Precision Based Damage

heliopolix · May 15, 2004

This has been bothering me for a little while. Im not sure exactly what the problem is, or even if ther is one, but here goes. There are several types of Precision Based Damage (PBD). A short list (IMHO) is: Rogue's Sneak Attack, Ranger's Favored Enemy, Point Blank Shot, and the Swashbucker's (CW) Insightful Strike. There are several things that deal with/ affect/ deny PBD, but they are pretty contradictory. Maybe its because my definition of PBD is incorrect, i dont know. Anyways, Exhibit A: Things that Cant be Crit'ed. Skeletons, Zombies, Elementals, etc. No Criticals and also No SA, per Monster Manual. The Fortification Enchantments to armor do the same thing, in varying degrees. Exhibit B: Concealment/Invisibilty. Cannot critical or SA a creature with a miss-chance. Incoporeality/Ethereality (sp?) ditto. Suspect Feat #1: Manyshot. It allows multiple arrows to be fired w/ one attack roll, but only allows PBD to apply to the first arrow. Verbatum from 3.5 PHB : "Special: Reguardless of the number of arrows you fire, you apply precision-based Damage (such as sneak attack damage) only once. If you score a critical hit, only the first arrow does critical damage, all others deal regular damage." I guess what im really complaining about is the lack of a clearly defined list of what counts as PBD (or a lack of my ablity to find one). Can you use Point Blank Shot vs a Zombie? Is Favored Enemy PBD? Would Fortification Armor protect vs. Favored enemy and point blank shot? Useful comments and scathing crticism welcome!

Sammael · May 15, 2004

Fortification armor specifically protects against sneak attacks, not just any "precision damage." BTW, "precision damage" is not an actual game term, as it is not defined in the glossary.

Also, in 3.5E, rangers deal extra damage to all favored enemies, regardless of whether they are immune to critical hits or not. So there really isn't a set of rules for "precision damage," whatever that may be. Maybe there should be, but there isn't one right now.

In the case of Manyshot, I'd say that Point-Blank Shot, favored enemy, and sneak attack bonus damage only apply once.

Shazman · May 15, 2004

Unless there's an errata I'm not sure about, the ranger's favored enemy damage isn't precision based. In 3.5, there's no mention in the description of the ability that limits it to things that are subject to critical hits or to 30ft with ranged weapons. If it was precision-based, it would make the 3.5 ranger much weaker.

IceBear · May 15, 2004

Shazman said:
Unless there's an errata I'm not sure about, the ranger's favored enemy damage isn't precision based. In 3.5, there's no mention in the description of the ability that limits it to things that are subject to critical hits or to 30ft with ranged weapons. If it was precision-based, it would make the 3.5 ranger much weaker.

I haven't looked at the 3.5 version, but the 3.0 version of the ranger didn't get the favored enemy damage when it was something immune to critical hits. This implies that it is precision-based.

Diirk · May 16, 2004

IceBear said:
I haven't looked at the 3.5 version, but the 3.0 version of the ranger didn't get the favored enemy damage when it was something immune to critical hits. This implies that it is precision-based.

However it was changed in 3.5, as he said. Which implies it isn't anymore.