Damage Types

Not all damage is inflicted equally. Here are some of the forms of damage that can be inflicted:

Physical Damage

Physical damage is dealt by most weapons, physical hazards, and natural attacks. The main types of physical damage are bludgeoning, piercing and slashing.

Ballistic damage comes from extreme force, usually caused by a firearm.

Bludgeoning damage comes from weapons and hazards that deal blunt-force trauma, like the impact of a haymaker or being dashed against rocks.

Piercing damage is dealt from stabs and punctures, whether from a monster's fangs or a piercing knife.

Slashing damage is delivered by a cut, be it the swing of the sword or being tossed into a lawnmower's spinning blades.

Ghosts and other incorporeal creatures have a high resistance to physical attacks that aren't magical (attacks that lack the magical trait). 

Energy Damage

Many spells and other supernatural effects deal energy damage to their targets. Energy damage is also dealt from effects in the material world, such as the biting cold of a blizzard or a raging forest fire. Some weapons also do energy damage, such as a flamethrower or a concussion grenade. The main types of energy damage are acid, arcane, cold, corruption, electricity, fire, force, psychic, radiant, sonic and void. 

Acid damage can be delivered by gases, liquids, and certain solids that dissolve flesh, and sometimes by harder materials. Acid is associated with the element of Earth and the colour green. 

Arcane damage involves raw magical energy being unleashed to react with the natural world. Arcane is associated with primal chaos and the colour purple. 

Cold damage freezes material through contact with chilling gases and ice. Cold is associated with the element of Water and the colour blue.  

Corruption damage involves the unmaking, twisting or corruption of reality. It is used by demons, outsiders, warlocks and cultists. This damage type is typically not available to players. Corruption is associated with forces antithetical to creation and sickly colours not naturally appearing in nature. 

Electricity damage comes from the discharge of powerful lightning and sparks. Electricity is associated with the element of Air and the colour yellow.  

Fire damage burns through heat and combustion and includes both explosive bursts and lasers. Fire damage is associated with the element of Fire and the colour red.  

Force damage involves aether formed into incredibly hard, but non-solid, shapes. Force is associated with the primal forces of law and order and the colour grey. 

Psychic damage attacks the target's mind or soul through fatigue, emotional trauma, bouts of madness, or psychosomatically inflicting physical harm. Mindless creatures are immune to psychic damage. Psychic damage is usually associated with the colour pink. 

Radiant damage channels the power of light and justice, manifesting as beams of light, sheets of damaging colours, and fonts of radiance. Radiant is associated with the forces of the Empyrean and the colour white. 

Sonic damage assaults matter with high-frequency vibration and sound waves. Sonic damage is usually associated with the colour teal. 

Void damage channels the natural powers of death and destruction, involving swirling shadows that deaden flesh and cause material to rapidly erode and decay. Void is associated with the forces of Shadow and the Underworld and the colour black. 

In some instances, opposing energy types can cancel each other out or be used in counter-spells. Opposing energy types are as follows:

• Acid and electricity

• Arcane and force

• Cold and fire

• Corruption and radiant

Persistent Damage

Persistent damage comes from effects like acid, being on fire, or many other situations. It appears as “X persistent [type] damage,” where “X” is the amount of damage dealt and “[type]” is the damage type. Instead of taking persistent damage immediately, you take Persistent damage at the beginning of your turn, so long as you have the Persistent Damage condition. 

Each type of Persistent Damage has its own prerequisite for removing it. Some Persistent Damage naturally fades with time, others can be ended by an action you take (just as jumping in a lake to end fire damage), or an ally takes (throwing baking soda on you to stop acid damage), and some forms of Persistent Damage require you to leave an area (running out of the freezer to end the cold damage). 

At the end of every turn (after you have taken all your actions), make a DC 15 flat check against each of the types of persistent damage affecting you. On success, you end the condition.  Persistent damage runs its course and automatically ends after a certain amount of time as fire burns out, blood clots, and the like. The GM determines when this occurs, but it usually takes 1 minute.

