Damage Types

Here’s what we’ll go through:

• What a damage type is and how it fits into the world
• A quick look at the different types of damage encountered in the world
• Examples of what would cause each damage type

Bit of Background
When we talk about damage types in the Arcane Realm, we’re talking about what kind of damage a creature would take after being hit by a physical object/force, or what kind of damage a spell or power would inflict upon a creature when it hits. Damage types play a role in that a creature could have resistances, weaknesses or even immunities to certain damage types. Every source of damage from a dragon’s breath attack to falling off a cliff has a damage type.

Physical Damage

Strike Damage
This damage type comes pretty much from some kind of blunt physical force being inflicted upon a creature—hammers, falling, constriction, and the like—deal strike damage It generally comes from physical objects, imagine a creature being hit by a brick or a fist, that would be Strike Damage.
Notable Sources:

• Blunt Weapons – There are many blunt weapons within the Arcane Realm, such as Maces, Fistloads and Hammers, things that would be used to pummel a creature or object.

• Falling – When a creature falls from a height that would harm it, when it hits the bottom, its fall would be strike damage.

Pierce Damage
This kind of damage comes from anything that would harm you via some kind of stabbing, puncturing or impaling by penetration via a point. For instance, needles or spikes are the most common from that deals this. Firearms that use ballistics would cause pierce damage with each shot.
Notable Sources:

• Pointed Weapons – Weapons such as Arrows, Spears, and Rapiers all deal piercing damage as their primary use is to cause puncture wounds in a target.

• Auroch Horn – When this big bovine charges and gores a target with its horn, that would also cause piercing damage.

Slash Damage
Generally, physical objects, designed to cut or tear would cause this damage. Not one that needs much explanation. Creatures with claw attacks will do this damage type when they use their claws or talons to attack a target.
Notable Sources:

• Bladed Weapons – Weapons such as swords, halberds, and axes, which are designed to cause cuts and gashes on its intended target.

• Ground Sloth – This large creature’s huge claws can rake across its target and tear it to shreds in one swipe.

Elemental Damage

Cold Damage This damage type typically comes from well, the cold, and sources of it like ice and even frigid water. Magical sources often include ice and some water spells, along with effects that draw away heat. The idea is that the damage would be akin to being frozen or the structural damage to a creature from things like frostbite. Being hit by a quick burst of cold damage would be like having liquid nitrogen quickly thrown on your body. Which is why that also deals cold damage.
Notable Sources: Yukionna – This race constantly has a cold chill around them, with even their touch leaving a cold sensation. Their mastery of this trait allows even their strikes to be infused with enough of this sensation to cause cold damage. Penitentes – This spell shoots forth a edges of hard ice or snow which inflicts cold damage upon on creature if they are standing in the effect area.


Electric Damage
Shockingly (sorry for the pun) most people could imagine what this damage would look like. Electric (or sometimes lightning) damage that involves the presence and flow of electric charge. Historically was called lightning Damage as that was the most common phenomena that dealt this before spells and
It deals damage to creatures by disrupting their biological systems and objects by heating or cracking the material it passes through.
Notable Sources: Storm Dragon – This drake can effectively summon forth a lightning storm when it uses its breath weapon causing anything in its path to be consumed by lightning bolts. Spark Jump – Spell that will let off a small blue ball of electricity which will steadily fall until it hits a surface, in which it'll move in a waving pattern on that surface (up walls, over and under too) for a brief period of time.
Heat Damage
Heat Damage is fairly common with fire being such an everyday source that fire damage is the other well known term. Most people could imagine creative ways that this could come into play, from being caught in a fire itself to getting hit with a firebomb. But heat damage doesn't necessarily need to be restricted to just fire, anything that produces heat can potentially cause heat damage. Lava, steam, and boiling water all deal heat damage.
Notable Sources: Dragons – These are the legendary drakes with the ability to breath flames as a weapon. Fire Whirl – The target of the spell becomes trapped within a fierce vortex of fire that rages with destructive force.

