Slashing Damage 5e
by Prince Phantom
Claws, swords, glaive, and more, slashing damage covers all things bladed and sharp, and is one of the most common damage types to interact with in the entire game. How exactly it compares both to the other physical damage types and the rest of the pack is pretty interesting though, as are the few synergies to be found with this damage type.
Resistance, Immunity, and Vulnerability in monsters (out of 2624 printed monsters)
Resistant: 28
Immune: 9
Vulnerable: 0
Most of the resistances come from swarm creatures, who resist all physical damage types, and all of the creatures immune to slashing damage are oozes. Compared to the other physical damage types, we have the least total creatures resistant, the most who are immune, and the least who are vulnerable, obviously. Just don’t pull your sword out to fight an Ooze and you’ll be just fine.
Spells that Deal Slashing Damage
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | - |
| 1st | Hunter's Mark |
| 2nd | Cloud of Daggers, Magic Weapon |
| 3rd | Summon Undead |
| 4th | Summon Aberration |
| 5th | Wrath of Nature |
| 6th | Blade Barrier, Wall of Thorns |
| 7th | - |
| 8th | - |
| 9th | - |
Obviously, this list is barren and you shouldn’t seek to build a spellcaster around slashing damage. That being said, Cloud of Daggers, Blade Barrier, and Wall of Thorns all promote moving your opponents into their AoE, meaning building around these spells and spells like them are a great direction to take a character.
See Also: Complete Guide to Slashing Damage Spells
Weapons that deal Slashing Damage:
Simple Weapons:
Handaxe
Sickle
Marshal Weapons:
Battleaxe
Glaive
Greataxe
Halberd
Longsword
Scimitar
Whip
Simple weapon options are pretty limited, but we’ve got plenty for marshal weapons. Notably, there are no ranged weapons that deal slashing damage, which is actually a shame because they would synergize very well with the Slasher feat.
Synergies with Slashing Damage:
Slasher (Feat): Slasher is really the only thing I could find, and it’s a fine feat that works best on highly mobile builds like Monks who can take advantage of the speed penalty to get out of melee range of their enemies. We have a build that does that exact thing on this website, so if that sounds like an interesting playstyle, be sure to check it out!
How worried should we be about Slashing Damage?
242/711 monsters in the Monster Manual and Mordenkainen’s Monsters of the Multiverse can deal slashing damage.
This is slightly more than bludgeoning damage, but still not nearly as many as piercing damage. Still, this is over one third of all monsters, and you can expect to see slashing damage near-constantly in your average campaign.
How do we get resistance to Slashing Damage?
Class Features:
Barbarian Rage
War Cleric Avatar of Battle (non-magical only)
Forge Cleric Soul of Forge and Fire (non-magical only)
Stars Druid Full of Stars
Oathbreaker Paladin Supernatural Resistance
Fiend Warlock Fiendish Resilience
Spells:
Barbarian Rage is really the only low level option, as the next lowest level is the Fiend Warlock’s level 10 feature. Spell options are similarly limited, as Blade Ward is a spell that really only works on specific builds that can take advantage of it, and Investiture of Stone is just a bad spell.
To Summarize:
Slashing is a very common damage type for both sides of the table to dish out, so you should expect to see it frequently. It’s really hard to build an entire character around slashing damage as there is no real spell support and only one real synergy. Still, there’s nothing quite like the DM describing how your Greataxe cleaves an orc straight down the middle, so sharpen your blades and get to whackin’!
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