Damage Types

Every bit of damage caused to a creature or object is of a certain type, whether that be heat damage, blunt damage, or any of dozens of other damage types. A laser does heat damage, a projectile weapon does ballistic damage, and a sword does slashing or piercing damage. The list of damage types is an open-ended set of keywords. Any given weapon can have multiple damage keywords associated with it (although most only have one). These damage types are listed in the weapons tables.

Damage type also determines which condition is inflicted on a target when it suffers a critical hit (triple-sixes on a successful attack roll).

Because damage type is a keyword system, there is no finite list of damage types. However, you will find a list of some common types below.

Blunt. Blunt damage comes from falls, or heavy blunt weapons, and most unarmed combat.

Crushing. Crushing damage can be caused by large objects or gravity weapons and effects.

Ballistic. Projectile pistols and rifles tend to do ballistic damage.

Cold. Cryo weapons are uncommon, but cold is a common environmental damage.

Death/Necrotic. This type of damage is usually referred to as necrotic damage; it is often caused by weapons or creatures channeling magical energies..

Electricity. Electricity damage can come about in a number of ways, including booby traps; mechanoids are vulnerable 1d6 to electricity damage. Electricity weapons often have the stun trait, meaning that a target reduced to 0 HEALTH with the weapon is knocked unconscious but is not dying.

Evil/Unholy. This type of damage is usually referred to as unholy damage, and can be caused by weapons or creatures with the Evil virtue.

Force. Force is a type of energy damage.

Good/Holy. This type of damage is usually referred to as holy damage, and can be caused by weapons or creatures with the Good virtue.

Heat. Heat damage is caused by fire, lasers and other energy weapons. It is sometimes referred to as fire damage.

Ion. Ion damage is designed to damage electronics and shields; mechanoids are vulnerable 2d6 to ion damage.

Piercing. Piercing damage, like slashing damage, can be caused by swords and knives.

Poison. Poison damage can come about from gas, bioweapons, atmosphere, radiation, food, stingers, bites and more; armor does not soak it unless noted.

Psionic. Psionic damage is caused not only by psionic powers, but also by some specially designed weapons.

Slashing. Swords and other slashing weapons do slashing damage.

Sonic. Sonic damage is caused by soundwaves. Armor does not soak it unless noted.

Resistance

Some armor, creatures, objects, or materials have SOAK values based on a damage type. This means that they are particularly good at resisting damage of that type. Fire-resistant armor, for example, might have a SOAK entry which reads SOAK 5 (heat). Many creature stat-blocks will also list resistances (and, in some cases, immunities) to certain damage types. A SOAK value is the amount by which damage of that type is reduced when it affects the target.

SOAK only applies to attacks which target Defense (not Mental Defense) except for SOAK which specifically designates psychic or psionic damage.

When damage is fully SOAKed, some may still get through—any sixes in the damage roll automatically do 1 point of damage regardless of SOAK. This means that it is always possible to damage a target, even if it’s just a little.

Targets benefit from resistances only if they are resistant to all listed damage types. A target resistant to heat damage does not benefit from resistance to a weapon which does heat/sonic damage. The target would need to be resistant to both damage types.

Vulnerability

Conversely, a creature might be particularly vulnerable to a damage type, as ice creatures are to heat damage. A vulnerability entry will generally note how vulnerable the target is—typically 1d6 or 2d6—and that entry tells you how many extra damage dice to roll when affecting the target (but the maximum is double normal damage). A golem, for example, has vulnerability 1d6 (electricity) which means that an lightning spell which normally does 2d6 electricity damage would do 3d6 electricity damage to the golem.

Targets suffer from vulnerability if the keyword is listed amongst a weapon’s damage types.

Note that if a creature is vulnerable to something, its natural SOAK doesn't work against that thing. However, any SOAK other than its natural SOAK (including armor) applies as normal.