Maximise your damage and minimise enemy damage with our complete, mathematical guide to optimising for damage type.
Sometimes you have to make a decision around what type of damage resistance or damage type you want to use. For example, if you want to play a Dragonborn, you have to choose the damage type of your breath weapon and the damage type you’re resistant to. A cleric using spirit guardians may have to decide whether to use radiant or necrotic damage. When picking your race, you may also question whether you should take a psychic resistant Githzerai or a poison resistant Yuan-Ti Pureblood.
So many choices with so little data!
That’s why I’ve written this article and worked out the data for you. Basically I’ve been through all the monsters in the monster manuals and all the spells in the rulebooks to work out which damage types are most common, and therefore, which resistances are best to have.
I’ve also reversed this and looked at which resistances are most common among monsters so you know which damage type is going to be the most useful to equip yourself with.
I’ve then got advice at the end on how you can optimise for damage type in D&D 5e.
Some context
Before I dive in too deep, below is some really brief context in case you don’t know too much about what some of these terms means:
Damage Type: The damage type is the kind of damage an attack or effect causes. For example, a long sword causes slashing damage, a Warhammer causes bludgeoning damage and firebolt causes fire damage.
There are 13 damage types in D&D 5e which I’ve listed below:
- Acid
- Bludgeoning
- Cold
- Fire
- Force
- Lightning
- Necrotic
- Piercing
- Poison
- Psychic
- Radiant
- Slashing
- Thunder
Damage Resistance: In D&D 5e, damage resistance refers to a damage type that is less harmful to certain creatures. A damage type you’re resistant to will only cause half damage.
Damage Immunity: Some creatures are so hardened against certain types of damage, that they are completely immune to them and any damage from these types of attacks will do no damage at all.
Damage vulnerability: Occasionally, a creature might be more susceptible to a certain type of damage and will be vulnerable to it. When this is the case, damage of that type is doubled against that creature.
As you can see, having the right damage type for the right foe is hugely important. And the right resistances for the right foe can be equally important too.
Most common resistances, immunities and vulnerabilities
I’ve reviewed the core monster manuals and players handbook to identify how many monsters have resistances, immunities and vulnerabilities to different damage types.
It’s worth noting that some creatures have very specific resistances, like to non-silvered or adamantine weapons but such creatures are rare.
There’s also a split between bludgeoning piercing and slashing damage as some creatures are resistant to all types of weapons with this damage and others are only resistant to these types of damage when from a non-magical weapon so I’ve split them in the table below:
Monster damage resistances, immunities and vulnerabilities
| Damage Type | Number of monsters with resistance | Number of monsters with immunity | Number of monsters with vulnerability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acid | 37 | 29 | 0 |
| Bludgeoning | 14 | 0 | 7 |
| Cold | 143 | 33 | 5 |
| Fire | 106 | 83 | 16 |
| Force | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Lightning | 104 | 24 | 0 |
| Necrotic | 27 | 26 | 0 |
| Piercing | 20 | 0 | 0 |
| Poison | 15 | 234 | 0 |
| Psychic | 5 | 19 | 1 |
| Radiant | 5 | 0 | 2 |
| Slashing | 12 | 2 | 0 |
| Thunder | 29 | 4 | 1 |
| Bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from non-magical attacks | 105 | 11 | 0 |
As you can see above, a lot of monsters have immunity or resistance to certain damage types and not to others. Things like cold, fire and poison are often going to do less damage than expected while things like force and radiant damage are rarely resisted.
It’s also worth noting that a lot of creatures have resistance to weapon damage that isn’t magical, so it’s important to make sure you have magical options available to you as soon as you can.
This also shows that few creatures are vulnerable to any damage types so optimising around this is generally not worthwhile.
The above is useful, but doesn’t help you understand the proportion of enemies affected by these things. It also doesn’t provide a clear score to show how effective each damage type is against monsters so…
Damage type tier list
I created a tier score that takes into account all the creatures and their various resistances, immunities and vulnerabilities and applies a single score to them. This way, you can know the best damage types to consistently land maximum damage on a target.
To do this, I took all the monsters and applied a score based on whether a creature is resistant, immune, vulnerable or normal to that damage type. Scores are based on how much the hit will harm the creature so:
- Normal = 1
- Vulnerable = 2
- Resistant = 0.5
- Immune = 0
I then divided the total by the number of monsters to get a score for that damage type. The higher the number, the more likely that damage type is to do full damage and the lower the score, the more likely it is to be resisted.
