Wounding Weapon Quality

[Syntallah]

Can any of you give me some insight on a Wounding Weapon used long term by a PC in your group?

Specifically, I'm wondering at the impact of such a powerful attack on Challenge Ratings. If I have a creature with a certain amount of hit points, but now is losing them at an exponential rate because his Con is dropping every hit, how does/should that affect the CR? And for that matter, Game balance?

Just for information's sake, the PC in question is the front line fighter of the group. He's a fighter/soulknife doing pretty good damage already with his psychic strike charged mindblade, and now he would like to put Wounding on it.

 

[Nifft]

It's a powerful ability, but are is Flaming, Shocking, or many other weapon enhancements.

Are you asking if you should take XP away from a PC if he kills a monster with a wounding weapon? The answer to that one is no.

What's this exponential thing? Every two hits, he loses 2 Con, so every two hits he loses HP equal to his HD. It certainly makes low-Con monsters die quick, but they die quick anyway.

Cheers, -- N

 

[XO]

Overblown

The +2 (on price) for Wounding is WAY too expensive.

Hardly worth it.

No, it's not a game breaker.

Even vorpal fails to be a game breaker.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

What's this exponential thing? Every two hits, he loses 2 Con, so every two hits he loses HP equal to his HD. It certainly makes low-Con monsters die quick, but they die quick anyway.

He's using the 3.0 version where you loose 1hp/round from each attack with a wounding weapon.

PS: That version is priced right and it doesn't really warrant chopping down CR because in the time wounding has to act it will only account for a relatively small portion of damage in most combats which last about 5 rounds or less.

 

[Syntallah]

He's using the 3.0 version where you loose 1hp/round from each attack with a wounding weapon.

snip

Actually, no, I am using the 3.5 version. Nifft was spot on above. Although, I do indeed admit the hit point loss is not exponential. I just used that word for emphasis.

 

[hong]

Wounding is most cost-effective when you're fighting lots of high-HD creatures. When your target has 40HD, for example, that's an average of 20 hit points removed and -0.5 to Fort saves per hit.

In general though, I'd prefer holy since that helps break through DR for fiends, and works even on monsters immune to Con damage (undead).

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Actually, no, I am using the 3.5 version. Nifft was spot on above. Although, I do indeed admit the hit point loss is not exponential. I just used that word for emphasis.

Oh, thanks for the clarification, read exponential and immediately connected it with the 3.0 version.

If you're using the 3.5 version I'm surprised it's a problem given the reduction in power compared to 3.0. All I can say is use your best judgement, it's all a DM has for these sort of things when they aren't directly covered by rules.

 

[Deset Gled]

The +2 (on price) for Wounding is WAY too expensive.

I think that +2 is about right. Wounding is by no stretch a +3 ability, but its much better than a flaming or similar weapon in the right situation.

The strength of a Wounding weapon is that it scales in power with the enemy you attack. More powerful enemies (those with more HD) have more HP loss with each hit.

Also, Wounding weapons are much more potent in the hands of TWFers than they are for the standard 2-handed Power Attackers.

 

[Slaved]

Reducing constitution is a pretty big deal. Every two hits the creatures hit points are reduced by 1 for each hit die they have, so if they have 7 or more hit die you beat out all of the normal energy boosts, plus anything else that the creature has that depends on constitution gets weaker such as fortitude save, poison, and others.

In addition to that the damage is mostly uncureable in battle so creatures with fast healing and regeneration are hurt even more than normal while creatures that would otherwise be able to be healed are most likely still in trouble.

It looks to be much stronger than the other +2 and double +1 abilities unless your campaign features a theme which really benefits one or two of the other abilities such as primarily all opponents being undead/constructs, evil, specific races, etc.

 

[3d6]

Wounding is about as good as holy if your target has 14 or more Hit Dice. Whether or not wounding is overpowered depends greatly on the type of enemies your PCs face. If they face single, powerful, living foes, then wounding may well be better. If they face groups of enemies, or non-living enemies, than holy is probably the superior ability. Based on that, I would say wounding is priced basically correctly.