Enfeeblement and Weapon Finesse

[Zen]

Here's a situation that nearly brought our game to a dead stop the other night: What combat penalties, if any, would a character with the feat Weapon Finesse suffer after having his strength reduced to a 6 by a Ray of Enfeeblement?

The character is armed with a light weapon.

 

[hong]

He does less damage, because his Str is lower.

Is this a trick question?

 

[shilsen]

He does less damage, because his Str is lower.

Is this a trick question?

Suspicious, aren't we ?

 

[Zen]

No trick. The character never had a strength bonus to damage to lose and it was proposed that a weapon always does what it does, that the low strength wouldn't lessen the 1d6 of a short sword.

We also got a little sidetracked by the weapon finesse issue. It seemed odd that a character can choose to ignore a low strength's usual penalty to hit, but then, a character with a high strength using weapon finesse doesn't get both the strength to hit and the dexterity bonus weapon finesse applies, so it does make a strange kind of sense.

Anyway, we had two players and one DM with three different opinions between us, so off to the boards to see what the world thinks. Thanks!

--Z

 

[pbd]

The short sword would do -2 damage, but can't do less than 1 damage per hit. I think that is before any magis bonusses you get also.

So say your enfeebled character hit with a +1 short sword and rolled a 2 for damage. That would be 2 - 2 is 0, but it is 1 damage since it cant go lower than that. The add the +1 for the enchantment to give a wopping 2 damage.

 

[T-Bone JiuJitsu]

When using Weapon Finess, you use your Dex modifier for the "To Hit Bonus" and the Strength modifier for the "Damage Bonus". If your strength score changes, so does your damage "bonus" which can be either a positive or negative number. So, in your example, the short sword would still hit at normal attack score, but would now do 1d6 -2 (with a minimum of 1 damage).

Keep in mind that dropping to 6 Str could make the character suddenly become encumbered, which might lower his hit score and movement.

 

[Hypersmurf]

The short sword would do -2 damage, but can't do less than 1 damage per hit. I think that is before any magis bonusses you get also.

No, it's after. The +1 short sword in your example would deal 1 damage.

-Hyp.

 

[UltimaGabe]

No, it's after. The +1 short sword in your example would deal 1 damage.

-Hyp.

Exactly. So a person with a Strength of 1 hitting with a +5 Shortsword, if he were to roll a 1, would only do 1 point of damage.