CM
Adventurer
I had another question come up in tonight's game and was looking for some advice. A new player has a gnoll barbarian with a vicious greataxe. Here's the description of the vicious property:
I'm wondering what type of extra damage this weapon property deals. The enervation prerequisite, "disruptive" keyword and necromancy school imply to me at least that the bonus damage is negative energy damage, but the weapon's effect doesn't flat-out state it. The description does state that the damage is "energy" of an unspecific type. The important question is whether or not the barbarian's damage reduction will reduce the damage he suffers from his own vicious weapon.
There seems to be 3 options:
1, The damage is negative energy and can't be reduced by his DR (not likely, since the "negative energy" keyword isn't used).
2, The damage is energy damage of an indeterminate type and can't be reduced by his DR.
3, The damage is physical damage and can be reduced by his DR.
#2 seems the most likely to me, but I don't like the idea of indeterminate energy damage. A closer reading of the barbarian's DR ability states that it reduces damage from weapon and natural weapon attacks, so the energy backlash from a vicious weapon doesn't seem to fall in either of those categories.
That leads me to another musing that's probably better left for a different thread, but I was under the impression that a barbarian's DR worked against any kind of physical damage, like the bludgeoning damage from an ice storm spell. I guess that's not true.
Anyway, thanks for your time.
SRD said:
I'm wondering what type of extra damage this weapon property deals. The enervation prerequisite, "disruptive" keyword and necromancy school imply to me at least that the bonus damage is negative energy damage, but the weapon's effect doesn't flat-out state it. The description does state that the damage is "energy" of an unspecific type. The important question is whether or not the barbarian's damage reduction will reduce the damage he suffers from his own vicious weapon.
There seems to be 3 options:
1, The damage is negative energy and can't be reduced by his DR (not likely, since the "negative energy" keyword isn't used).
2, The damage is energy damage of an indeterminate type and can't be reduced by his DR.
3, The damage is physical damage and can be reduced by his DR.
#2 seems the most likely to me, but I don't like the idea of indeterminate energy damage. A closer reading of the barbarian's DR ability states that it reduces damage from weapon and natural weapon attacks, so the energy backlash from a vicious weapon doesn't seem to fall in either of those categories.
That leads me to another musing that's probably better left for a different thread, but I was under the impression that a barbarian's DR worked against any kind of physical damage, like the bludgeoning damage from an ice storm spell. I guess that's not true.
Anyway, thanks for your time.