In addition, I’ve included a proportion for how likely a monster is to resist, be immune or be vulnerable to each damage type so you can see how likely it is that your damage might be more or less effective:
| Damage Type | Proportion with resistance | Proportion with immunity | Proportion with vulnerability | Tier score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acid | 5% | 4% | 0% | 0.93 |
| Bludgeoning | 2% | 0% | 1% | 1.01 |
| Cold | 21% | 5% | 1% | 0.85 |
| Fire | 16% | 12% | 2% | 0.82 |
| Force | 0% | 0% | 0% | 1 |
| Lightning | 15% | 4% | 0% | 0.89 |
| Necrotic | 4% | 4% | 0% | 0.94 |
| Piercing | 3% | 0% | 0% | 0.99 |
| Poison | 2% | 35% | 0% | 0.64 |
| Psychic | 1% | 3% | 0% | 0.97 |
| Radiant | 1% | 0% | 0% | 1 |
| Slashing | 2% | 0% | 0% | 0.99 |
| Thunder | 4% | 1% | 0% | 0.97 |
| Bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from non-magical attacks | 16% | 2% | 0% | 0.91 |
As you can see above, the most consistently effective damage types are force and radiant damage. Bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage looks enticing too, but remember that you’ll need magical forms of these weapons to ensure you’re consistently hitting with normal damage. Psychic, thunder and necrotic damage are all great options too.
Some damage types are frequently resisted though. Poison damage is definitely the worst option with a 35% chance that a creature is immune to it which is huge! To a lesser extent, fire, lightning and cold damage are some of the poorer damage types to use with resistance or immunity occurring for 19-28% of creatures which is still quite a lot.
Damage resistances by monster type
The question though, is if you want to optimise for creature damage resistances, you need to know which types of creatures are going to be resisting which types of attacks. It’s no good thinking you’ll go heavy on necrotic damage as not many creatures resist this, then turning up in some haunted crypt and discovering that undead are heavily resistant to necrotic damage.
So you can plan ahead, I’ve split out the damage type tier score by the type of creature so you know which types of damage are going to be more or less effective against different types of creatures:
| Damage Type | Aberration | Beast | Celestial | Construct | Dragon | Elemental | Fey | Fiend | Giant | Humanoid | Monstrosity | Ooze | Plant | Undead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acid | 0.89 | 1 | 1 | 0.95 | 0.84 | 0.94 | 1 | 0.83 | 0.98 | 1 | 0.98 | 0.72 | 1 | 0.89 |
| Bludgeoning | 0.99 | 0.94 | 1 | 1.03 | 1 | 1.05 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0.92 | 0.97 |
| Cold | 0.85 | 1 | 1 | 0.93 | 0.84 | 1 | 0.93 | 0.50 | 0.88 | 1 | 0.95 | 0.89 | 0.97 | 0.77 |
| Fire | 1 | 1.01 | 1 | 0.95 | 0.74 | 0.67 | 0.96 | 0.35 | 0.91 | 0.99 | 0.96 | 1 | 1.24 | 0.88 |
| Force | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0.97 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Lightning | 0.84 | 1 | 1 | 0.93 | 0.84 | 0.90 | 1 | 0.70 | 0.93 | 1 | 0.97 | 0.78 | 0.82 | 0.82 |
| Necrotic | 1 | 1 | 0.88 | 0.84 | 0.99 | 1 | 1 | 0.97 | 0.96 | 0.98 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0.47 |
| Piercing | 0.99 | 0.95 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0.82 | 0.99 |
| Poison | 0.98 | 1 | 0.63 | 0.17 | 0.92 | 0.28 | 1 | 0.10 | 0.96 | 0.91 | 0.86 | 1 | 0.89 | 0.10 |
| Psychic | 0.92 | 1 | 0.88 | 0.67 | 1 | 1 | 0.96 | 1 | 1 | 0.99 | 0.98 | 1 | 1 | 0.95 |
| Radiant | 1 | 1 | 0.75 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1.02 |
| Slashing | 0.99 | 0.95 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0.89 | 1 | 1 |
| Thunder | 0.89 | 1 | 1 | 0.97 | 1 | 0.92 | 1 | 0.99 | 0.93 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0.89 |
| Bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from non-magical attacks | 0.96 | 1 | 0.56 | 0.91 | 1 | 0.78 | 0.98 | 0.79 | 0.95 | 1 | 0.94 | 0.94 | 1 | 0.72 |
You’ll definitely want to avoid using poison against things like constructs, elementals, fiends and undead. All these types of creatures are highly resistant to poison damage.
