Stacking Weapon Enhancements

[jason_gosse]

This is something I have been trying to figure out for a while.
A weapon has Shocking Burst and Flaming Burst, can you only use one at a time or can both be active at the same time?

So 1d6 fire AND 1d6 electrical, or is it 1d6 fire OR 1d6 electrical?

 

[Mouseferatu]

You can use them both at once.

Though I think, technically, each would require a separate action to activate. Not 100% certain about this last bit, though, as my books aren't easily to hand.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Though I think, technically, each would require a separate action to activate. Not 100% certain about this last bit, though, as my books aren't easily to hand.

As written, absolutely.

There's an FAQ answer that suggests otherwise:
The new descriptions for the flaming, frost, and shock
weapon special abilities say that these weapons’ energy
effects work only on command. Why was this changed in
the revision? Does that mean that their wielders must use a
standard action to activate them for each attack? Or do the
energy effects last awhile? If so, how long do they last?
What’s the chance that you burn (or freeze or shock)
yourself when holding onto an activated weapon? Can you
put away an activated weapon without damaging the
scabbard where you store it? What happens if you have
ammunition with these effects? Do you have to activate
each piece of ammunition separately? What happens if you
have a flaming, frost, and shock weapon? Logically, such a
weapon couldn’t exist, but what if it did? Would you have
to activate each property separately? Finally, how does all
this affect flaming burst, icy burst, and shocking burst
weapons? Do these weapons’ flame, frost, and shock
properties have to be activated for the burst powers to
work?

The flaming, frost, and shock weapon special abilities
always have been command activated; the revision just
clarified that.

Activating an energy power requires a standard action, but
once you activate energy power, the power works until you use
another action to deactivate it. You can activate or deactivate
one of these powers on up to 50 pieces of ammunition at the
same time, provided that all the ammunition is in your
possession, all the ammunition is the same kind, and all the
ammunition has the same power.

Any attack you make with an activated weapon deals
energy damage to your foe if you hit—you don’t have to do
anything special to deal energy damage with an activated
weapon.

A burst weapon’s burst power is use activated and it works
even when the weapon’s energy power is not activated (see the
last sentence in each power’s description).

The energy from a flaming, frost, shock, flaming burst, icy
burst, or shocking burst weapon never harms you while you’re
wielding or carrying the activated weapon (see the power
descriptions), and it will not harm your equipment. If you lose
or set down an activated weapon, the energy it produces will
harm other objects it touches, so it is best to deactivate it first.

There’s nothing illogical about a flaming, frost, shock
weapon (at least not within any framework that allows weapons
to generate energy in the first place), and there’s no rule against
such weapons (think of the weapon as having fiery, frosty,
shocking flames).

The character creating such a weapon
decides how it can be activated. Most such weapons probably
are made so that the wielders can activate all three powers
simultaneously, or activate them one at a time, as desired.

I can't find any rules support for the bolded section, however. Activating Flaming is a standard action; activating Frost is a standard action; there's nothing in the item creation rules to suggest that it's possible to make two standard action activations happen on the same standard action.

The "Give them the same command word" argument doesn't hold water, since I can say "Activate!" as a free action, but I can only say "Activate!" to activate the Flaming ability as a standard action. It's already possible for me to say the command word without activating the ability... so if I have two abilities with the same command word, each will still only activate when I take a standard action to do so, regardless of how many times I say the word outside of that standard action.

-Hyp.

 

[jason_gosse]

thank you that is much help.