Lightning Damage 5e
by Prince Phantom
Electricity, the energy with the ability to power nations, to illuminate the night, and to humble even the mightiest of warriors. How is it represented in 5e? Well, it depends on your campaign world. In Eberron, electricity is well developed, with cities powered by captured lightning elementals, but many DnD worlds take heavy inspiration from the Middle Ages, and likely still light their streets through oil lanterns. Oh right, you wanted to know how to throw lightning bolts, not invent the flashlight. Well, you might want to pump the breaks on that plan. Here’s why.
Resistance, Immunity, and Vulnerability in monsters (out of 2624 printed monsters)
Resistant: 224
Immune: 93
Vulnerable: 2 (both from pre-written modules)
Lightning damage is very heavily resisted, almost as much so as fire and cold, though not as many monsters are immune to is as they are for those damage types. Unlike fire though, it doesn’t have the niche of over 40 monsters also being vulnerable to it. Notably, most fiends are resistant to lightning damage, so steer clear if you plan on descending into Avernus any time soon. Also, don’t ever target a Black Pudding with Lightning Damage. You won’t appreciate the result.
Spells that Deal Lightning Damage
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | Lightning Lure, Shocking Grasp |
| 1st | Absorb Elements*, Chaos Bolt*, Chromatic Orb, Witch Bolt |
| 2nd | Dragon’s Breath |
| 3rd | Call Lightning, Elemental Weapon, Glyph of Warding, Lightning Arrow, Lightning Bolt |
| 4th | Elemental Bane, Storm Sphere |
| 5th | Summon Draconic Spirit |
| 6th | Chain Lightning |
| 7th | Prismatic Spray* |
| 8th | Illusory Dragon |
| 9th | Prismatic Wall, Storm of Vengeance |
| (Spells with a * can deal lightning damage, but only randomly.) | |
While this is a pretty large list, it’s definitely favoring quantity over quality. Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning are the only spells I can wholeheartedly recommend as actual lightning damage spells, as Dragon’s Breath and Illusory Dragon can be many types of damage and the lightning damage is just one small part of the meat grinder that is Prismatic Wall. Call Lightning is a wildly overrated spell, dealing less damage each round than an optimized martial who just takes the attack action and forcing us to use our action. Witch Bolt, Lightning Arrow, and Storm of Vengeance are some of the worst spells of their level, and anything in between isn’t fairing much better. This lack of great spells is a real downside, especially for classes like the Storm Sorcerer, who base their entire kit around casting Lightning and Thunder damage spells (and no, thunder does not pick up the slack).
Other notable ways to deal Lightning Damage
Armorer Artificer Infiltrator Lightning Launchers
Storm Herald Barbarian Sea Storm Aura
Tempest Cleric Wrath of the Storm
If you’re looking to deal Lightning damage round after round without expending all your resources very quickly, these will likely be your best options.
Synergies with Lightning Damage
Tempest Cleric (almost all of it)
Storm Sorcerer Heart of the Storm
The Tempest Cleric features are the real build around here. The ability to push a creature of large or smaller size with no save when we hit it with lightning damage is a big deal, combining wonderfully with AoE spells and effects, and maximizing damage on a spell is always fun. The problem is that the best lightning damage spells aren’t available to the Tempest Cleric, leading them to seek means of dealing lightning damage each round through feats like Gift of the Chromatic Dragon, Transmute Spell Metamagic, or the Artificer’s lightning launchers.
How worried should we be about Lightning Damage?
43/711 monsters in the Monster Manual and Mordenkanin’s Monsters of the Multiverse can deal lightning damage.
That’s a pretty small amount, and a good percentage of that 43 is monsters who can cast Lightning Bolt, as the designers seem to enjoy giving that spell to monsters. There’s also not a consistent type of monster that tends to use Lightning damage more than others, so I can’t warn you of specific places or campaigns where you’ll need to worry about it more than others. Lightning damage traps are somewhat common though, especially magical traps, so it might come up slightly more often than the numbers suggest.
How to get resistance to Lightning damage
Races
Genasi (Air)
Blue/Bronze Dragonborn
Class Abilities
Bear Totem Barbarian
Storm Herald Barbarian Sea Storm Soul
Nature Cleric Dampen Elements
Monk Ascendant Dragon Aspect of the Wyrm
Draconic Sorcerer Elemental Affinity
Storm Sorcerer (resistance, eventually immunity)
Fiend Warlock Fiendish Resilience
Transmutation Wizard Transmuter’s Stone
Spells
As you can see, if you want lightning resistance, you can get it. Absorb Elements alone is a big part of that, so much so that it makes getting resistance through other means less valuable. Again, I don’t feel like you especially need to invest in resistance to this type of damage, so picking it up is mostly a nice bonus for characters that get it, not a big part of your sheet.
To Summarize
Lightning damage is really only as present in your campaign as you and your DM want it to be. It doesn’t have many great spells, not a ton of monsters deal in it, and really only the Tempest Cleric builds around it. That being said, the Tempest Cleric’s abilities are very compelling, so building around those is very tempting. I wouldn’t invest in lightning resistance any more than just picking up Absorb Elements, and don’t go summoning thunderstorms in hell, as they won’t mind it very much.
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