Sonic Damage
Sonic Damage is typically dealt by concussive bursts of sound or pressure waves. A real-world context would be getting caught in the shock-wave of a large explosion, the damage the shock-wave would do would be considered sonic damage. Sounds that are beyond the hearing range can still be felt if powerful enough to damage even deafened creatures.

Notable Sources: Sonic Boom – the sound impact on creatures and property from a blast wave created by an object moving faster than the speed of sound.
Echo Voice – This spell is cast and then imbues the caster with an echoing voice to attack the target. If this spell is used consecutively, its power is increased.

Splash Damage
Splash Damage is an interesting damage type for its additional properties. Exclusive to liquids, with water being the most common. While similar to strike damage in that the liquid is hitting a target with its pressure, the properties of said liquid can affect different environmental hazards and creatures than pure physical force. For example Splash Damage from water can put out certain fires or be a weakness for fire elementals.
Notable Sources: Tsunami – A natural disaster in which a series of fast-moving waves in the ocean caused by a seismic event like powerful earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, or even a meteor crash inside the ocean.
Jiaolong – These Drakes can spray out pressurized jets of cold water from their jaws, causing destructive splash damage within its path.
Wind Damage
Wind Damage results from when air or another gas strikes an object or creature with its speed. What specifies wind damage is the turbulence caused by it which has extra effects on creatures that are flying or floating in the air.
Notable Sources: Windstorm – a weather pattern with wind that is strong enough to cause at least light damage to trees and buildings. Wind damage can be attributed to gusts (short bursts of high-speed winds) or longer periods of stronger sustained winds.
Recursive Twister – Generates a small whirlwind around that returns to the caster before petering out. Can be used for many things such as putting out fires, retrieving out-of-reach items, and carrying objects at targets. When used in battle it brings enemies closer or stuns them briefly.

Energy Damage

Caustic Damage
This damage type comes from the breakdown of a material due to a chemical reaction. The most simple and common occurrence to understand would probably be acid thrown on a metal causing corrosion or a creature and the chemical burns resulting. However, substances other than just acids can cause this damage like bases or certain metals rusting from air and water. Imagine the creature from Alien, if it were a creature in Arcane Realm, its spit would inflict caustic damage on creatures and objects.
Notable Sources:

• Carpenter Ants– When their nests are disturbed, carpenter ants bite in defense. They also spray a defensive chemical of formic acid, which they can spray into the bite wound, further increasing the pain

• Burnt Lime – An Alchemist who would normally use chemicals as reagents for an experimental goal, can use the highly corrosive chemical in a pinch against a would be attacker.

Force Damage
Force damage is usually caused by energy from fundamental forces like gravity, telekinetic or concussive blasts, or magic manifested in a raw damaging form. It’s almost the equivalent to being internally punched when it hits its target. The damage dealt affects even most creatures in an incorporeal state.
Notable Sources:

• Ripple Palm – A basic wave type sorcery skill where open-palmed arm thrusts let loose a shockwave of magic projecting concussive force.

• Downforce – A spell that can drastically increase the gravity in a given area, making moving or even standing difficult for anyone in it, possibly causing damage to the targeted area/targets, prompting the ground to crack and cave in, crushing the targets.

Necrotic Damage
Necrotic damage is a type of damage focused on decay and is special in that it can affect the spiritual as much as the material.
The former typically results in a magical energy that forcefully draws the essence of life from a living creature, weakening its matter and even drawing from its very soul. Most often this damage comes the way of the undead, fiends, and mages who dabble in that stuff. In this way, necrotic damage is dealt by magic and is the traditional poster child for dark energy.
However there are more mundane and shall we say morally neutral sources of this damage. Decomposing creatures like fungi rely on decay for sustenance and many creatures of that kingdom deal necrotic damage as well though theirs tend to have less of the soul sapping than the undead or the fiendish.
One way or another, it is essentially harm caused through breaking down organic and inorganic matter. One way to think of it is as dark energy which causes matter, including both living and non-living things, to wither away. The easiest way to describe necrotic damage is by explaining how the subject of the harm begins breaking down. Living things like plants and flesh may begin withering from necrosis and start cracking at the point of impact. Inorganic matter like a stone may suffer rapid erosion or splinter into smaller shards when subjected to necrotic damage.
The nature of life force sucking variety in particular has it seen as a dark energy within the realms, and is often viewed as the antithesis to radiant damage, or light energy.
Notable Sources:

