Thunder Damage 5e
by Prince Phantom
Flavored either as a noise so loud it can harm you, or an explosive force strong enough to knock you off your feat, thunder damage is one of the least represented damage types in the game. Few spells deal in it, and even fewer monsters wield it, but how do the exact numbers look?
Resistance, Immunity, and Vulnerability in monsters (out of 2624 printed monsters)
Resistance: 73
Immunity: 29
Vulnerable: 5
These are fantastic numbers, only beaten out by Radiant and Force damage. As for trends among the monsters you shouldn’t target, the sapphire dragon family are obviously immune, and many incorporeal enemies are resistant. Notably, the Earth Elemental is vulnerable, and while I don’t normally make a big deal about vulnerabilities, that’s actually a very common monster for parties to interact with, either fighting it, turning into it as a Moon Druid, or summoning one with Conjure Elemental. Just keep that information in the back of your mind, as it might help you to fight one or keep one you summoned safe.
Spells that Deal Thunder Damage
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | Booming Blade, Thunderclap |
| 1st | Absorb Elements*, Chaos Bolt*, Chromatic Orb, Thunderous Smite, Thunderwave |
| 2nd | Shatter |
| 3rd | Elemental Weapon, Thunder Step |
| 4th | - |
| 5th | Destructive Wave |
| 6th | - |
| 7th | - |
| 8th | - |
| 9th | Storm of Vengeance |
| (Spells with a * can deal thunder damage, but only randomly.) | |
Slim pickings doesn’t even begin to describe this list. Thunderwave and Shatter are fine for their level at the tier of play when you get them, but after level 5 you have no business casting them. Thunder Step is a neat teleport spell that I’m a big fan of, and after that we’ve got Destructive Wave, a 5th level Paladin exclusive spell that most players don’t even know exists, and only half of its damage is thunder anyway. It’s practically impossible to make a thunder damage focused character if your campaign goes to or past level 5, so don’t bother trying.
Other notable sources of Thunder Damage:
Armorer Artificer Guardian Thunder Gauntlets
These gauntlets deal a d8 thunder damage and inflict a status on hit that imposes disadvantage to hitting any creature other than you, giving enemies a reason to focus on you in your big set of armor, rather than your less defensive allies. Sadly, these gauntlets don’t count as heavy weapons, which means they don’t qualify for Great Weapon Master (unless you can convince your DM that attacking with a part of your HEAVY armor counts). They also deal thunder damage, meaning they don’t qualify for any of the damage type feats like Crusher. We do a lot to remedy these issues in our own Armorer Artificer build, accomplishing both great utility, and swapping to wielding a weapon in the late game to catch up to the rest of the party on damage.
Synergies with Thunder Damage:
Tempest Cleric Channel Divinity
This channel divinity allows you to maximize the damage of any lightning or thunder damage spell. Speaking strictly about the thunder damage side of this ability, it’s useful in the early game to maximize a Shatter here and there, but not much else past that. This Cleric does get Destructive Wave, but sadly only half of that spell deals thunder damage, so only half of the damage will be maximized. It is worth it to take Metamagic Adept at higher levels and take Transmute Spell to turn something like Fire Storm into a thunder storm, allowing us to deal a flat 70 damage to a huge area, 35 if they save.
How worried should we be about Thunder Damage?
18/711 monsters in the Monster Manual and Mordenkanin’s Monsters of the Multiverse can deal thunder damage.
Sort answer, you don’t need to worry about thunder damage at all. It is highly likely that you will never run into a monster that wields thunder damage, and if you do, it will probably be the only time it happens. Also, 5 of those 18 are the sapphire dragon family, so unless your campaign includes those, the real number is 13.
How do we get resistance to Thunder Damage?
Class Abilities
Bear Totem Barbarian
Nature Cleric Dampen Elements
Storm Sorcerer Heart of the Storm (Immunity at level 18)
Fiend Warlock Fiendish Resilience
Transmuter Wizard Transmuter’s Stone
Spells
Absorb Elements
Protection from Energy
Don’t pursue thunder resistance, just pick up Absorb Elements and move on with your life. It’s such a niche bonus to any option that provides it, plus the fact that Absorb Elements does the job just fine. This means that features that grant thunder resistance are not nearly as powerful as they would be if they provided a different damage type resistance. Poor Storm Sorcerer…
In Summary
You may go an entire campaign without seeing any instance of thunder damage. It’s easily the rarest damage type in the game, but if you do use it, you’ll find it to be quite consistent. Just keep your earth elemental friend away from the sapphire dragon and don’t forget to pack Absorb Elements, just in case.
Thank you for visiting!
If you’d like to support this ongoing project, you can do so by buying my books, getting some sweet C&C merch, or joining my Patreon.
The text on this page is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.
‘d20 System’ and the ‘d20 System’ logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
and are used according to the terms of the d20 System License version 6.0.
A copy of this License can be found at www.wizards.com/d20.
