weapons that do stat damage

[Crothian]

This is good against anything not just spell casters. Five hits you cand take out something with a 20 strength. Even if you don't reduce their strength all they way you continually worsen their attack ability. And the higher a level you get the more powerful this becomes. HPs increase faster then strength scores so it will be much easier to reduce their strength to 0 then their HPs.

 

[MarauderX]

Going WAY back to the basic set, as a DM I threw a gaggle of ropers at the PCs in a small cave and watched them crumble. The roper back then did 1 STR damage with each of it's tendrils. The two fighters got overwealmed and their damage stats dropped, the cleric couldn't do a thing about it, and the magic user wasn't dealing out enough damage with the limited spells in the small cave(no fireball, lightning bolt). The rogue was the only one who out ran them, and was the savior for the party by later finding the roper lair and dispatching them in their sleep.

Thing was, they shoulda been able to handle the ropers, but the PCs had no idea what they were and charged ahead only to be tagged out helpless. If some PC or NPC had any type of weapon like that, it could easily get out of control.

There are spells that enhance/detract from abilities as well, and using a bunch of these would produce the same effect, so I see no reason not to have it.

It's a creative idea though, and I wouldn't disallow it entirely, just make it very hard to come by and with more limited powers. I would have any weapon do a max of 1 STR per blow (with FORT save to negate) in addition to normal damage. I would suggest the temporary damage heal at 3 points per hour + any CON bonus.

The advantage to having any weapon to do any type of ability damage is clear, as weakening a dragon would be the better route instead of clobbering it with massive amounts of damage. But by doing only 1 STR per strike, it would take a while to wear opponents down, and having the save to negate would balance the game, as not many tough dragons fail their saves 26 times in a row. It also balances out with low strength opponents as well, as the damage may be better to deal than the STR reduction.

I also like the thoughts about subdual. Nasty opponents could be weakened by something other than a weapon, such as an enchanted pillow, dealing no damage to an elderly wizard that needed to be captured without harm...although grappling would work just as well.

Now we need to debate about INT reducing arrows, DEX removing flails, etc.

 

[Andion Isurand]

In the Book of Vile Darkness, a +3 weapon ability called 'Marrowcrushing', lets a weapon deal 1 point of Constitution damage, every time the weapon deals damage (no save).

It minimum caster level to make this ability is 5th level

The spell needed is called 'boneblast', although if you don't have TBoVD , i'm sure any other 'bone' related spell will do.

 

[Sanackranib]

Re: Re: stat loss

I haven't done this in a game. It would be very nasty though. If you don't add normal damage to the str damage, I would still say at least a +4 bonus, and fort (DC 15) negates. Without the save negates factor, this would be a no-brainer to take over speed. With the save negating it entirely, it would still be competitive just because of the number of saves you could force and the dramatic effect of failed saves.

As an aside, I should point out that you actually can't flank with a ranged weapon (such as a whip or a whip dagger).

Our DM ruled that you can flank with it and treats it like a ranged melee weapon you just don't get the AoO's. he did this because I asked about the ranged attack feats and he felt that was too unbalanced and he had too allow either missile or melee feats. in RL we all know the whip is a melee weapon with reach and this really just is a ballance issue.

 

[Atma]

Raw insanity

1 point of temporary stat damage - +2
2 points of temporary stat damage - +5
3 points+, artifact level.

That's how I'd rule it anyway. Stat damage is extraordinarily powerful, especially in the hands of PCs. Personally I don't think I'd allow it, since it's a heck of a lot of annoying recalculation to do every round.