weapon enchantment debate (from a Facebook group)

[skunk3]

Okay, so there is a little bit of a debate regarding elemental damage weapon enchantments going on.

Someone is telling me that if you have, for example, a +2 flaming frost shocking longsword, only one of those types of elemental damage can be active at a time, rather than all three. I have NEVER heard of this, and nobody I've ever played D&D with has played it this way. There's nothing in the DMG that says that only one type of elemental damage enchantment can be active at once. It simply says that you can activate or de-activate the enchantment with a command word.

So who is wrong here? Have I been playing the game wrong all of these years, as well as literally EVERYONE I've ever played with?

[Mike Miller]

Are you sure it isn't a troll? You have already noted that a command word can activate it and nothing states those elemental properties being exclusive. A weapon can use those enchantments at the same time.

[skunk3]

No, they aren't a troll. They just argue the fact that since it says that the enchantment property stays active until another command is given is grounds for interpreting it that only one can be active at once. Basically, by activating another enchantment, you're switching the other off. Personally, I don't agree with that at all.

This person also kinda backpedaled a bit by saying that after the MIC came out it was okay to have more than one elemental damage weapon enchantment active at a time on a weapon, but not before. (???)

I could very well be wrong about all of this stuff but I don't feel like I am.

[ATHATH]

As far as I can tell, you're right, random Facebook-guy is wrong.

I recommend sending a link to this thread to him- I'm interested to see if he can pull a rules-quote for his claim.

[Bronk]

Someone is telling me that if you have, for example, a +2 flaming frost shocking longsword, only one of those types of elemental damage can be active at a time, rather than all three.

... saying that after the MIC came out it was okay to have more than one elemental damage weapon enchantment active at a time on a weapon, but not before. (???)

If anything, it's the opposite. A quick search of the SRD will show you plenty of rules for and instances of command word activation... but none for command word deactivation!


Edit for posterity: I do see the line from the flaming and other weapon properties that says "The effect remains until another command is given," and my interpretation of RAW is that it refers back to the command word rules that specify a specific command word, while 'given' indicates intent so that you need to do it on purpose (using a standard action). My interpretation of RAI is that you're probably meant to turn it on with one word and off with another, and I've never seen or heard of any game where this ever came up, and instead all properties were always on since they only activate on a successful attack and can't harm the wielder anyway.

[KillianHawkeye]

Yeah, your Facebook friend is incorrect.

[Darrin]

Under Flaming in the DMG, the text says:

"The effect remains until another command is given."

So technically random internet guy *could* be right, but the rules aren't specific enough to know what's really going on here. We know there is a command word to activate the flaming property. But while the rules specify that there is "another command" to deactivate the flaming effect, they don't say if it's the original command word or a different command word. That would likely depend on whoever designed the specific magic weapon, and whether they thought all that much about whether there should be two different command words or just one. Most likely, it wouldn't occur to the designer to differentiate between the two. If the designer doesn't specify, then I'd be inclined to say that the original command word works like a toggle switch: Say "Barbeque!" for flame-on, and say "Barbeque!" again for flame-off.

Now, once you add multiple properties on the same weapon, it gets more confusing. If you add Frost with "Freezerburn!" as a single "toggle" command word, then the toggle switches don't really care if the other abilities are active or not. If there are separate command words to turn on/off the Frost effect, then multiple abilities could be active at the same time.

However, the text of Flaming/Frost/Shock/etc. doesn't specify if "another command" could belong to an entirely different ability. If the Flaming property is just parsing for *any* command, then it's possible that any Frost/Shock/etc. command could turn off the Flaming property. Whether or not it does so here is not something we can determine by RAW. It would fall under a DM's Call, as the DM is generally the one who designs the magic items in his/her campaign.

[ayvango]

I had the similar argue after reading Frostburn and Sandstorm. Technically nothing prevents your from having both fire and cold subtypes simultaneously. But it looks very dubious from the world consistency perspective.

[Bronk]

Now, once you add multiple properties on the same weapon, it gets more confusing. If you add Frost with "Freezerburn!" as a single "toggle" command word, then the toggle switches don't really care if the other abilities are active or not. If there are separate command words to turn on/off the Frost effect, then multiple abilities could be active at the same time.

Also, because there's nothing inherently special or magical about the command word itself, there's nothing stopping you from having all of the various abilities keyed to the same word so they all turn on at the same time anyway. Using the command word takes a standard action, but that's just to say the word on purpose (although saying it accidentally also works).

[Telonius]

For what it's worth, this is the response from the 3.5 FAQ (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/er/20070731a). (Disclaimer, FAQ is not officially official, etc).


Activating an energy power requires a standard action, but once you activate energy power, the power works until you use another action to deactivate it.

...

There’s nothing illogical about a flaming, frost, shock weapon (at least not within any framework that allows weapons to generate energy in the first place), and there’s no rule against such weapons (think of the weapon as having fiery, frosty, shocking flames). The character creating such a weapon decides how it can be activated. Most such weapons probably are made so that the wielders can activate all three powers simultaneously, or activate them one at a time, as desired.

EDIT: This is a very easily-forgotten part of the rules. If you're in a situation where having a particular type of energy is not beneficial to you (for example, you have a Shock sword and are going up against a Shambling Mound) you can simply turn it off for the duration.