D&D (2024) Force damage in one dnd

[DEFCON 1]

I predict that regardless of what WotC eventually chooses to do... those of us who start using 5E24 will all get used to the new normal fairly quickly and it won't be an arguable issue two months in.

 

[Gadget]

I don't think we've seen the full impact of the change to damage types yet. Are magic weapons going to do force damage now? Is resistance to force damage going to be about as rare as in 2014 PHB? If so, that makes magic weapons and creatures who do Force damage much more destructive than before.

Once a PC gets their first +1 weapon, they really don't have to worry about resistance anymore, except for the rare case when some creature has it. Then again, I think that was already the case, as resistance to magic weapon damage is rare in the current PHB.

I'll wait and see the implementation before trying to pass judgement.

 

[Charlaquin]

Force damage as irresistible normal damage gets super weird because of vulnerabilities and secondary effects.

It's like if you explode on contact with regular fire but not super hot magical fire.

It’s not irresistible normal damage, it’s untyped magical damage. “Ethereal damage” would probably be a more accurate name, but since when has D&D nomenclature ever prioritized accuracy?

 

[Horwath]

As for magic weapons/armor in D&D, to keep that "bounded accuracy", magic items should only give bonus damage not attack, similar for armor, no AC bonuses only bonus HPs or damage reduction.

I.E. +X weapon could give +Xd6 bonus damage.

armor could give 2 damage reduction per current "plus".

 

[Aldarc]

It’s not irresistible normal damage, it’s untyped magical damage. “Ethereal damage” would probably be a more accurate name, but since when has D&D nomenclature ever prioritized accuracy?

If there was a time, it was probably 4e. That was the time when WotC tried to consolidate and provide greater coherence to the lore.

 

[Yaarel]

When someone says, "I use telekinesis to squeeze their heart", that would be standard Force damage.

 

[Shardstone]

I think the weird enshrining of damage types is just a poor way to design the game. There is no value in having Force damage be some super crazy ultra rare thing.

 

[Incenjucar]

Ideally each type of damage would have special traits, and stuff like "megadamage" etc. is common enough in games, but it's hard to put that in a decade into the system.

 

[Shardstone]

Force damage as irresistible normal damage gets super weird because of vulnerabilities and secondary effects.

It's like if you explode on contact with regular fire but not super hot magical fire.

Requesting a clarification. Couldn't it just be that you hit something SO HARD that even magical defenses can't stand against it? After all, immunity to this damage is immunity to this damage FROM WEAPONS usually. If you hit so hard it's like a boulder, I can see it overcoming that. After all, if you push a paralyzed vampire off a cliff, it still takes fall damage.

 

[Staffan]

Requesting a clarification. Couldn't it just be that you hit something SO HARD that even magical defenses can't stand against it? After all, immunity to this damage is immunity to this damage FROM WEAPONS usually. If you hit so hard it's like a boulder, I can see it overcoming that. After all, if you push a paralyzed vampire off a cliff, it still takes fall damage.

Not in my game it won't. I know that that's the official ruling, but as the man said: