In today’s post, DnD 5e Damage Resistance Explained, we’ll discuss the vulnerability/resistance system in DnD 5e.
It’s a fairly simple system, the place you’ll see it most is if you’re a DM. You’ll see many creatures have resistance or vulnerability to certain damage types. For more info on the different damage types, check out our post on the different damage types.
So let’s dive in and see what this system is all about.
Resistance Explained
In DnD 5e there are plenty of ways to come across resistance in the game. Generally, it comes from a character’s race or from magic, sometimes the class as well, at least where player characters are concerned. You’ll also see it a lot as a DM in a creature’s stat block.
Resistance means that the creature/character that has resistance to a specific damage type takes half damage from that specific damage type. So if a creature was resistant to cold damage, and took 20 cold damage from a spell (or any other source of cold damage) the creature would actually only take 10 cold damage.
Vulnerability Explained
Vulnerability is less common than resistance, generally, it’s seen on certain creatures in the monster manual. There are some spells that can cause vulnerability to a creature, but not many. So it’s mostly the DM that would be concerned with this mechanic.
Vulnerability means that the creature/character that has vulnerability to a specific damage type takes double damage from that specific damage type. So if a creature had vulnerability to lightning damage, and took 20 points of lightning damage from a spell or other source of lightning damage, they would actually take 40 points of lightning damage.
Wrap up
A very short but sweet post on this mechanic within DnD 5e. Like most of 5e’s systems its very simple and easy to understand and apply when you know what it does without having to reference the books every time it comes up. So hopefully this post has helped. Thanks for taking the time to have a read through this post and until next time, may your day be a critical success!
TheGM