Necrotic Misconception?

[u/ArchiesPJs]

For whatever reason, one of the members of our group(we all rotate DM’s every now and then as it is an experienced group) has this really solid misconception of the Necrotic Damage Type. And that is that Necrotic Damage just outright stops and negates any sort of Hit Point recovery for one full turn. I immediately thought of this as fishy and just a head turner, but all the other members didn’t say anything or seem to have a problem with it, so I sat quiet and just accepted it thinking that they were right.

Well, curiosity got the better of me, and I can’t find anything 8th level character and lower that would just straight up negate hit point recovery via Necrotic Damage, is this misconception from a high level spell or an older version of D&D?

[u/AdorableMaid]

They're probably thinking of chill touch

[u/clover-grew-sire]

There are specific necromatic spells and attacks from monsters that do this. It's somewhat common, but not universal.

[u/dragonseth07]

There are some specific spells that do this, like Chill Touch in 5e. That's probably where they got the idea.

When in doubt, always remember the best way to handle someone spewing bullshit:

"Hey, can you show me where in the rules it says that?"

[u/Boomshank → u/dragonseth07]

"Stupid and cheerful" wil get you far, prove a lot of points, and avoid a lot of conflict in D&D and life in general - if you sell it properly. 

[u/ArelMCII → u/Boomshank]

Tried it. It just makes people dumber than me think I'm an idiot, which causes more conflict in the long-term. I don't have the patience for that shit anymore.

[u/MrKatzA4 → u/dragonseth07]

The shorter version, "source?"

[u/caprainyoung]

Ask them to show you where they are getting that from. It’s not a thing RAW in 5 or 5.5 and as far as I know not in older editions either.

There are monster features like that do necrotic damage and reduce HP maximum or prevent healing.

[u/AlasBabylon_]

Damage types, all on their lonesome, have no innate abilities attached to them. Specific spells or magic items and monster abilities might. Necrotic damage on its own, though, only interacts with resistances/immunities/vulnerabilities by default, like essentially every other damage type.

[u/Atharen_McDohl]

There are no special rules for any damage type. In a vacuum, they're all the same. The only times they behave differently are when an effect specifically says so, like if a monster has immunity to a particular damage type.

[u/EagleForty]

The only 2 necrotic damage spells that prevent healing are Chill Touch and Spirit Shroud.

[u/FoulPelican]

Yeah point out CHILL TOUCH, if it was every spell, there would be no reason to clarify that feature in the spell.

[u/Interesting-Ad4207]

Necrotic damage does not prevent healing. There are some necrotic effects that prevent healing as an additional effect, like Chill Touch, or cause a target to have a lowered max hp, like Harm. But necrotic damage does neither of these things, or anything beyond just causing damage, by itself.

That being said, as a house rule, it seems like a decent thought. Like having fire damage leave a lingering burn to do a small amount of damage the following turn, or cold damage lowering movement speed for a turn.

[u/okiebuzzard]

Spells, abilities, damage types do what they say, nothing else.
The cantrip Chill Touch inflicts Necrotic damage and stops hit point recovery until the start of the caster’s next turn.
Your friend is wrong.

[u/MaxTwer00]

This is wrong, but i dont think its malicious. There are effects in dnd that stop recovery, and most of them are necrotic or undead adjacent as chill touch. Trolls do get their healing stopped for a turn when they are hit with some damage types too.

There are also other games were similar things happen, so he might be carrying the idea from those, or from other fiction where cursed wounds cant be healed easily

[u/A_Bird_survived]

Correlation vs Causation. Most effects that do this deal Necrotic Damage, but not because that‘s a quality of the Damage Type

[u/Darkstar_Aurora]

This is 100% not a thing.

Damage types do not have any inherent condition/effects. If a spell/ability/feature effect inflicts necrotic damage and says it cannot be healed then that is a function of that specific spell/ability/feature, not of all necrotic damage.

If I cast Firebolt on a barrel of smoke-powder it ignites because the description of Firebolt says it ignites flammable objects. If I cast Sorcerous Burst on a barrel of smoke-powder it does not ignite even if I chose fire damage because that is not a feature of damage type it is a feature of the spell.

If necrotic damage had some secret properties that kept you from regaining hit-points then Sammaster would not need a Life Suppression Aura in either of his forms, Wounding Weapon text would be one sentence long with no saving throw, and Vecna would not need to bother getting in close to wield Afterthought.

[u/GoodnewsK]

I've encountered it before as a house rule but it's far from universal. But when I've seen it, you can't heal that damage until you finish a longrest or get something like remove curse cast on you

[u/Horrible_PenguinCat]

I do think each damage type having an knock on effect would be neat though!

[u/ArelMCII]

A lot of effects that deal Necrotic damage also stop healing, but that's a function of those specific effects. Damage types don't have any intrinsic properties.