D&D Ideas — Force & Psychic

D&D Ideas — Force & Psychic

August 29, 2021

Dungeons & Dragons/ Editorial/ Game Master Tips/ Player tips/ Roleplaying/ YouTube

Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is force & psychic, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST on Nerdarchy Live to talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of force & psychic in Mirror, Mirror a forlorn Hearth Hope creature’s psychic feedback assaults the living with images of their own past failures while in Mirrors of the Soul a mystical force shifts adventurers between the real world and one of shadowy illusions… You can get the Nerdarchy Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.

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Delving Dave’s Dungeon

This week we tackle the two rarest and least resisted of the damage types in 5E D&D — force and psychic. Here’s some data about these two damage types according to D&D Beyond search:

Force Damage
- 2 creatures with resistance
- 3 creatures with immunity
- 20 spells deal force damage
Psychic Damage
- 29 creatures with resistance
- 74 creatures with immunity
- 17 spells deal psychic damage

Like last week’s topic of radiant and necrotic these aren’t associated with a plane of existence like elemental damage. This is especially the case with force energy but we could associate psychic damage with some planes if we stretch our imagination a bit. The closest planes I could think of would be a plane of dreams or the Astral Plane.

It might be fun to explore another plane altogether, like a plane of pure mental existence or energy. You can physically get to the Astral Plane or go there astrally only. I like the idea of a place where physical existence isn’t part of the reality. Creatures and entities from this place would appear like ghosts or spirits on the Prime Material Plane. It would be fun to play with players’ preconceived notions as they mistake these creatures for undead instead of beings lacking corporeal forms.

I could see hazards bleeding in from these places like psychic storms full of raw psionic energy. You might not even see this danger coming. Or perhaps these areas cause mental illusions, stunning effects and any other spell effects that might affect someone’s mind.

This leaves force damage to explore. I’ve heard it described as being the release of pure magical energy and I think this description fits well enough. Anytime you need magical explosions or constructs of pure magical energy the force damage type or descriptor works just fine. I’ve always felt it works with concussive explosions as well. Basically if it goes boom then force is probably a good stand in for the damage type.

With force having the least number of creatures resistant and immune it makes an excellent choice for spells. If you are a Dungeon Master and are feeling a bit mean you can use the living spells from Eberron: Rising of the Last War. There is a template for turning spells into monsters and using force based spells could be both fun and mean.

From Ted’s Head

Force and Psychic are the rarest damage types in 5E D&D. In the live chat we talked about a lot of spells and effects that can be useful where these damage types are in effect. But since they are so rare I feel there should be more things useful for DMs out there. I have been on a hazard kick lately and I really feel inspired by the conversation we had on our Nerdarchy Live conversation about this topic.

Insulting Skull

Hazard

The visual of this hazard can be anything the DM wishes but I envision a skull carved out of stone either on a pedestal or coming out of the wall at the end of a corridor. Anyone who enters the hallway hears the skull offer an insult directed at them. Creatures must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or take 7 (3d4) psychic damage. Offering an insult back at the skull with a successful Charisma (Persuasion or Intimidation) check shuts the skull down for one minute.

Psychic Crystals

Trap — Pressure Plate

A pressure plate trap that is difficult to notice but easy enough to solve or circumvent. A successful DC 17 Wisdom (perception) check reveals the slightly elevated plate of worked stone. A successful DC 14 thieves tools’ check allows for safely lifting up the stone plate. If you use a crowbar as part of the check you can roll with advantage. Failure activates the trap. The trap causes the stone to crash down on pink and purple crystals suffused with psychic power. Creatures within 60 feet must make a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw, taking 13 (3d8) psychic damage on a failed save and half as much on a successful one.

Each trap holds three crystals, which can be saved and used later. DM note: you can of course add more crystals either to make the trap better or to add more reward for success. The crystals only need a single point of bludgeoning damage to explode or a successful DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check to crush. They explode in a 60 foot radius and deal 1d8 psychic damage per crystal. The crystals are small, only about 1 inch across.

Crystal Pillar

Hazard

At the end of hallway pillars flank other end 60 feet away. Atop these pillars float glowing blue diamond crystals. Anyone who does not speak the pass phrase when they enter the hallway becomes affected by the pillars. Each of the pillars release two unerring bolts of magical force. Combined the two pillars release these bolts striking the target for 15 (6d4) points of force damage. Creatures who success on a DC 18 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check can navigate the hallway without touching the floor. Doing so avoids activating the pillar. At the end of the corridor a creature who succeeds on a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) or Intelligence (Investigation) check notices the slightly raised stone on the wall. Pressing the stone deactivate the pillar until the stone is pressed again.

From the Nerditor’s Desk

Every Saturday over at Nerdarchy the Website I pick a piece of 5E D&D mechanics and see what the D&D Beyond community comes up with and shares through the humongous homebrew database they’ve got over there.

I’ve gone through the things you might expect like subclasses for all 13 classes, feats, magic items and all the schools of magic. There’s even a few unusual topics like ray spells and summoning spells and as it pertains to force and psychic in 5E D&D, force spells.

Check out these highest rated, most viewed and most added force spells from that post and add them to your collection. The spell names are links to their home on DDB so you can click on the word and see each spell for yourself. If you want to read more commentary on these homebrew 5E D&D spells you can find the original post here.

And now I’ve got a plan for what sort of homebrew I’ll check out next too, since these force spells need a companion with all the top psychic damage causing magic out there. Keep an eye on Nerdarchy the Website for this one coming in the very near future. There’s over 1,820 of them and I’m looking forward to see what comes out on top!

Top 10 highest rating force spells

Top 10 most viewed force spells

Top 10 most added force spells

*Featured images — A lost soul cries in the night, wishing to see her children one last time. Will the heroes help her find her magic mirror? And a room of mirrors poses characters separately with riddles and roleplay challenges involving deep, dark secrets. Discover these along with 53 other dynamic encounters ready to drop right into your Fifth Edition games in Out of the Box. Check it out here. [Art by Kim Van Deun]

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