Does this weapon ability sound right?

[Sound of Azure]

This quality does not do force damage. It does ectoplasmic damage that ignores DR.

And note, the main damage of the weapon does not ignore DR, just the D4.

That sounds fairly close to D4 Sonic except that someone could put up Energy Resistance versus Sonic and they would have to do something else against this (like boost AC or use Vigor or some such).

Oops, my bad. My memory must be playing tricks on me. Sorry about that.

Yes, I haven't had the base damage ignore DR. At the very least I got that part right when playing.

 

[two]

Exactly. Think about it.

The lowly lvl 5 cohort has just caused the great lvl 30 wizard BBEG to lose a full-round action.

Also, the important part.

The enemy does not GET a save when silence is cast at a point in space.

 

[werk]

Yep. I don't see any problem with them all being 1d6 and +1 for power/price.

Whether it is perceived or actual, I saw balance issues with 1d6 sonic energy weapon abilities and energy substitution in 3.0.
If everyone takes sonic over all other options, it's not balanced.

I like the 1d4 reduction, that makes it balanced to me.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Exactly. Think about it.

The lowly lvl 5 cohort has just caused the great lvl 30 wizard BBEG to lose a full-round action.

That level 5 cohort might last one encounter if he's lucky. I imagine that it will not be easy getting another.

 

[Kapalen]

This quality does not do force damage. It does ectoplasmic damage that ignores DR.

And note, the main damage of the weapon does not ignore DR, just the D4.

That sounds fairly close to D4 Sonic except that someone could put up Energy Resistance versus Sonic and they would have to do something else against this (like boost AC or use Vigor or some such).

According to the SRD additional energy damage from a weapon overcomes DR anyway?

 

[KarinsDad]

According to the SRD additional energy damage from a weapon overcomes DR anyway?

Precisely. That is why I stated that D4 Psychokinetic Quality is similar to D4 Sonic Weapon in scope and potency with the sonic resistance exception I listed which is virtually never encountered naturally and almost never encountered as a spell. Hence, the reason they are so similar. One (ectoplasmic) has virtually no defenses (except maybe some obscure psionic one) and the other (sonic) has defenses that almost never show up in the game. Neither of these have defenses with nearly the frequency of Lightning Resistance for example.

However, ectoplasmic damage is not energy damage, hence, they had to call out how it worked with DR.

 

[irdeggman]

The problem is that virtually no creature has Sonic Resistance whereas many higher level creatures have Lightning, Acid, Fire, and/or Cold Resistance.

It's the same reason that sonic spells and psionic powers with sonic tend to do less damage as well.

True enough but there is a base class that offers it.

At 10th level the warlock gets energy resistance 5 that improves to 10 at 20th level for two types of energy from the following list: acid, cold, electricity, fire and sonic.

 

[KarinsDad]

True enough but there is a base class that offers it.

At 10th level the warlock gets energy resistance 5 that improves to 10 at 20th level for two types of energy from the following list: acid, cold, electricity, fire and sonic.

And how many PCs or NPCs are 10th level or higher warlocks?

Sure, a Warlock could take ER: Sonic. But, that means that he gave up ER for some other more frequent (in most campaigns) energy type as well. Personally, if I was playing a PC Warlock, I would never take ER: Sonic based on the other basic rules of the game. The other energy types just occur so much more frequently (i.e. sonic attacks make up considerably less than 20% of all energy spells/attacks in the game, probably closer to 5%). For example, Energy Substitution does not allow sonic at all.

Some classes (or feats or special abilities) being able to acquire ER:Sonic does not appear to be a good balance reason to have the sonic damage do the same damage on a weapon as other energy types, especially when the creature has a choice on which ER to take.

 

[irdeggman]

And how many PCs or NPCs are 10th level or higher warlocks?

Sure, a Warlock could take ER: Sonic. But, that means that he gave up ER for some other more frequent (in most campaigns) energy type as well. Personally, if I was playing a PC Warlock, I would never take ER: Sonic based on the other basic rules of the game. The other energy types just occur so much more frequently (i.e. sonic attacks make up considerably less than 20% of all energy spells/attacks in the game, probably closer to 5%). For example, Energy Substitution does not allow sonic at all.

Some classes (or feats or special abilities) being able to acquire ER:Sonic does not appear to be a good balance reason to have the sonic damage do the same damage on a weapon as other energy types, especially when the creature has a choice on which ER to take.

My point was that it is in a base class ability.

And therefore is only as rare as that base class is in the setting. Asking how many 10th level warlock PCs or NPCs there are is a irelevent question - it can be a commmon class depending on the game being run. And since the common opinion on these boards seems to be that the warlock is a powerful class - I would tend to think there would be more 10th level warlocks than say 10th level barbarians.

Personally I would take ER sonic instead for the very specific reasons that you've pointed out that there are few ways to get resistance to it, other than silence. And since there are fewer ways to get that protection the protection is more valuable.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Personally I would take ER sonic instead for the very specific reasons that you've pointed out that there are few ways to get resistance to it, other than silence. And since there are fewer ways to get that protection the protection is more valuable.

I point you to protection from energy, generally how PCs get energy resistance.

Besides, if you'll run into sonic damage maybe 1 out of 50 encounters, it just isn't worth taking.