D&D 5E How does necrotic damage affect living beings?

[Sagitarium]

Hello guys! I have a Necromancer in 5E and I would like to know how does my necrotic damage affects living beings. For instance if I deal necrotic damage to a NPC will it make the part of his body,that the spell hit,rot or it won't do a thing? Thanks in advance!

 

[S'mon]

I describe it as blackening badly wounded targets. Slain targets decay and rot away.

Don't expect your GM to give it extra powers beyond what's in the book. A very nice GM might let you
target a limb (disad to hit), in turn inflicting a condition on the enemy - eg speed halved, disad perception frm partial blindness, lose use of shield arm so -2 AC, disad on attacks if both arms blighted, etc. You can always
ask/suggest stuff like this but accept No as an answer.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

There aren't a lot of descriptions of the effect of necrotic damage, but I found these:

Blight: Necromantic energy washes over a creature of your choice that you can see within range, draining moisture and vitality from it

Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting: You draw the moisture from every creature in a 30-foot cube centered on a point you choose within range

Harm: You unleash a virulent disease on a creature that you can see within range....On a failed save, it takes 14d6 necrotic damage, or half as much damage on a successful save

I would say most things killed by necrotic damage will have the "withered corpse look" (skin covering bones with nothing in between, a few strands of white hair left on the head, etc.).

Spells do what they say they do, unless the DM is agreeable. I would be disinclined to start targeting limbs, ect. in the middle of the campaign. Also, what the PC's can do, NPC's can do, so if the PC can necro-zap the ogre's arm off, the lich can do that to a PC barbarian's arm too. As a DM, I would want buy-in before doing that.

 

[Draegn]

You might find a pharmaceutical sales representative and ask for one of those calendars that show the effects of gangrene in infected wounds. It really does make an excellent graphic to use and also serves as a very unusual conversational piece in the reception room.

 

[CydKnight]

Depending on the creature inflicting the wound, I think of it as a similar effect to that of a bad reaction to a bite from a brown recluse spider only accelerated. The wound itself and the surrounding tissue start to decay rendering conventional healing (including spells) ineffective at least in the short term. I usually think of certain magical weapon attacks that deal necrotic damage in this way.

I also sometimes think of it in terms of draining the life essence from you. Meaning that your bodies maximum potential to be alive has been reduced from what it is normally. With this often comes instant or accelerated aging. A Ghost's withering touch comes to mind when I think of necrotic damage in this way.

 

[jaelis]

Hello guys! I have a Necromancer in 5E and I would like to know how does my necrotic damage affects living beings. For instance if I deal necrotic damage to a NPC will it make the part of his body,that the spell hit,rot or it won't do a thing? Thanks in advance!

Dealing necrotic damage doesn't have any special effects. And even if your DM lets you target limbs, etc, I think it is pretty unlikely that would work any differently for necrotic damage vs other types of damage (like slashing from a sword).

Main thing about necrotic damage is that undead and constructs are generally immune. That's bad if you're fighting undead but can be handy if the undead are on your side. I can't think of any creatures that are particularly vulnerable to necrotic damage.

 

[discosoc]

It just does damage, which heals normally. The damage might be described as having some kind of visual flair to it (dark withered spots, like bruises or something), but mechanically nothing is special unless something about the target says otherwise.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Hello guys! I have a Necromancer in 5E and I would like to know how does my necrotic damage affects living beings. For instance if I deal necrotic damage to a NPC will it make the part of his body,that the spell hit,rot or it won't do a thing? Thanks in advance!

It will rot, but as far as the game mechanics are concerned, it will still be just as functional as ever. Just like if you deal fire damage, someone might suffer burns to their arms and legs, but they'll still be able to move and act and everything.

Feel free to Google for 'necrosis' or 'necrotic tissue' if you feel like it.