D&D 5E Does Slashing/Piercing/Bludgeoning even matter?

[bedir than]

Are these legacy traits at all useful mechanically, or are they there so that we understand the narrative behind the weapon?

Asking, because I've considered a subclass that specializes in one of these (as opposed to light, finesse, ranged).

 

[R_J_K75]

Skeletons are still vulnerable to bludgeoning damage so I guess so.

 

[Dausuul]

For a very few monsters, they matter, but it's a tiny sliver of the MM. It would be a lot cleaner to call them all "physical damage."

 

[Prakriti]

Try slashing an ochre jelly and see what happens.

 

[R_J_K75]

Id love to see the Gallagher sub class running around smashing everything with a giant hammer.

 

[Nebulous]

For the most part it doesn't matter what kind of damage they do. A few monsters are resistant or vulnerable, but that's all. If weapons vs. armor type were a real thing it would be a huge difference, as plate mail for example would deflect slashing weapons way better than piercing or bludgeoning. But that gets into too much detail for D&D.

 

[jayoungr]

I would say that if you want them to be more meaningful in your game, talk to your DM. You can probably work together to come up with something that will be fun. The DM may need to modify or homebrew some monsters, or use some third-party monster manuals.

 

[bedir than]

I would say that if you want them to be more meaningful in your game, talk to your DM. You can probably work together to come up with something that will be fun. The DM may need to modify or homebrew some monsters, or use some third-party monster manuals.

I'm the DM

 

[Helldritch]

The damage type is no longer as prevalent as it was in previous editions. This is in my opinion, a net loss for the game. Why use a maul when a great sword will be better? Weapon vs Armor was also a good thing and I sometimes wonder if it would be nice to make a table adapted to 5ed.

As a DM I also added the cleave damage type for axes. Cleave is blend of blunt and slash damage type. It always work best against whatever it up to. But the damage is usually not on par with a sword or a full blunt weapon on a non resistant target but it would always be at full capacity. Since orcs have a lot of shaman using undead, mainly skeletons, it was this efficiency that the dwarves liked so much about axes (in my campaigns at least).

 

[Li Shenron]

They matter only for a few monsters, but they do.

So as a DM you can make them matter more by using those monsters more often, or create new monsters and variants that have similar traits.