Cold and fire damage are also poor options for fiends. Celestials will resist nonmagical attacks and poison damage a lot.
While vulnerabilities are much rarer, fire is a great option against plant creatures.
Optimising your damage type
Armed with the above information, you can now ensure you focus on damage types that are less commonly resisted. Consider spells that are unlikely to be resisted, especially for your cantrips which you’ll likely use often. Options like eldritch blast and toll the dead are great because they can both be higher damage options while being rarely resisted.
It’s fine to have spells like firebolt, poison spray and chill touch available (and they can still be great options) but you may want backup cantrips if possible in case you end up fighting fire elementals or a gelatinous cube.
One option is to use spells with changeable damage types like Chromatic orb or spirit guardians, allowing you to adapt to the foe in front of you.
When it comes to wielding weapons, it doesn’t matter much if you take a bludgeoning, slashing or piercing weapon. The main thing here is to make sure you pick up some magical weapons as soon as you can. At low levels, you probably won’t need them as much, but as you increase in levels, more enemies will be resistant to non-magic weapons.
Of course, if you’re a DM, just reverse this advice and pick out creatures with rarely resisted damage types to catch your players out (especially if you know they read my guides). You can pick out that one creature with force damage immunity to throw off your party’s warlock and their eldritch blast for instance (it’s a helmed horror in case you wanted to know).
If you do want to find monsters with particular damage resistances or immunities, D&D Beyond has great filters for exactly this type of thing.
Most common damage types
It’s not just about which damage type you use to attack with, characters can also have resistance to certain damage types, so it’s also about knowing which damage types to protect yourself from.
To tackle this, I’ve looked at the damage types that are most common so you know how much mileage you can get out of certain resistances. I’ve then looked at how and where you can obtain these resistances.
Monster damage types
Sadly, D&D Beyond doesn’t offer an easy way to filter for monsters with certain types of attacks, but thankfully not_a_bot_10010 on Reddit has done the hard work of trawling through hundreds of monster stat blocks to work this out already which I’ve summarised below (and added in the proportion of creatures using those types of attacks):
| Damage Type | Number of monsters using regular attacks | Number of monsters using spells | Total number (proportion) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acid | 46 | 48 | 94 (14%) |
| Cold | 26 | 34 | 60 (9%) |
| Fire | 60 | 75 | 135 (20%) |
| Force | 57 | 65 | 122 (18%) |
| Lightning | 31 | 43 | 74 (11%) |
| Necrotic | 72 | 87 | 159 (24%) |
| Poison | 92 | 96 | 188 (28%) |
| Psychic | 71 | 81 | 152 (23%) |
| Radiant | 13 | 22 | 35 (5%) |
| Thunder | 15 | 18 | 33 (5%) |
Clearly some damage types are used more by creatures than others, and it can differ from the number of creatures with resistances and immunities. Poison, necrotic, psychic, fire and force resistance are the most valuable to have with poison damage coming from a whopping 28% of creatures. Radiant, thunder and cold damage occur much less frequently and are less useful.
Spell damage types
If you expect to be frequently facing off against enemy Spellcasters, then you may want to know which types of damage are most common in spells.
Below I’ve provided the number of spells with each damage type:
| Damage Type | Number of spells |
|---|---|
| Acid | 18 |
| Bludgeoning | 28 |
| Cold | 27 |
| Fire | 35 |
| Force | 16 |
| Lightning | 19 |
| Necrotic | 22 |
| Piercing | 11 |
| Poison | 10 |
| Psychic | 19 |
| Radiant | 21 |
| Slashing | 6 |
| Thunder | 14 |
Fire spells are the most common with bludgeoning, cold, necrotic and radiant damage also being common in spells. Slashing, poison, piercing and thunder damage are all much less common in spells.
Optimising your damage resistances
The big question is, knowing how common different types of damage are, how do you protect yourself against the most common damage types?