• Succubi– Due to their demonic nature, a succubus can take the life force of a creature via touch which causes necrotic damage to the recipient. The extent of the damage depends on the succubus as the lowest amount of damage just weakens the target energy while larger amounts can wither away a target.

• Leeching Spore – When a creature casts this spell, the spores fallen on the target magically conjure fungal hypae that grow over the target and steals some of their life force, healing the caster while causing Necrotic Damage to the creature it fell on.

Poison Damage
Toxic in nature, be it in liquid form and imbibed or inhaled via a gas. Damage of this nature disrupts and damages living creatures systems can produce a variety of debilitating effects like: bleeding, confusion, nausea, Paralysis, etc.
Notable Sources:

• Poison Dart Frog – Within the skin of these frogs is an extremely potent toxin even in the smallest amounts. However, locals have used this property to carefully apply it to the ends of their weapons to make them even more lethal.

• Cobra – While not poisonous, this reptile's bite not only does strike damage but delivers venom, a poison injected directly into the bloodstream to affect the target.

Psychic Damage
Psychic damage is harnessed mental energy used to harm others. If you were to contextualize this damage it would be like someone being able to instantly give you the worst migraine of your life. Psychic damage always deals with the mind and either it targets a foe’s mind or is some sort of focused psychokinetic energy. In psychic spells and attacks, we tend to see abilities that weaken our targets’ minds.
Physically, psychic damage might manifest as direct damage to neurons in the body and brain. Perhaps causing pain or interfering with the transmission of neural signals impeding function and eventually causing some sort of failure especially if the system is already weakened by other physical damage. Notable Sources:

• Mind Crush – A psychic blast spell that on success can scramble the mind of the target and cause its intelligence and charisma to drop to the lowest possible score.

• Dream Eaters – A creatures that, due to their spiritual nature, when they attack they also deal psychic damage to their target.

Radiant Damage
Radiant Damage is another damage type with both a primarily material component and a spiritual one that can be used in tandem. The former comes primarily from intense light rays and energy. While natural sunlight or artificial lighting are most sources, other forms of electromagnetic waves also count as radiant energy, visible or not. So even devices or materials that produce large amounts of nuclear radiation deal mostly radiant damage.
Many divine entities are known for channeling radiant energy regardless of their domain and even mortal beings manifestation of their life force deal this type of damage. These factors contribute to its role as the opposite of necrotic energy, even seen as a holy energy type.
Most undead creatures are known to have a weakness to electromagnetic radiation and causes them to take extra effects from sources of radiant damage. Many healing or reviving spells also have the effect of dealing radiant damage to undead rather than heal them.
Notable Sources:

• Starlight Blitzer – A ranged missile of intense light energy made of the condensed stray light rays in the area into a large sphere, which is slammed into the target.

• Angel – A creature whose very life force and weapons infused with it deal radiant damage. Their association and the fact that radiant damage is a common weakness for the undead has lead to radiance often being conflated with being a divine energy.

Power Level
Damage delt differs in it's amount based on the effect, spell or source.
Minimal is the weakest, then Light, Medium, Heavy, Severe, then Colossal which is highest possible.
DMG Calculations
Damage types interactions can alter how much a player can deal or is dealt to them. Some creatures can be weak, resist, be immune to or even recover health from certian damage types.
Weakness- Double DMG
Resistance- Half DMG
Immune/Null- No DMG
Repel- Reflects DMG back to sender
Drain- Recover Health

Type

Natural