Acid Damage 5e
by Prince Phantom
I believe it was the Xenomorph’s metal-melting blood that popularized the idea of weaponized acid. I’m sure there were examples before that, but the impact of the scene where the crew fearfully chases the melting acid down each layer of their space station, praying that it stops before it eats through the lowest layer and opens the station up to the vacuum of space will always be THE iconic acid movie scene for me. Well, that plus that scene with the shoe in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. If you know, you know. So how does Acid damage function in 5e? Well, its ability to eat through metal is up to DM interpretation, but you can be sure that no matter how they rule it, it’s going to hurt.
Resistance, Immunity, and Vulnerability in monsters (out of 2624 printed monsters)
Resistance: 103
Immune: 73
Vulnerable: 1 (Only in Ghosts of Saltmarsh)
These aren’t bad numbers at all, not as great as something like radiant damage, but leagues better than something like fire. It’s worth comparing this to the other elemental damage types: fire, cold, lightning, and poison. Many spells and abilities allow you to choose between these five damage types, especially any features that borrow power or flavor from dragons. Acid is generally the best of these options, having the least creatures resistant and immune to it on average. This means that when you’re fighting a creature you are unfamiliar with and you can’t immediately determine what it might be resistant or immune to, acid is a safe pick. Also note, most acid resistant creatures are incorporeal spirits, creatures who create acid themselves, and some high level fiends.
Spells that Deal Acid Damage
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | Acid Splash, Primal Savagery |
| 1st | Absorb Elements*, Chaos Bolt*, Chromatic Orb, Tasha’s Caustic Brew |
| 2nd | Acid Arrow, Dragon’s Breath |
| 3rd | Elemental Weapon, Glyph of Warding, Hunger of Hadar |
| 4th | Elemental Bane, Vitriolic Sphere |
| 5th | Summon Draconic Spirit |
| 6th | - |
| 7th | Prismatic Spray* |
| 8th | Illusory Dragon |
| 9th | Prismatic Wall, Storm of Vengeance |
| (Spells with a * can deal acid damage, but only randomly.) | |
This is a pitiful list. The only spells I’d be happy to cast are Dragon’s Breath, Hunger of Hadar, and Vitriolic Sphere. Granted, three decent spells is better than what some damage types get, but there’s a problem. Hunger of Hadar is Warlock exclusive, and Vitriolic Sphere and Dragon’s Breath are Wizard and Sorcerer spells, meaning you can’t really get all three on the same character. This makes building a character around casting Acid spells a really tall order.
Other notable sources of Acid Damage:
All of the many features that let you choose between fire, cold, lightning, poison or acid (example: Ascendant Dragon Monk)
Acid Vials: Tossing an Acid Vial is actually the highest potential damage you can get with a ranged weapon attack at 2d6. Note that you do get to add your Dexterity to this attack just like any other ranged weapon attack. Granted, you don’t have proficiency with Acid Vials unless you get proficiency with improvised weapons through something like the Tavern Brawler feat. Also, they don’t work with Sharpshooter, unless you could work with your DM to make some sort of acid vial launcher. Artificers, get on that.
Synergies with Acid Damage:
Alchemist Artificer Alchemical Savant
Draconic Sorcerer Elemental Affinity
Artificers don’t even get the best Acid damage spells, so ignore that, and the Draconic Sorcerer is a very weak subclass. Yes, you can transmute spells into acid damage with metamagic, and no, it is not worth it.
How worried should we be about Acid Damage?
48/711 monsters in the Monster Manual and Mordenkanin’s Monsters of the Multiverse can deal acid damage.
That’s a fairly average number, tending towards the low end. Besides the families of black and copper dragons, there isn’t one unifying theme of monsters that you can expect to deal acid damage, besides Oozes. That being said, Oozes themselves are pretty uncommon, but if you are going into a place where you expect to face them and have a choice of damage resistances, I’d consider acid a good choice.
How do we get resistance to Acid Damage?
Races:
Class Features:
Alchemist Chemical Mastery
Bear Totem Barbarian
Nature Cleric Dampen Elements
Ascendant Dragon Monk Aspect of the Wyrm
Drakewarden Bond of Fang and Scale
Fiend Warlock Fiendish Resilience
Transmuter Wizard Transmuter’s Stone
Spells:
Absorb Elements kind of makes the rest of this list irrelevant. Most characters would probably be better off taking a level dip to grab this spell, so I wouldn’t go out of your way to grab it from other class abilities or spells. Shout out to Plasmoids though, being unique in that they are the only race to resist acid damage! That doesn’t make them especially powerful, but playing as an ooze in a campaign full of oozes might be a good idea.
In Summery:
You can’t really build a character around acid damage, but when you do find chances to use it you’ll find that it’s pretty reliable. You won’t be facing acid damage very frequently, and when you do, just cast Absorb Elements. Lastly, if you have the option between fire, cold, lightning, poison, or acid, and you don’t know which one to use, pick acid.
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