In the middle of combat, one of your players, the Barbarian, “Would like to rage”. Great! So now they get a whole slew of bonuses, one of them being resistance to slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage. But…
What exactly does this mean?
In this article I will briefly explain:
- Damage Type Overview
- Resistance, Vulnerability, and Immunity
- Damage Types + Examples
D&D 5e Damage Types Overview

In total, there are 13 different types of damage in Dungeons and Dragons 5e:
- Slashing
- Piercing
- Bludgeoning
- Poison
- Acid
- Fire
- Cold
- Radiant
- Necrotic
- Lightning
- Thunder
- Force
- Psychic
For the sake of remembering everything I like to split these damage types into a few groups based on similarities:
- Slashing, Piercing, and Bludgeoning
- Poison and Acid
- Fire vs. Cold
- Radiant vs. Necrotic
- Lightning and Thunder
- Force and Psychic
D&D 5e Damage Types: Resistance, Vulnerability, and Immunity
Certain monsters or characters may have abilities which make them resistant to fire damage or vulnerable to acid damage, for example. Each of these essentially acts as a modifier to the total damage taken by that specific type of damage. If multiple types of damage are done, the damage modifier is only applied to the relevant damage rather than the total.
Resistance: The target takes half damage
Vulnerability: The target takes double damage
Immunity: The target takes zero damage