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View Full Version : Viciously Merciful!



Keewatin
2009-09-25, 07:11 AM
So I ran into this problem the other day when trying to equip the city watch in an effective non lethal way.

What happens when you make a melee weapon (club) with both the merciful and Vicious properties?

does it cause Weapon damage + merciful + vicious (4d6) non lethal and 1d6 non lethal to the wielder?

Or does it split weapon and merciful (2d6) non lethal + vicious (2d6) lethal and 1d6 lethal to the wielder?

Also does damage reduction reduce the damage to the wielder in any way?

Yuki Akuma
2009-09-25, 07:16 AM
Merciful weapons deal nonlethal damage. Vicious weapons deal extra damage of whatever type they deal.

A Vicious Merciful weapon deals lots of nonlethal damage, and some nonlethal damage to the wielder.

And no, DR doesn't protect against the damage from Vicious - the damage from Vicious isn't an attack. But immunity to nonlethal damage would protect against the backlash from a Vicious Merciful weapon.

Keewatin
2009-09-25, 07:24 AM
Thanks these guards are going to rock :smallbiggrin:

So a merficul shocking whip would be a tazer?

Yuki Akuma
2009-09-25, 07:43 AM
A merciful shocking whip would deal the damage of a merciful whip, plus 1d6 lethal electricity damage.

...So yes. It would be just like a taser.

(Remember, thoug that you get knocked out when your nonlethal damage exceeds your current hit points... so a weapon that deals 2d6 nonlethal and 1d6 lethal damage is still more likely to knock a guy out than kill him.)

oxybe
2009-09-25, 07:54 AM
i always figured that the entirety of the damage (including the elemental) is nonlethal since: "The weapon deals an extra 1d6 points of damage, and all damage it deals is nonlethal damage. On command, the weapon suppresses this ability until commanded to resume it. Bows, crossbows, and slings so crafted bestow the merciful effect upon their ammunition."

either way, the stun baton/taser thing is awesome.

Johel
2009-09-25, 08:03 AM
Thanks these guards are going to rock :smallbiggrin:

So a merficul shocking whip would be a tazer?

They are, indeed.
But unless the city is very wealthy, I doubt there'll be more than a couple of those guys around. Probably the über SWAT team, that you call when you've already lost a whole squad of other guards...

I mean... it's a weapon that costs 18.000 gp or something.

Nero24200
2009-09-25, 08:26 AM
Vicious deals untyped energy damage, so it would still deal lethal damage to those it effects.

Person_Man
2009-09-25, 10:09 AM
It's also worth mentioning that there are a ton of enchantments out there better then +Xd6 Whatever damage.

Adaptive, Brutal Surge, Explosive, Rusting, Smoking, Torturous, Wrathful Healing, Valorous, etc. Just spend 5 minutes on crystalkeep.