Enfeebling special weapon ability from the Book of Exalted Deeds

[UltimaGabe]

Hey, everyone. I was recently taking a look at the Book of Exalted Deeds, and I noticed an ability in there that was pretty cool. It was the Enfeebling ability- basically, whenever you score a successful critical hit, the weapon also does 1d6+2 Strength Damage. (The prerequisites were Craft Magic Arms & Armor and Ray of Enfeeblement.) This ability counted as a +1 for determining costs for weapon abilities.

Now, at first glance, it seemed great for my character. I have an Arcane Disciple (variant Cleric that gains Arcane spells rather than Domain spells) that has all the Item Creation feats, and I make very good use of the Ray of Enfeeblement spell. I decided to put this ability onto his cohort's Spiked Chain, which would provide him with a great way to give him an advantage when tripping or disarming someone. However, I noticed something. You see, the main limiting factor of the Ray of Enfeeblement spell is that it doesn't deal actual strength damage- it simply inflicts a penalty to Strength, therefore preventing two uses from stacking, or reducing the target's Strength below 1, or so on. However, although this weapon ability used the Ray of Enfeeblement spell to create, the description makes no reference of it duplicating the spell's effects- in fact, it says it inflicts 1d6+2 STRENGTH DAMAGE. This means that, theoretically, two Crits from such a weapon would stack, and it would be very possible to reduce the target's Strength to 0. However, it's only on a crit, which can be quite a limiting factor.

Does anyone think this ability is balanced as written?

 

[Piratecat]

Eeek! for +1? Nope, not a chance. I'd allow it as a strength penalty, though.

 

[Scion]

Wow.. that is really tough.

It only works on a crit, and is ability damage, so a vast majority of things are simply immune to it for whatever reasons. (yes, I know that creatures immune to crits can still have effects happen to them that trigger on crits, but a good portion of them are immune to ability damage)

But it has a huge effect.

It probably should be a penalty though, it is strong then, but not overpowering most of the time.

It only working on a crit though, and with no save, makes it very strange in a lot of ways. (yes, I know ray of enfeeblement has no save)

I'd say just make it a penalty that lasts for 4 minutes. My guess is that whoever wrote it misread ray of enfeeblement, these sort of things happen on occasion.

This is probably ok for unlimited uses per day, as it only works on a crit anyway, and the penalty goes away pretty fast.

 

[Thanee]

Why is that in Book of Exalted Deeds anyways?
Shouldn't that be in Book of Vile Darkness?

But I agree, as a +1 it's way too much (even with a penalty it probably still is), just compare it with those energy burst enchantments, they are basically +1 for an extra d10 HP damage or so on a crit.

This should be +2 AND only do a penalty IMHO.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Gort]

Book of Exalted Deeds is a bit of a mixed bag for me. Introduced some new (to me) concepts that don't really sit well with me, such as:

"Poisoning and diseasing people is evil." However, here are "ravages and afflictions", which are identical to poisoning and diseasing people, but with different words!

"Creating undead is evil." However, here are "the deathless", which are identical to undead, but with a different word!

Sheesh - Isn't half the point of being evil being allowed to use these things without qualms? Who would bother selling their soul to create an undead army if they can just get one of "the deathless" and become holier than holy?

On the other hand, vow of poverty is quite nice.

 

[UltimaGabe]

That's what I thought the general consensus would be. Many of the abilities in the Book of Exalted Deeds are quite powerful for their cost- the Paralyzing ability, for example, is a +2 bonus, and every target struck must make a Will save (DC 17) or be Paralyzed (as by the Hold Monster spell). And it's only a +2. As it's far too powerful for a +2 bonus, our DM ruled that it was only against evil opponents.

 

[Hypersmurf]

My guess is that whoever wrote it misread ray of enfeeblement, these sort of things happen on occasion.

It's possible they just glanced at the quick reference lists at the start of the magic chapter.

According to RoE's entry there, it does deal Str damage.

The quick reference list is wrong, of course.

-Hyp.

 

[Scion]

That is why I said it was possible that they misread it