Vicous weapon damage

[Thurbane]

The issue with the energy attacks language, as Shin Okada noted, is that RC states that 'energy' refers to acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic, and notes that negative energy and positive energy are not, in fact, energy.

In the case of the Vicious weapon, it doesn't matter for DR purposes, since the damage is dealt by the flash of disruptive energy; it is not damage dealt by a weapon or natural attack, and is thus not subject to DR.

-Hyp.

Indeed. Fluff text often causes unnecessary confusion in these cases.

Even the exact wording of the RC is also slightly less than sterling:

Negative energy and positive energy are damage types, but not considered energy types in the way that acid, cold, electricity, fire or sonic are.

While this is clear on its interaction with DR and such, the wording still implies that positive and negative are in fact "energy", just not one of the "normal" types of energy.

...and then there's force (magic missile etc.), which while not one of the "big five", is still a form of energy.

I agree with all of your RAW judgements here Hyp, I'm just saying that the wording in the rules could be a lot clearer. As for the vicious weapon, no matter which way you read it, DR is not going to help you when wielding one.

Finally, no offense intended Shin, but while the FAQ may not be ironclad, it is still more official than your personal interpretation, or mine for that matter.

 

[Thurbane]

So the typed damage listed in the spells description is just fluff eh?

I always thought that the idea behind a vicious weapon was the idea of sacrificing some of your own hit points to do greater damage.

I'd either a) make it unable to be avoided, or b) make it avoidable, but the weapon doesn't function as Vicious for a character immune to the extra damage.

I've heard of people treating the damage as negative energy (based on the fact that an Enervation spell is the source of it's power), meaning that you can prepare various defenses while wielding it so as to avoid the damage.

This leads to new problems though:

* If you manage to avoid the damage, does the weapon still deal it's extra 2d6 damage?

* Undead with a Vicious weapon suddenly become quite terrifying.

I'll leave you with one other point I've often seen debated: can the Vicious property be switched on and off, like Merciful? The description doesn't specifically state it can, but many people treat most weapon special abilities as "deactivatable" by default...

 

[Hypersmurf]

...and then there's force (magic missile etc.), which while not one of the "big five", is still a form of energy.

What makes you say that?

-Hyp.

 

[Thurbane]

What makes you say that?

-Hyp.

Well, I guess I'm using "energy" in the descriptive form, rather than it's RAW definition...

A missile of magical energy darts forth from your fingertip and strikes its target, dealing 1d4+1 points of force damage.