Nonweapon Damage Types. Which ones and how many?

[Serendipity]

Not really a fan of damage types but I get that they serve a purpose. I'd prefer a short list of clear and minimal damage types, and not bound by any needless symmetry. Damage that is clearly going to be singled out as somehow different, requiring different rules or treatment. Off the top of my head I'm thinking fire, radiant (I don't want hard coded alignment damage thanks) and maybe three others.
Or better yet, make the whole thing optional so I can do without it.

 

[CM]

For energy, I like the 4e set: acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, thunder (sonic). I prefer the names lightning and thunder over electricity and sonic because to me, that's how they would be described from a RP standpoint.

On alignment damage types, please no. In a 3e game once my players actually laughed when they found a weapon that dealt anarchic damage. Radiant and necrotic do an admirable job replacing holy and unholy, and suit those odd corner cases where evil creatures need to deal radiant damage and vice-versa.

I would like to see a return of the piercing/slashing/bludgeoning weapon damage types and their 3e implementation, however.

You could make an arguement either way for merging force and bludgeoning but you'd have to look carefully at the interaction with creatures. For example, do you want incorporeal undead to be vulnerable to blunt weapons, or just force damage (assuming it will still work that way in 5e).

I could also see the case some are making for poison going away if all poison damage becomes ability damage, but that seems unlikely to me.

 

[Ichneumon]

The 4e damage types plus the weapon triptych will do just fine.

"Alignment" damage can go get lost in Pandemonium forever.

 

[TwinBahamut]

I never really liked any previous set of damage types... My full list of damage types would be something like this:

Fire, Lightning, Ice, Toxic, Spirit, Slashing, Piercing, Bludgeoning, and Hacking.

Fire, lightning, and ice are self-explanatory.

Toxic is basically poison, acid, and any other form of corrosive or chemical form of attack.

Spirit is an amalgamation of radiant, necrotic, and force. Generally, it is raw magical or spiritual power that attacks in a non-physical manner. The holiness or unholiness of it is better left to special spell/power effects or keywords...

Slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning are all self-explanatory. Hacking is the kind of heavy blade slashing seen in heavy swords and axes, to differentiate it from the slashing of knives and other sharp blade that don't rely as much on force.

 

[Lanefan]

My full list of damage types would be something like this:

Fire, Lightning, Ice, Toxic, Spirit, Slashing, Piercing, Bludgeoning, and Hacking.

Fire, lightning, and ice are self-explanatory.

Toxic is basically poison, acid, and any other form of corrosive or chemical form of attack.

Toxic is a nice catch-all - good call.

That said, I'd still want to differentiate between poison and the others as they by tradition have been cured/healed/fixed in different ways.

Spirit is an amalgamation of radiant, necrotic, and force. Generally, it is raw magical or spiritual power that attacks in a non-physical manner. The holiness or unholiness of it is better left to special spell/power effects or keywords...

This nicely handles psionic damage as well.

You missed one type, however: ability damage, as its own category. I'm prepared to assume this will find its way into 5e in some form, so we might as well keep it in mind.

Slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning are all self-explanatory. Hacking is the kind of heavy blade slashing seen in heavy swords and axes, to differentiate it from the slashing of knives and other sharp blade that don't rely as much on force.

Could do, but how would hacking mechanically differentiate from bludgeoning? Three types is probably enough.

Lanefan

 

[Falling Icicle]

I'd like to see acid, cold, electricity, fire, necrotic, psychic, poison and radiant. Just, please, no more calling acid an "energy" type. It's not energy!

"Force" spells should inflict physical damage, IMO. Slamming people with pure kinetic energy is not really that different from hitting them with a weapon.

As for "sonic" attacks, they were always so rare to beging with, I don't really think they justify their own energy type. Like force spells, they could just do untyped physical damage.

 

[Hassassin]

Just, please, no more calling acid an "energy" type. It's not energy!

If acid is not an energy type, then surely cold cannot be either?

 

[Gothikaiju]

I never really liked any previous set of damage types... My full list of damage types would be something like this:

Fire, Lightning, Ice, Toxic, Spirit, Slashing, Piercing, Bludgeoning, and Hacking.

I like this list quite a bit, though I think hacking is unnecessary. Spirit is an escpecially nice idea. I would give you XP, but am on my phone...

Also, I would love it if earth elementals made, you know, earthquakes/tremors, rather than attacking like a chemistry set (for those of us who remember what that is).

 

[Harlander]

If acid is not an energy type, then surely cold cannot be either?

Sure. They're both damage types, though.

 

[MortalPlague]

"Untyped" is just shorthand for "this damage doesn't fall into any of the various types that have special rules and-or mechanics attached".

The problem with "untyped" damage is that it is, by its very nature, superior to typed damage. Creatures and players have the ability to resist or be immune to typed damage, where untyped damage is far more difficult to avoid.

So given the choice, untyped is far superior simply because it works outside the structure.