Melee Weapon Mastery twice?

[RangerWickett]

The morningstar does both bludgeoning and piercing damage at the same time. If I took Melee Weapon Mastery for both bludgeoning and piercing, could I apply the benefits to my attacks with a morningstar twice?

If so, I foresee:

Orc Fighter 12
Str 25 (29 w/item)
+3 morningstar

Weapon Focus, Specialization, Greater Focus, Greater Spec, and Improved Crit (morningstar), MWM (piercing), MWM (bludgeoning)

Atk morningstar (in two hands) +30/+25/+20 (d8+24, 19-20/x2)

 

[Nifft]

According to the folks over on the WotC CharOpt board, the answer is no, but the FAQ should be updates at some point to include this.

RAW, looks legal, but cheesy.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Cheiromancer]

I don't have a rules citation handy, but I can't believe the bonuses would stack. They'd only overlap.

 

[Joshua Randall]

I would actually allow this. If someone wants to invest ~10 feats to be really, really good with the morningstar, why not?

 

[Artoomis]

I don't have a rules citation handy, but I can't believe the bonuses would stack. They'd only overlap.

I agree.

 

[Enforcer]

I'd also rule that the bonuses overlap--so it'd only really make a difference against creatures with DR X/Bludgeoning or X/Piercing.

 

[James McMurray]

Bonuses from the same source never stack unless they say they do. So unless Melee Weapon Mastery says something along the lines of "you may take this feat twice for the same weapon if that weapon deals multiple damage types. It's effects stack," then they won't.

 

[Nifft]

I don't have a rules citation handy, but I can't believe the bonuses would stack. They'd only overlap.

There actually is a precedent for this! The Sunblade would gain an attack bonus from Weapon Focus (shortsword) or Weapon Focus (bastard sword), but the benefits would overlap, right?

Cheers, -- N

 

[irdeggman]

In this case I think it is one type of the other because this is a situation where the type of damage is significant .


From the SRD:

Type: Weapons are classified according to the type of damage they deal: bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing. Some monsters may be resistant or immune to attacks from certain types of weapons.

Some weapons deal damage of multiple types. If a weapon is of two types, the damage it deals is not half one type and half another; all of it is both types. Therefore, a creature would have to be immune to both types of damage to ignore any of the damage from such a weapon.

In other cases, a weapon can deal either of two types of damage. In a situation when the damage type is significant, the wielder can choose which type of damage to deal with such a weapon.

 

[ohGr]

In this case I think it is one type of the other because this is a situation where the type of damage is significant .


From the SRD:

You've bolded the wrong paragraph. The third paragraph applies to weapons that that deal one type or another, such as the dagger (piercing or slashing). The relevant paragraph for the morningstar (bludgeoning and piercing) is the second.

That said, i would let them stack. The morningstar is only one of two weapons in the Core Rules that deals two types of damage simultaneously, and is rather weak compared to any one-handed martial weapon (and the other weapon, the hooked hammer, i have a sneaking suspicion is a mistake and should be an or weapon, not an and). If you want to spend a lot of feats to make a decent fighter with a suboptimal weapon, i don't really have a problem with that.