Particle_Man
Explorer
If a 1st level halfling rogue of strength 1 makes a sneak attack with a dagger, how much damage does the rogue do? How much does she do if she crits?
On one interpretation, the sneak attack is not affected by one's strength score, so the damage would be 1pt +1d6 (max. damage 7) (The dagger's 1d4 damage, -5, would be reduced to 1pt, because of the strength penalty), and a critical hit would be 2pts +1d6 (max. damage 8) (rolling the dagger damage twice and subtracting the stength penalty both times, then adding the sneak attack).
On another interpretation, the halfling rogue would do much less damage. On a normal attack she would do (1d4+1d6) -5 (for a max. damage of 5), and on a critical hit she would actually do less damage: (1d4+1d4+1d6) -10 (for a max. damage of 4). So on this interpretion, she would want to avoid critical hits, since the extra 1d4 damage would be outweighed by the extra -5 strength penalty.
I am asking partially because it is relevant to a feat in Kingdoms of Kalamar that basically is the reverse of Power Attack (adding to the attack roll and subtracting from the damage roll, with a guarantee of 1pt damage, minimum, and a "tansfer" maximum equal to the character's BAB). This feat, like the low str. halfling, gets complicated when sneak attack damage enters the picture.
I suppose the same questions could be asked about the flame damage of magical flaming daggers.
On one interpretation, the sneak attack is not affected by one's strength score, so the damage would be 1pt +1d6 (max. damage 7) (The dagger's 1d4 damage, -5, would be reduced to 1pt, because of the strength penalty), and a critical hit would be 2pts +1d6 (max. damage 8) (rolling the dagger damage twice and subtracting the stength penalty both times, then adding the sneak attack).
On another interpretation, the halfling rogue would do much less damage. On a normal attack she would do (1d4+1d6) -5 (for a max. damage of 5), and on a critical hit she would actually do less damage: (1d4+1d4+1d6) -10 (for a max. damage of 4). So on this interpretion, she would want to avoid critical hits, since the extra 1d4 damage would be outweighed by the extra -5 strength penalty.
I am asking partially because it is relevant to a feat in Kingdoms of Kalamar that basically is the reverse of Power Attack (adding to the attack roll and subtracting from the damage roll, with a guarantee of 1pt damage, minimum, and a "tansfer" maximum equal to the character's BAB). This feat, like the low str. halfling, gets complicated when sneak attack damage enters the picture.
I suppose the same questions could be asked about the flame damage of magical flaming daggers.
