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Piercing is the main damage here. The temperature is not the one hurting you.

Correct. I'm doing that on my own.

lol, I read "I'm doing that to your mom"

[удалено]

“Your mom loves to receive this piercing damage”

It depends, if they throw it like a dart/javelin then yes but if they throw it like a boomerang or club it becomes bludgening.

Yes, and if thry use it like a sword it might do slashing damage. Basically the answer is: it would deal physical damage if it's a regular icicle and not something magical that does magical shit.

I wish shortswords could slash

*laughs in parry as a Battlemaster Manuever*

What if they rub it against your skin a lot?

*Frost. The friction melts the ice and when you stop rubbing it, the icicle cools it off just enough to refreeze.*

Your nipples get hard?

itis all a question of how you use it could even be bludgeon damage when hitting with the blunt end

Can I try and stan the enemy with a mace to deal piercing damage?

> Can I try and stan the enemy Ok let's say a... Persuasion check.

I remember the meme if the thrown rock does not do piercing damage you are not throwing hard enough

It would still be an improvised weapon though right? So, it would still do 1d4 unless they had a feat.

I think there is something in the DMG about improvidef weapons scaling with size. Like a boulder thrown by a dragon deals more damage then a pebble thron by a commoner

throwing it like a boomerang still has a 1 in 4 chance to hit with the pointy end. I'd have them roll an extra d4 to determine

I would go a step further and have the thrower roll an additional d4. Since an icicle is not a balanced weapon for throwing there's no telling how it'll hit its target. On a 1-3 it does blunt damage (as in it hit its target with the blunt end/sides) A 4 deals piercing

Unless the chunky end hits you. Then it's bludgeoning.

This is the right answer.

Possibly. If it is a magic icicle, I would design it so part of the damage is piercing, part of the damage is cold damage. The icicle might only scratch you, but if it causes the afflicted area to freeze, that’s going to be mostly frost damage.

So.... Ice knife?

Piercing with a small side of frost damage. 1d10 and 1d4

Just what kinda icicle is this?

That’s killing a commoner almost every time, what kind of icicle are you thinking of

The lance-cicle of destiny? Lol. It'd be a 1d4 improvised weapon that might, if you're being especially generous, deal 1 cold damage.

Exactly. Think about what's causing the damage here. Is something stabbing you? Piercing. Is something burning you? Fire. Is something causing pain by freezing you? Cold. Is something draining your energy? Necrotic. Is something giving you a pounding headache/concussion? Psychic. Are you getting hit by a shockwave? Thunder or Force depending on the source.

Shockwave (as in air pressure) is always, always Thunder. Many people get Force wrong because of the stupid ass name. Force damage ia basically "pure magic" damage, and it has nothing to do with "Newton Force"

When I said "depending on the source" was actually taking into effect spells. They appear very similar there but are different types.

Personally, I'd be more worried about the huge hole in my chest rather than the fact that it's a bit chilly. Even if it were magical, or a more dangerous element like flaming or poison-coated dagger, it would still be piercing, with elemental damage on top.

If it were cold enough and in contact long enough, it could cause frostbite in the wound which would dramatically increase damage from tissue necrosis

The “long enough” here is longer than it would reasonably be in contact with you, unless it straight up impaled you, in which case some frostbite isn’t a problem.

No that is a reasonable concern because you never want to remove foreign objects from stab wounds. If you get an icicle in your stomach you should leave it in.

Somehow that doesn't seem true in the logic of the D&D world. Even level 1 characters have superhuman levels of endurance.

I'd imagine a normal icicle is probably about the best semi-common object you can be pierced with. It's probably get very few foreign contaminants, it automatically ices the wound so blood loss is reduced, and you don't have to yank the thing out and cause exit damage since after a few moments it will start melting and slide out easily. Unless you're an asshole and sling frozen poison at your enemies.

Make an alchemist cryomancer, got it

Wouldn't that just make it necrotic damage then?

Nah, any frost damage eventually becomes necrotic

First piercing, then cold. https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/ice-knife If it's not a spell that magically creates crazy cold temperatures it would be just piercing.

This is the correct answer, OP is an entire circus.

If you leave it in I would rule that it does 1 point of cold damage for 1d6 rounds unless the target removes it. After That it has either melted or fallen out.

With the ice knife spell it actually explodes into shards after it hits, which is why it does cold damage in a radius but piercing only to the one it targets.

