirt.

I know, I was just giving you a hard time. I was a Blackhawk crewchief myself, and we worked a lot with special forces and medivac missions as well. Ah, my younger days when I still had all my hair and was in great shape lol

 

[Shiroiken]

The silence spell prevents sound waves from traveling, which is different from being deaf. A deaf person near a massive speaker will still feel the bass rumble or be physically disrupted from being hit with a thunder attack. Silence is more like a vacuum that stops the reverberation from occurring.

Umm... I agree? The question in the topic was "do deafened creatures take Thunder damage?" Yes. Yes they do.

Real world logic aside, the game is pretty clear about it. Deafened condition does not mention resistance/immunity to Thunder damage, while the Silence spell does.