Modeling

This tutorial assumes you know the basics of working in Blender

You can quickly make a damaged pillar using a free add-on

You can use the default Cube to make a simple pillar

Once you have the pillar modeled, rename the Object – indicating it is the low-poly version

Apply the transforms

In the UV Editing Workspace, UV unwrap the pillar

Duplicate the pillar and rename it to high-poly

Hide the low-poly pillar and select the high-poly pillar

Pillar Damage

You can use the free version of Real Damage for this tutorial

Once it is downloaded, install it and activate it

Open the Properties Panel and select the Real Damage tab

Select the high-poly pillar and select Add Damage

Re-select the high-poly pillar and made adjustment to the options

Apply the Modifier once you are happy with the damage

Baking Normal Map

Duplicate the low-poly pillar and rename it to cage

Scale this cage so it completely covers the high-poly pillar

In the Shading Workspace, add an Image Texture node and made a new Image

With the Image Texture node selected, change to the Cycles Render Engine

Select the low-poly pillar and SHIFT-select the high-poly pillar

Under the Bake Panel, change the Bake Type to Normal

Activate Selected to Active

Activate the Cage option and increase the Max Ray Distance to 0.1

Then click on Bake

Save the Normal Map

Add a Bump node and connect the Image Texture node to the Height of the Bump Map and the Bump Map to the Normal of the Principled Shader

You can also invert the Bump Node

Using the Node Wrangler add-on, apply your material