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Inspired by these two questions.

I am currently playing an Arcane Trickster that has a Flame Tongue Rapier and access to Booming Blade.

So I have:

  • Piercing
  • Fire
  • Thunder

I am considering getting access to the Poisoner feat and Hex, adding Poison and Necrotic to the mix (with a ridiculous set-up sequence, I know).

This would leave me at 5 damage types in a single attack.

Is it possible to have more, across any class/subclass/multiclass (i.e., you're free to start with a new blank character)?

You can assume to get to level 20, and have access to items in the PHB, DMG, Xanathar, and Tasha. As in the case of my character, set-up can be spread over multiple rounds. Outside help is allowed, but I would prefer not.

V2Blast
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Federico
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1 Answers1

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13 out of 13 existing damage types, oh yeah

So, for the weapon of choice, take scimitar. Your race is Fallen Aasimar, because of necrotic shroud. For the class/subclass setup, take those:

  • 4 levels of Fighter (Psi warrior)
  • 4 levels of Paladin (any)
  • 1 level of Warlock (Genie - Dao)
  • 4 levels of Ranger (Swarmkeeper)
  • 7 levels of Scribe Wizard (LEarning Booming Blade, Ray of Frost, Glyph of Warding)

For the feats, those are essential:

  • Poisoner
  • Gift of the Chromatic Dragon

As for items, well:

  • Flame Tongue version of your shortsword
  • Incense and powdered diamond worth at least 200 gp, for the glyph of warding
  • Bag of Holding, for easing up transportation

This will give you following damage types on a shortsword hit:

  • Slashing from scimitar
  • Piercing from Gathered Swarm (3rd-level Swarmkeeper feature)
  • Bludgeoning from Genie's Wrath (1st level Genie Warlock feature)
  • Thunder from Booming Blade (Cantrip from Scribe Wizard list)
  • Force from Psionic Strike (3rd-level Psi Warrior feature)
  • Poison from applied poison (from Poisoner feat, as a bonus action
  • Radiant from Divine smite (2nd-level Paladin feature)
  • Necrotic from Necrotic Shroud (Aasimar race feature - must be activated before using a bonus action)
  • Psychic from Wrathful Smite (1st level paladin spell - must be activated before using a bonus action, uses concentration)
  • Acid from Gift of the Chromatic Dragon (must be activated before using a bonus action)
  • Cold from Absorb Elements if you were hit with cold damage, which you yourself provide hitting yourself with ray of frost with your action surge
  • Fire from your Flame Tongue Shortsword
  • Lightning from Explosive Runes property from your Glyph of Warding, which you set to go off when you hit someone with your sword (You must do this before the fight, casting inside bag of holding to not be bound to 10 foot radius of place where you actually casted it)

So yeah, it is possible to deal all damage types in a single attack.

Cezaryx
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    Nice. You do not need Poisoner, you can just apply normal poison, right? And with Glyphs of warding, you obviously could set up any number of those, to trigger when the attack hits, and very likely find spells to deal pretty much any kind of damage. But that is not the attack itself dealing the damage. – Nobody the Hobgoblin Jun 01 '22 at 07:14
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    You could have an ally cast Elemental Weapon on the weapon for lightning damage instead of the questionable setup with Bag of Holding. – Nobody the Hobgoblin Jun 01 '22 at 07:33
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    Technically, Gift of the Chromatic Dragon is not from one of the cited sources that are eligigble, neither is Fallen Aasimar: neither Fizban nor Volo are allowed. But since the OP has a wide range of splat books, I do not think they would have an issue with it. – Nobody the Hobgoblin Jun 01 '22 at 07:36
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    I’ll give you a bounty if you can get typeless damage on there. – Thomas Markov Jun 01 '22 at 08:07
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    @ThomasMarkov Is typeless damage a thing in 5e? I thought all damage must have a type. I can get 2 levels of rogue here for a sneak attack, you only need 5 levels of wizard, provided you meant that, but isn't this still of the same damage type as the weapon used? – Cezaryx Jun 01 '22 at 09:29
  • @Cezaryx iirc, JC has stated that he intended for all damage to have a type, but I think I remember that there were ways for the rules to shake out to typeless damage anyway. I’ll do some digging. – Thomas Markov Jun 01 '22 at 10:20
  • @ThomasMarkov Are you referring to this thread of comments and this Q&A? – Eddymage Jun 01 '22 at 14:52
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    You may want to note for glyph of warding that it's DM fiat whether being inside a bag of holding counts as movement for the purposes of triggering the glyph. For a pessimal scenario, I think you can assume that you have cast glyph on yourself and then a creature is foolhardy enough to attack you. – order Jun 01 '22 at 16:03
  • Also, what about scalding damage? – order Jun 01 '22 at 16:05
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    @order This is question regarding 5e, not 3.5e. In Fifth edition there is no such thing as scalding damage – Cezaryx Jun 01 '22 at 16:54
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    You don't seem to be using the Scribe wizard ability or Paladin subclass for anything, so you could scrap the 7 wiz levels and drop paladin down to 2nd level; put one level in sorcerer for the cantrips/Absorb Elements, 8 levels in Nature cleric for on-hit lightning damage. No longer need Glyph of Warding/Bag of Holding, no longer need 13 Intelligence for the multiclass, gets same number of ASIs. – smbailey Jun 01 '22 at 17:17
  • @Eddymage I think it's more related to this question and this one regarding damage from blood loss. – smbailey Jun 01 '22 at 20:21
  • Shortswords are piercing, and the Lightning damage part requires a liberal interpretation of Glyph of Warding. – T.J.L. Jun 02 '22 at 12:23
  • @T.J.L. you're right, I changed this to scimitar. For my whole experience with 5e I believed shortsword deals slashing damage. Huh. As concernig Glyph of warding, only moving it part does, rest is clean. You pick a object - here a magic weapon, set it to go of on a hit - this is logically sound. Without that "moving" part this is still doable, just more stationary. But still, in my opinion casting glyph inside Bag of Holding and just never going further from it than 10 feet is sound. – Cezaryx Jun 03 '22 at 05:52