Races with damage resistances
One of the easiest ways is to pick a race with resistance to a common damage type. For example, some races with less useful resistances include; Aasimar (radiant), Goliath (cold) and Air Genasi (lightning).
For more useful resistances, you might consider; Duergar (poison), Shadar-Kai (necrotic) or a Githyanki (psychic). Aasimar actually have 2 resistances as they’re also resistant to necrotic damage which is likely to be much more useful than their radiant resistance.
I’ve put together a table below to show you exactly which races have which resistances and included the proportion of creatures with that damage type. Of course, there are a lot of other factors involved in choosing your race, but now you know just how effective their resistances will be in the game.
| Damage Type | Races | Proportion of creatures with damage type |
|---|---|---|
| Acid | Water genasi, plasmoid | 14% |
| Cold | Sea Elf, Goliath, Triton | 9% |
| Fire | Fire Genasi, Tiefling | 20% |
| Force | None | 18% |
| Lightning | Air Genasi | 11% |
| Necrotic | Aasimar, Shadar-Kai | 24% |
| Poison | Duergar, Hill Dwarf, Mountain Dwarf, Autognome, Grung (immunity), Stout Halfling, Plasmoid, Warforged, Yuan-Ti Pureblood | 28% |
| Psychic | Githyanki, Githzerai, Kalashtar | 23% |
| Radiant | Aasimar | 5% |
| Thunder | None | 5% |
| Player Chooses | Chromatic Dragonborn, Gem Dragonborn, metallic Dragonborn | N/A |
Finally, Dragonborn get to choose their damage type for their breath weapon and resistances, but these must be for the same damage type. The question is, which do you choose? Generally, more common damage types are more commonly resisted, but this isn’t always the case. With that in mind, you want a damage type that’s rarely resisted, but commonly used.
Thankfully, there are a few damage types like this; force, necrotic and psychic damage are all rarely resisted by creatures, but still quite frequently used in attacks. Armed with this knowledge, the best types of Dragonborn are all Gem Dragonborn. They are the; Amethyst (force), Emerald (psychic) and Topaz (necrotic) forms of Gem Dragonborn.
Spells that provide damage resistance
You might also want to consider spells that will give you resistance to certain damage types, especially if you’re preparing to fight enemies that you know will be using a certain type of damage.
Below, we’ve listed out the spells that can bestow upon you damage resistances and the types of resistances they grant:
| Spell | Level | Damage type it protects from |
|---|---|---|
| Absorb elements | 1st | One from acid, cold, fire, lightning or thunder |
| Aura of life | 4th | Necrotic |
| Aura of purity | 4th | Poison |
| Blade ward | Cantrip | Bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from weapons |
| Feign death | 3rd | All except psychic |
| Fire shield | 4th | Fire, cold |
| Gaseous form | 3rd | Non-magical damage |
| Hallow | 5th | Choose one damage type |
| Intellect fortress | 3rd | Psychic |
| Investiture of fire | 6th | Cold |
| Investiture of ice | 6th | Fire |
| Investiture of stone | 6th | Bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from non-magical attacks |
| Primordial ward | 6th | Acid, cold, fire, lightning and thunder |
| Protection from energy | 3rd | One from acid, cold, fire, lightning or thunder |
| Protection from poison | 2nd | Poison |
| Shadow of moil | 4th | Radiant |
| Stone skin | 4th | Bludgeoning, piercing and slashing (from non-magical sources) |
| Tasha’s otherworldly guise | 6th | Fire and poison or necrotic and radiant |
| Warding bond | 2nd | All damage |
| Wind walk | 6th | Bludgeoning, piercing and slashing (from non-magical sources) |
| Wish | 9th | One of your choice |
Class abilities that give damage resistance
If you’re looking for classes and subclasses that can beef up your resistances to damage, then the below list includes all officially published classes and subclasses and the abilities that will give you damage resistance/immunity. It’s worth reading the full rules on these though as many are temporary effects rather than permanent resistances like with racial traits.