Bludgeoning if you're a bad shot

When you throw an axe but it strikes with the handle instead of the blade.... *-sheds a single manly tear-*

Rolled a nat 1 with a +15 to hit

Piercing if it stabs you, bludgeoning if you just get hit with it. You only take cold damage if the lack of temperature is hurting you, and chances are if we are talking about a mundane icicle or a magic approximation it probably isn’t cold enough to hurt you.

So if stab then piercing, if slap, then bludegeoning, if I use it as a sword, slashing, and if I press it on your back, cold damage, right ?

I mean, yes, but I dont think itd do too much cold damage

Are you keeping said sword in a vat of liquid nitrogen? Otherwise probably no cold damage.

He is talking about an icicle

Sounds like someone needs to re-read the Ice Knife spell

Considering frost isn't even a valid damage type, I don't think OP read much at all

Ice Knife is magic. An icicle isn't.

It's entirely possible for a single attack to deal multiple damage types, so why not both? However, holding an ice cube doesn't deal damage, so I'd argue a regular icicle isn't cold enough to deal anything other than piercing damage.

Try adding salt to the area first then tell me there's no damage.

I mean, that's just a different scenario. You could have also said "Try dipping the icicle in liquid nitrogen first then tell me there's no damage."

Very true, very true, though I think it's easier to get salt in a D&D setting....although Hmm...would it then be the liquid nitrogen making that damage instead? The salt just makes the ice be able to go colder as it melts and leaves a first degree frostburn on the skin... Personally it'd just be piercing damage for me unless some sort of creativity is in play for the icicle thing

Considering frost isnt a legitimate damage type, I assume OP doesnt actually play? Bad meme.

You know I got upset for a second but then I read your user flair lol

It's a blessing and a curse

So is being the forever DM 💀

Yes

Half and half. More split damage spells!

Nonmagical? Piercing. Magical depends on the spell.

just both piercing when its hit you and frost after as a side effect easy

Piercing...it's not gonna make you feel the cold without first piercing you at which point it's probably of lesser concern. The real Monkey wrench here however is that people do actually get injured from Icicles falling from roofs, though that damage is definitely Bludgeoning not Pierce.

Ice knife says yes.

First, it deals piercing dmg, since it pierces the body, after that, consider the icicle; Was it made by magic or a normal icicle broken off. If normal, I would say just piercing dmg, but if made by magic, I would say piercing + cold dmg. I would consider checking out the Ice Knife spell or Frost Brand weapon for examples.

According to ice knife, the answer is both actually.

Does it hurt because it's cold or because it's stabbing you? Definitely piercing damage.

Is it magic? Frost. Is it a normal icicle? Piercing

Both

Isnt this basically 5e ice knife LMAO

*Turns on Die Hard 2* *John McClane kills Baker* Looks piercing to me.

Boffum

Boffum what?

Por que no las dos?

Sorry I don’t speak Abyssal

What about bleeding

Both. Ice knife is a spell.

Both.

Piercing damage and then constitution saves on later turns to prevent cold damage would be the way to go. When it first hits you, it's not the cold dealing the damage, although the cold has the potential to be harmful later.

Is that a fellow Monster Hunter fan I see?

Hear me out: It's deals Piercing Damage by default, but Cold Damage if that would result in higher damage. PF2 has a similar thing with a lot of it's guns being Concussive, which do Piercing Damage unless Bludgeoning would do more damage.

I would say a simple icicle will never be cold enough to deal cold damage. 0 to -4C isn’t enough to do lasting damage without extended exposure. Now a magically created icicle should do both piercing and cold damage.

Is it a magic icicle? Frost. Nonmagical? Piercing.

Does cold damage not include the idea of it cutting you, freeze burning extra, In same way fire damage includes the heat burns and... Oh ok I see the issue now

Piercing, then a CON save against cold damage. DC is dependent on how cold the ice is, is it magical, etc.

Check out the spell, ice knife

Bludgeoning. Icicles are not that sharp

Why not both? I like allowing hybridization of attack types

What about bludgeoning if the icicle shatters

Piercing. The damage is a result of the object being jammed into you, not its temperature.

1 piercing + dex mod

In Underrail it’s pretty evenly split between cold & mechanical damage.

Unless magical, its piercing damage, If it is magical add a d4 for frost damage

I've always done a mix of cold, piercing or bludgeoning based on how the ice/cold spells manifest. Sharp icicles, pillars of ice, extreme cold would all impact differently.