Immunities, resistances, and weaknesses all apply to persistent damage. If an effect deals initial damage in addition to persistent damage, apply immunities, resistances, and weaknesses separately to the initial damage and to the persistent damage. Usually, if an effect negates the initial damage, it also negates the persistent damage, such as with a slashing weapon that also deals persistent bleed damage because it cuts you. The GM might rule otherwise in some situations. 

Assisted Recovery ⬤ ⬤ ◌

You or an ally can spend 2 Actions to help recover from persistent damage (e.g., smothering a flame, washing off acid).This allows you to attempt an extra Flat Check immediately. You can only be affected by Assisted Recovery once per round. 

The GM decides how your help works, using the following examples as guidelines when no specific action applies.

• The action to help might require a skill check or another roll to determine its effectiveness.

• Reduce the DC of the flat check to 10 for a particularly appropriate type of help, such as dousing you in water to put out flames.

• Automatically end the condition due to the type of help, such as magical healing to end persistent bleed damage or submerging yourself in a lake to end persistent fire damage.

• Alter the number of actions required to help you if the means the helper uses are especially efficient or remarkably inefficient.

Poison Damage 

Venoms, toxins, and radiation can deal poison damage, which affects creatures through contact, exposure, ingestion, inhalation, or injury. In addition to coming from monster attacks, alchemical items, and spells, poison damage is often caused by ongoing afflictions. 

Bleed Damage 

Another special type of physical damage is bleed damage. This persistent damage represents a loss of blood or other vital fluids, such as glamour or ichor. As such, it has no effect on nonliving creatures (other than vampires) or living creatures that don't need blood to live. Weaknesses and resistances to physical damage apply. Bleed damage ends automatically if you receive any amount of magical healing, or if an ally successfully makes a First Aid check with the Medicine skill to bandage the wound.

Precision Damage 

When you hit a vulnerable spot, you deal precision damage, which increases the attack's listed damage using the same damage type. The extra damage from a critical hit is always considered Precision Damage.

Some creatures are immune to precision damage, regardless of the damage type; these are often amorphous creatures that lack vulnerable anatomy. 

Material Damage

There are five metals that are banes to inhabitants of the supernal planes. Weapons with these damage types bypass a supernal creature's natural resistances and inhibit supernatural regeneration or healing, forcing these creatures to heal like a mortal.  For most PCs, being struck by their specific Material Bane triggers their Vulnerability, dealing standard damage to their Vitality pool, and dealing 1 point of Wound Damage per damage die rolled. 

These metals are as follows:

• Bronze for the jinn and other inhabitants of Chaos

• Iron for the fey and other inhabitants of Faerie

• Lead for shades, reapers, and other inhabitants of the Underworld

• Orichalcum for horrors and other inhabitants of Shadow

• Silver for spirits, lycanthropes and other inhabitants of the Spirit World

Other materials can also have similar properties, such as rock salt being effective against ghosts or aspen wood against some types of vampires. An Occult Lore check can help identify a specific creature's weaknesses. 

Damage Resistance

If you have resistance to a type of damage, each time you take that type of damage, you reduce the amount of damage you take by the listed amount (to a minimum of 0 damage). Resistance can specify combinations of damage types or other traits. For instance, you might encounter a monster that’s resistant to non-magical bludgeoning damage, meaning it would take less damage from bludgeoning attacks that weren’t magical, but would take normal damage from your enchanted nightclub (since it’s magical) or a non-magical pistol (since it deals ballistic damage). A resistance might also have an exception. For example, resistance 10 to physical damage (except silver) would reduce any physical damage by 10 unless that damage was dealt by a silver weapon.

If you have more than one type of resistance that would apply to the same instance of damage, use only the highest applicable resistance value.

It’s possible to have resistance to all damage, usually indicated as Resistance #/-, the - indicating the lack of anything that breaks through the Resistance. When an effect deals damage of multiple types, and you have resistance to all damage, apply the resistance to each type of damage separately. If an attack dealt 7 slashing damage and 4 fire damage, resistance 5 to all damage would reduce the slashing damage to 2 and negate the fire damage entirely.