Niche D20Damage is default organized into two types, Physical and Elemental, though various types exist within these two categories of damage types. While damage types are largely for theme of the weapon or effect at play, these can have various interactions in combat depending on the type being used.
Physical Damage
Physical damage is any damage of Piercing, Slashing, or Bludgeoning damage. Physical damage is generally affected by DR the creature possess. Some DR may be overcome by a specific physical damage type which is usually specified by the weapon dealing the damage.
In some rare circumstances a weapon may possess multiple damage types, either in the form of giving a choice when making an attack in different ways to deal different damage types (such as a weapon dealing Piercing OR Slashing), or in the rare case a weapon may deal two damage types at once (such as Bludgeoning AND Piercing). In the case where they weapon offers a choice, the choice must be made before the attack is made dealing the chosen damage type. When multiple damage types are present at once, the weapon is treated as having both damage types for the purposes of determining its interaction with DR, bypassing this as long as even one of its damage types matches. This simply expands the utility of a weapon and does not cause the weapon do deal additional damage or have any other additional effects on its own.
Bludgeoning Damage
Bludgeoning damage is usually blunt impact type weaponry such as a hammer, fist, or even a rock being thrown at a creature.
Piercing Damage
Piercing damage is usually attributed to weapons that go for puncture and thrusting type moves such as spears and daggers.
Slashing Damage
Slashing damage is usually attributed to edged weapons such as swords and axes, going for both a cutting and slicing motion in their attacks.
Elemental Damage
Elemental damage is separate from physical damage as it is much more varied in type, but also is affected by the resist that a creature possesses. Elemental damage is not inherently magical and may simply represent a natural force at work, such as fire being both capable of being produced by magical and mundane means.
Not all elemental affinities inherently deal elemental damage and may be more closely associated with physical damage types, but usually each element, affinity, and spell will detail what type of damage it does.
Cold Damage
Cold damage is simply lack of heat to such a drastic degree that it begins to harm, either through the killing of living creatures or even making an object more brittle due to its now frozen state.
Decay Damage
Decay is another natural process but is usually also associated with death. This may be caused by plague and disease, or simply a spell causing the passage of time to ravage the body of a living creature.
Fire Damage
Fire damage is any damage dealt via burning and heat, either from mundane fires such as a torch, campfire, or branding iron; or something more magical such as a ball of fire hurled at a foe.
Electric Damage
Electric damage deals fire damage for the purposes of its interaction with resistances, but is noted as a separate entity for the purposes of some special interactions it may have. Electrical damage while unique in its delivery is primarily deadly due to the massive amount of heat it produces as it sears its victims.
Nature Damage
Nature damage is damage is usually damage dealt through venom, poisons, spores, or other naturally occurring but deadly effects. While some magic may produce a more abstract form of nature damage, it is usually reserved for these types of damage.
Void Damage
Void damage is both the power of aberrant outside forces of the cosmos, as well as simply the type of damage creatures suffer when in the vacuum of space.
Untyped Damage
Untyped Damage is a special type of damage that may sometimes occur. This damage usually does not interact with any types of Resist or DR unless specified otherwise.
Additional Damage Types
The following damage types are types that can be made separately or in addition to the existing type. For example a longsword that deals additional precision damage or has its damage converted to precision damage still deals slashing damage for the purposes of determining this damage’s interaction with DR or other effects.
Precision Damage
Precision damage is a special type of damage that functions like normal damage with a few additional details. Firstly precision damage done by a creature cannot be redirected to armor through the basic armor redirection and armor sacrifice abilities. Additionally creatures immune to critical hits are immune to precision damage.
Nonlethal Damage
Nonlethal damage is a form of damage a creature can take that is not life-threatening, but can still potentially hinder them should they take too much. Unlike normal damage, nonlethal damage is tracked separately from hit points and is healed quickly with rest or magic.
Dealing Nonlethal Damage
Nonlethal damage may be caused by attacks, environmental effects such as heat, or even exhaustion can cause nonlethal damage. When taking nonlethal damage instead of subtracting from your current hit points, it is instead accumulated and tracked separately with a running total of accumulated nonlethal damage.
Nonlethal Damage with a Weapon that Deals Lethal Damage
Unless stated otherwise, any melee or thrown weapon may be used to deal nonlethal damage, but if it lacks the nonlethal weapon property you take a -4 penalty on your attack roll to do so.
Nonlethal, Temporary Hit Points and Damage Reduction
Nonlethal damage is still treated as normal damage for the purpose of its interaction with sources that reduce damage that a creature takes such as temporary hit points and DR.
Excessive Nonlethal Damage
Once a creature’s nonlethal damage is equal or greater than half their maximum hit points they gain the fatigued condition; if the creature is already fatigued they instead become exhausted, if the creature is already exhausted they instead become staggered. If the creature’s nonlethal damage is equal or greater than half their maximum hit points and also equal or greater than their current hit points they instead become exhausted; if the creature was already fatigued or exhausted they instead become staggered.
Finally if a creature’s nonlethal damage total is equal to their total maximum hit points they become unconscious and no longer gain nonlethal damage, instead converting all further nonlethal damage into lethal damage until their nonlethal damage is reduced or removed in some way.
Healing Nonlethal Damage
Nonlethal damage is healed at a rate of 1 hit point per hour per hit dice the creature possesses. Spells or abilities that restore hit points also remove an equal amount of nonlethal damage.
The creature loses the fatigued or exhausted condition granted by excessive nonlethal damage if they weren’t already from another source. If the creature had the fatigued or exhausted condition become more severe due to nonlethal damage it returns to its previous level of severity before they gained the nonlethal damage if they did not have the more severe condition already from another source.