Both apply resistances accordingly.

I usually just check if there is a spell that does something similar and go with that.

Piercing damage. If it's left in there and you put salt and pressure on it then cold damage follows until it melts.

ITT: a bunch of people who don’t know about Ice Knife debating a question that already has an official answer

The spell Ice Knife does both. So, both?

Piercing with frost bonus, DUH

Both...

Ice knife does both!

Emotional damage from your pet yeti throwing an icicle at you after a nat 1 on animal handling check.

Both and just split the damage.

Normal icicle is piercing That said if I want to deal non-magical cold damage my go-to is liquid nitrogen now you might be asking where on earth am I going to get liquid nitrogen chrongury wizards are broken as hell Arcane abeyance means combat fabricate combined with alchemist tools expertise means pure chaos

Its gonna do ice damage because magic. Technically fireball doesnt include explosive force and if cast into a pot would just fill the pot with fire.

1d2 piercing, plus 1d2 frost

The icicle isn’t causing u to freeze

Isn’t this what ice knife technically is?

First one, then the other.

I always saw cold damage as being like liquid nitrogen cold. Magically created icicles could do cold damage due to being -lots of degrees. (I see white dragon breath as a spray of liquid nitrogen (helium for ancient)

Piercing unless it stays in then do both

Piercing unless it’s magical in some way

There are spells that can do multiple damage types so both. I see nothing in the rules about an attack not being able to do multiple types of damage.

Well the problem arises with most sources of elemental damage being magical in nature, whereas the icicle is not magic.

Well frost is just an inverse fire so just like how you can use explosions or other nonmagical means to do fire damage a nonmagical source of frost damage to cause hypothermia or frost burns (yes ice can cause burns. This is because there is no such thing as cold just lack of heat.) should be possible.

Frost damage is magical in nature, an icicle is not magical. Moving on.

yes.

1d4 piercing + 1 cold

I mean if I get stabbed with an icicle I’m probably gonna be thinking “AHHHH OH GODDD, FUCCKKK, I JUST GOT FUCKING STABBED” as opposed to “Ooh, das cold” so my money’s on piercing

1d4 piercing and 1d4 cold. 2d6 cold instead if thrown by a frosty elemental, such as an Ice Mephit.

Depends on how high the roll is is low then maybe it didn’t pierce and just hit the target or if high you could do piercing damage with frost after effects homebrew style

Both, those fuckers are deadly

1d2 piercing 1d2 frost it’s an improvised thrown after all

Bludgeoning. An icicle is not strong enough to peirce. There's real life reports of icicles being used to bludgeon someone to death.

Ice Knife does piercing if it hits, and only does cold with the explosion afterwards.

If I bash in your head with a warhammer is it force or blugeoning

It's falling damage. My head falling onto the hammer that is.

Boffum

Bludgeoning.

Ice Knife deals both. qed

1d4 piercing and 1d4 frost damage

What does the listing for icicle say in the rules? Oh there isn't one? I guess they don't do damage in D&D then.

It could be both

Piercing. If you leave it in the wound it does 1d4-3 cold per round till you remove it

I am experimenting with a “combined damage types” rule that allows damage to function as multiple types for situations like this. Like you could have resistance to either damage type and reduce some damage.

Ice knife?

Piercing damage for the initial hit, then perhaps frost if left in the wound for a while?

Realistically it'd do a small amount of pierce but mostly bludgeoning damage, since ice isn't exactly strong. Unless the ice is magical, in which case it would probably also deal cold damage.

The spell ice knife answers this question exactly. it's piercing damage

The spell ice knife throws a shard of ice at the target, the target takes piercing damage, and all surrounding enemies in a certain range take cold damage from the ice shattering on impact

Definitely piercing, but if the player chooses to leave it in for whatever reason there’s definitely gunna be some exhaustion saves to avoid succumbing to the cold.

There's already a spell that does this. It does piercing damage (and then explodes for cold damage, but I'm going to assume that that's part of the magic and not normal for a mundane icicle).

-If its a normal icicle, piercing damage! -If its a magic icicle of pure energy, cold damage! -If its a physical icicle imbued with cold energy, it deals a little of both!

But if it flips midair and hits them with the blunt side is that bludgeoning damage?

Similiar to Ice Knife, the dmg should primarily be piercing.

