D&D 5e has 13 damage types: Acid, Bludgeoning, Cold, Fire, Force, Lightning, Necrotic, Piercing, Poison, Psychic, Radiant, Slashing, and Thunder. Every source of damage — weapons, spells, traps, and monster abilities — deals one of these types. Creatures can have resistance (half damage), immunity (no damage), or vulnerability (double damage) to specific types.
The corrosive spray of a black dragon's breath and the dissolving enzymes secreted by a black pudding deal acid damage.
Blunt force attacks, falling, constriction, and the like deal bludgeoning damage.
The infernal chill radiating from an ice devil's spear and the frigid blast of a white dragon's breath deal cold damage.
Red dragons breathe fire, and many spells conjure flames to deal fire damage.
Force is pure magical energy focused into a damaging form. Most effects that deal force damage are spells, including magic missile and spiritual weapon.
A lightning bolt spell and a blue dragon's breath deal lightning damage.
Necrotic damage, dealt by certain undead and a spell such as chill touch, withers matter and even the soul.
Puncturing and impaling attacks, including spears and monsters' bites, deal piercing damage.
Venomous stings and the toxic gas of a green dragon's breath deal poison damage.
Mental abilities such as a psionic blast deal psychic damage.
Radiant damage, dealt by a cleric's flame strike spell or an angel's smiting weapon, sears the flesh like fire and overloads the spirit with power.
Swords, axes, and monsters' claws deal slashing damage.
A concussive burst of sound, such as the effect of the thunderwave spell, deals thunder damage.
Frequently Asked Questions
There are 13 damage types in D&D 5th Edition: Acid, Bludgeoning, Cold, Fire, Force, Lightning, Necrotic, Piercing, Poison, Psychic, Radiant, Slashing, and Thunder.
Resistance halves the damage dealt by that type. Immunity negates all damage of that type entirely. Vulnerability doubles the damage taken from that type. When multiple modifiers apply, resistances and vulnerabilities are applied after all other modifiers.
Poison is the most commonly resisted damage type — a large number of monsters have resistance or full immunity to it. Fire and cold are also widely resisted. Force damage is the rarest to resist, making it one of the most reliably effective damage types.
Force is pure magical energy formed into a damaging shape. Very few creatures have resistance or immunity to it, making spells like Magic Missile and Eldritch Blast especially reliable.
Many monsters resist Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from non-magical weapons. Magical weapons bypass this. Spells dealing Fire, Radiant, Force, or other elemental damage types are unaffected by physical resistance entirely.