D&D 5E damage vulnerability mechanics?

der_kluge

Adventurer
Just recently thought it would be fun to get back into D&D again, and am actively working on forming a group of friends to do just that, and some are very excited. But I digress.

Recently ordered these books, and I really like the overall premise. It seems to hearken back to 2nd edition in some ways.

But I'm probably overlooking something terribly fundamental here, but I'm just not seeing it. So, I'm looking at the entry for skeleton because it's such an iconic, baseline monster, that I wanted to get a sense of mechanical differences in this version, and it lists "Damage vulnerability: Bludgeoning", which makes sense given that 2nd edition employed a half-damage from non-bludgeoning weapons mechanic for skeletons, and 3rd edition had DR5/Bludgeoning for them.

So, I'm trying to understand what this means from a mechanics point of view. Does it mean:
they take NO damage at all from a slashing or piercing weapon?
players get an advantage while attacking with a bludgeoning weapon?
They take half damage from non-bludgeoning weapons?

What the heck does it mean?? The MM has an extremely brief paragraph on this topic, I couldn't find anything in the DMG on it, and the skeleton entry itself does not say. Similarly, the Earth Elemental entry list a vulnerability to Thunder, and it likewise does not say what that means.
 

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What that means is that Bludgeoning damage is multiplied by 2 after it's rolled. So, frex, 10 points of damage becomes 20. They take normal damage from Slashing or Piercing, unless they have Damage Resistance, in which case damage is cut in half from those sources.
 

What that means is that Bludgeoning damage is multiplied by 2 after it's rolled. So, frex, 10 points of damage becomes 20. They take normal damage from Slashing or Piercing, unless they have Damage Resistance, in which case damage is cut in half from those sources.

Where is this rule??
 

Basic rules page 75. PHB pg 197.

Some creatures and objects are exceedingly difficult or
unusually easy to hurt with certain types of damage.
If a creature or an object has resistance to a damage
type, damage of that type is halved against it. If a
creature or an object has vulnerability to a damage
type, damage of that type is doubled against it.
Resistance and then vulnerability are applied after
all other modifiers to damage. For example, a creature
has resistance to bludgeoning damage and is hit by an
attack that deals 25 bludgeoning damage. The creature
is also within a magical aura that reduces all damage by
5. The 25 damage is first reduced by 5 and then halved,
so the creature takes 10 damage.
Multiple instances of resistance or vulnerability that
affect the same damage type count as only one instance.
For example, if a creature has resistance to fire damage
as well as resistance to all nonmagical damage, the
damage of a nonmagical fire is reduced by half against
the creature, not reduced by three-quarters.
 


Of course. Put it in the PHB. That makes perfect sense. O.o
Thank you

Resistance/Vulnerability are two sides of the same coin and you really need to explain resistance with the class (barbarian raging, Ancients paladin) and some races/subraces (dwarves & halflings vs. poison). There might be spells that reference resistance or vulnerability as well.
 

Curtis,
I just wanted to say, "Hi!". Long time no see on the boards.

(For those that are unaware, Curtis did the "Artificer's Handbook" for 3e which was published by Mystic Eye Games and served as a replacement for the magic item creation rules. He was even kind enough to provide a free condensed version on EnWorld back in the day ).
 

Can't believe you remember that! If I find that PDF again, I can share it again. Got a few other projects I was thinking of resurrecting as well...
 



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