| Ability | Class | Level | Damage type it protects from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infuse item – resistant armor | Artificer | 6th | One of your choice |
| Chemical mastery | Alchemist artificer | 15th | Poison and acid |
| Rage | Barbarian | 1st | Bludgeoning, piercing and slashing |
| Ancestral protectors | Ancestral guardian barbarian | 3rd | Damage from attacks |
| Storm soul and shielding storm | Storm herald barbarian | 6th | Cold, fire and lightning |
| Bear totem spirit | Totem warrior barbarian | 3rd | All except psychic |
| Saint of forge and fire | Forge cleric | 17th | Bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from non-magical attacks |
| Soul of the forge | Forge cleric | 6th | Fire |
| Dampen elements | Nature cleric | 6th | Acid, cold, fire, lightning and thunder |
| Avatar of battle | War cleric | 17th | Bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from non-magical attacks |
| Warding meneuver | Cavalier fighter | 7th | Damage from attacks |
| Guarded mind | Psi warrior fighter | 10th | Psychic |
| Rune carver (Hill rune) | Rune knight fighter | 7th | Poison and bludgeoning, piercing or slashing |
| Empty body | Monk | 18th | All except force |
| Aura of warding | Oath of ancients paladin | 7th | Spell damage |
| Invincible conqueror | Conquest paladin | 20th | All damage |
| Supernatural resistance | Oathbreaker paladin | 15th | Bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from non-magical attacks |
| Emissary of redemption | Redemption paladin | 20th | All damage |
| Spectral defence | Horizon walker ranger | 15th | Damage from attacks |
| Psychic defenses | Aberrant mind sorcerer | 6th | Psychic |
| Umbral form | Shadow magic sorcerer | 18th | All damage except force and radiant |
| Elemental affiinity | Draconic Sorcerer | 6th | One from acid, cold, fire, lightning or poison |
| Radiant soul | Celestial warlock | 6th | Radiant |
| Oceanic soul | Fathomless warlock | 6th | Cold |
| Fiendish resilience | Fiend warlock | 10th | Choose any one |
| Elemental gift | Genie warlock | 6th | Bludgeoning, thunder, cold or fire |
| Thought shield | Great old one warlock | 10th | Psychic |
| Spell resistance | Abjuration wizard | 14th | Spell damage |
| Inured to undeath | Necromancy wizard | 10th | Necrotic |
Magic items that give damage resistance
If you’re looking for resistance to a certain type of damage to prepare for combat, I’ve listed below some magic items that will grant resistances to different damage types:
| Magic item | Damage type it protects |
|---|---|
| Armor of invulnerability | Non-magical attacks |
| Armor of resistance | Choose one damage type |
| Armor of vulnerability | One of bludgeoning, piercing or slashing |
| Dragon scale mail | One of acid, cold, fire, lightning or poison |
| Potion of resistance | Choose one damage type |
| Ring of resistance | Choose one damage type |
| Belt of dwarven kind | Poison |
| Cloak of Arachnida | Poison |
| Boots of the winterlands | Cold |
| Ring of warmth | Cold |
| Staff of frost | Cold |
| Brooch of shielding | Force |
| Frost brand | Fire |
| Helm of brilliance | Fire |
| Ring of fire elemental command | Fire |
| Staff of fire | Fire |
| Potion of invulnerability | All damage |
| Ring of air elemental command | Lightning |
| Ring of stone elemental command | Acid |
| Shield of missile attraction | All ranged weapon attacks |
| Boon of resilience | Bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from non-magical weapons |
| Magic tattoo | Choose one |
| Ghost step tattoo | Bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from non-magical weapons |
| Lifewell tattoo | Necrotic |
Other methods of gaining damage resistance
There are a couple of other ways to gain damage resistance, though neither is particularly convenient. Being submerged in water will give you fire resistance while being petrified will give you resistance to all types of damage. Sadly, these are unlikely to be beneficial tactically except in very rare circumstances, but it’s still worth knowing.
So there you have it. Everything you need to know to optimise for damage resistances. Feel free to share your best builds for resisting damage in the comments below.
Key takeaways
There’s a lot of data to digest and I’d definitely recommend keeping this article bookmarked for the next time your DM hints what kinds of creatures you’ll be fighting or when you have to create a new character.
Below is a summary of some of the key takeaways from the analysis:
- Poison damage is the most commonly resisted damage type by monsters, followed by fire, cold then lightning.
- Force, radiant and thunder damage are the least resisted damage types by monsters.
- The most commonly used damage types by monsters are; poison, necrotic, psychic and fire
- The least commonly used damage types by monsters are; radiant, thunder and cold