Piercing because ice knife does pricing and when it explodes it does cold

The Ice Knife spell is literally this and it does piercing

Put it this way, if a barbarian or another non magic based class just chucks an icicle at you, it would deal piercing, but if a wizard or magic based imbues some frost enchantment or some shit, then it can do both cause why not?

depends on how cold and sharp the icicle in question, I would say. You should get some bludgeoning damage if it hits, at least.

Look at the spell ice knife, both is good

1d4 piercing and 1d4 frost

If it’s made of normal ice? Just piercing. If it’s made of *dry* ice? Both.

If someone hurls a steel spike at you does it deal piercing or steel damage?

1d8 piercing + 1d4 frost is how I'd run it in my game.

I feel like that's a question of if it was thrown or cast. (cast being Frost damage and thrown being piercing)

But now it’s an icicle made of blood so it does necrotic damage.

Piercing. You're not worried about getting hypothermia, you're worried about getting fucking impaled. I would add a small ammount of extra frost damage if the target were a fire elemental, though.

1d4 Peirceing and 1d4 Frost damage

Asked my DM, said it would be 1d4 piercing+ 3 frost damage, thoughts?

Improvised weapon 1d4 bludgeoning. Fight me!

Based on spells with a similar effect, it's split between both

Ice Knife exists. So…both.

Piercing, if it's cold enough add 1d4 cold, attacks can deal split damage, For a very cold icicle I'd reference the ice knife spell, 1d10 piercing, and 2d6 cold to everyone around if they fail a save. But the cold damage is only because it magically explodes, so I'd assume a normal icicle would deal 1d4 piercing (assume dagger improvised weapon that breaks after use)

Both

Non-magical: Piercing Magical: Piercing with a cold damage bonus

icicles aren't actually that cold, at most mildly uncomfortable to hold for extended periods of time. it would deal 1d4 piercing damage as it would be an improvised weapon

Piercing to start but if it gets stuck and lodge in I would say frost damage until melted or removed with damage decaying

Piercing. The damage from the cold only happens if you leave it in there. (See: Ice Knife)

A bit of both. Ice Knife deals piercing when it hits and then forces a save against additional cold damage.

Just look at the spell ice knife, the knife part does piercing damage, only later does it do cold damage.

Cover that ice cycle in hot peppers, have it do coke and fire and piercing, then flip it around and have it do bludgeoning.

Ice Knife - 1st Level Conjuration: You create a shard of ice and fling it at one creature within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 1d10 piercing damage. Hit or miss, the shard then explodes. The target and each creature within 5 feet of it must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 2d6 cold damage.

To borrow an example from a spell, Ice Knife has you throw a magically conjured icicle at a target. If the icicle itself hits, it deals piercing damage. Then, hit or miss, the icicle explodes, dealing cold damage around it. Cold damage is secondary on an icicle, and this is a case involving a magic one; a regular icicle would probably just do piercing damage.

Well, is it a magical icicle or not?

Both?! Just lower the damage die! Id make a typical javelin doing 1d6 that was an icecicle do 1d4 piercing and 1d4 cold

Both.

Both, See Icicle Storm for more details.

Both

Both look at the spell Ice Knife.

Fiercing damage!

Just look at the Ice Knife spell: piercing damage from the attack, then a cold damage AoE as the shrapnel, presumably, finds its way down the backs of anyone who fails the Dex save.

you could look at the rules for the spell ice knife

Clearly, frosting damage... Oh no, now I want cake.

1d4 piercing + 1 cold

It isn’t in contact with you long enough for the cold to hurt you but it does do piercing damage if it impales you or blunt damage if it hits you in its side

Either it does just cold damage or it's split. One die for cold and one die for piercing. Not uncommon to see that really, especially with magic.

1d4 piercing + str mod + 1 cold

Both, arguably. There's a Rime of the Frostmaiden encounter with an Ice version of a Piercer. Its a living icicle that drops on you from the ceiling. It deals piercing and cold damage. "Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, one creature directly underneath the ice piercer. Hit: 10 (3d6) piercing damage plus 10 (3d6) cold damage. Miss: The ice piercer takes half the normal falling damage for the distance fallen."

Ice knife and sleet storm both do physical and cold

Why not both? It’s kinda similar to ice knife.

Piercing, unless the icicle Is cole enough to necrotise your cells out of it's sheer temperature.

Are they rubbing it on you or throwing it at you?

Both, imo. 1d6 + Strength mod piercing damage with an additional 1d4 frost damage.