this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2023
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Force damage in D&D 5E is too poorly-defined to be a good part of the game and exists solely for when the designers don't want any characters or creatures to have access to resistance against the thing in question. Either we need an actual description of what happens to a thing that gets hit by it or it should be cut; the vast majority of the things that deal it could perfectly easily be magical bludgeoning / piercing / slashing. Spiritual weapon and Bigby's hand are particularly egregious
I don't know what or if there are any cannon explanations, but I always had understood force as well... force. Bludgeoning, piercing, slashing are damage amplifiers that make do with limited force. But if you trying to damage say, a rock, they are basically irrelevant. But you put a rock in a hydrolic press and apply a enough force, and boom it cannot withstand. So being hit by an eldritch blast is less like being shot and more like being hit with a high pressure oil leak.
Physically this doesn't make sense. Bludgeoning piercing slashing all have effects on breaking a rock.
A hydraulic press is just a slow application of high forces from a pressure trick.
Getting hit by a high pressure oil leak can certainly resemble being shot.
Physically its all same force, electromagnetic, but I think it misses the point. Nobody thinks that lightning is the same as slashing.
They have different physical modes of action, yes, but "force" doesn't describe a distinct mode of action.