Radiant Damage 5e
by Prince Phantom
A favorite of pretty much all Clerics, Paladins, and Divine Soul Sorcerers, radiant damage is extremely common to see in 5e, but in a very different way than you’d expect to see most damage types. You’d be hard pressed to make a party who doesn’t deal in at least a little bit of holy cleansing, but you’ll also be quite unlikely to face radiant damage from most enemies. Let’s dive into the numbers.
Resistance, Immunity, and Vulnerability in monsters (out of 2624 printed monsters)
Resistance: 27
Immune: 19
Vulnerable: 17
All these low numbers basically mean that you can reliably expect your radiant attacks to deal exactly as much damage as you expect them to. There are a few more vulnerabilities here than usual, but don’t read too terribly far into that. Also, as you would expect, most Celestials are resistant or immune to radiant damage, though you will rarely fight them due to the nature of them being both good-aligned and how few of them there actually are.
Spells that Deal Radiant Damage
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | Sacred Flame, Word of Radiance |
| 1st | Divine Favor, Guiding Bolt |
| 2nd | Branding Smite, Moonbeam |
| 3rd | Blinding Smite, Crusader’s Mantle, Spirit Guardians, Spirit Shroud |
| 4th | Guardian of Faith, Sickening Radiance |
| 5th | Dawn, Destructive Wave, Flame Strike, Holy Weapon, Summon Celestial, Wall of Light |
| 6th | Forbiddance, Sunbeam |
| 7th | Crown of Stars |
| 8th | Sunburst |
| 9th | - |
This might be the most expansive and powerful list of all damage types, with at least one good spell at almost every level. Standouts include Spirit Guardians, Sickening Radiance, Holy Weapon, and Crown of Stars. You could have your entire offensive spell toolkit filled with nothing but radiant spells and be an exceptionally consistent and powerful spellcaster. It’s also worth noting that over half of this list is exclusive to the Cleric and Paladin, meaning for once the best option for focusing on a damage type isn’t Wizard! A notable trend is that burst damage radiant spells aren’t usually your best option, rather that you’re better off focusing on spells that deal damage round after round. This gives radiant a nice lane to drive in comparison to fire (the other popular damage type for spells), which normally specializes in big burst damage spells like Fireball.
How worried should we be about Radiant Damage?
22/711 monsters in the Monster Manual and Mordenkanin’s Monsters of the Multiverse can deal radiant damage.
Notably, 13 of those 22 monsters can only deal radiant damage through spells, meaning they likely won’t be slinging it out every turn. This is an extremely low number, second in rarity only to thunder damage. Again, most of these monsters are celestials, so your typical good-aligned party will likely never run into a monster that deals in radiant damage.
How do we get resistance to Radiant Damage?
Spells: Summon Draconic Spirit
Races:Crystal Dragonborn, Aasimar
Class Abilities:
Bear Totem Barbarian
Celestial Warlock Radiant Soul
Fiend Warlock Fiendish Resilience
Transmuter Wizard Transmuter’s Stone
There’s not many options here, but I wouldn’t worry about it. You’ll so rarely face radiant damage that this might come up exactly once during your campaign. I suppose if you’re playing a campaign where you plan to storm heaven and slay the gods, this might come in handy, though I don’t figure most people will be playing in campaigns like that.
Synergies with Radiant Damage:
Light Cleric Corona of Light
Celestial Warlock Radiant Soul
Again, not much to work with here, especially because the Light Cleric ability doesn’t come online till level 17. That leaves the Celestial Warlock, and while it’s ability is gained at a much more reasonable level 6, it runs counter to how the best radiant damage spells work, and Warlocks don’t get the best radiant damage spells to begin with. It boosts the power of a radiant damage spell on the turn we cast it, but it does nothing for damage rolls on subsequent turns, and only boosts the damage we deal to a single creature, meaning it doesn’t do much for AoE spells.
In Summary:
Radiant damage is one of the most reliable damage types for you to deal, and Clerics and Paladins are very happy about that fact. There’s no real need to search out specific synergies with radiant damage, as you won’t really find anything, and the fact that it will basically always deal its expected damage is plenty enough to be satisfied with. You also don’t need to worry about facing radiant damage basically ever, assuming you don’t set out to make a celestial mad.
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