Vital Strike Feat - Does this affect only the weapon dice?


Rules Questions


I just wanted to confirm that this feat only provides the benefit of rolling the additional dice to add to damage.

Since the feat does not say, "do not multiply any other modifiers to the damage roll", I just wanted to check if there have been any other interpretations. In the examples list, it doesn't make any reference to magic weapon enhancement bonus (of course I don't think it was meant to be an all-inclusive list, however when a list of "examples of things not included" is present, it makes me wonder what is).


Only the weapon dice.

Please note for high level enlarged monks that is still a lot of dice.

In the case of a critical hit these extra dice are not multiplied either, only the base damage that you would normally do is (the extra dice are basically added on at the end of figuring up the damage).

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

I think of it like 4E's (W) notation. W=weapon damage dice.

Vital Strike does 2(W).
Improved does 3(W).
Greater does 4(W).


TriOmegaZero wrote:

I think of it like 4E's (W) notation. W=weapon damage dice.

Vital Strike does 2(W).
Improved does 3(W).
Greater does 4(W).

Precisely! It really could have been written a lot more clearly. Think of it as extra dice of damage like sneak attack or a flaming weapon.


meatrace wrote:
TriOmegaZero wrote:

I think of it like 4E's (W) notation. W=weapon damage dice.

Vital Strike does 2(W).
Improved does 3(W).
Greater does 4(W).

Precisely! It really could have been written a lot more clearly. Think of it as extra dice of damage like sneak attack or a flaming weapon.

Question:

It does not mention at all feat based damage, or class given damage.

I'm thinking about power attack, deadly aim, weapon specialization and Point Blank Shot.

So, does it multiply or not?


Vitellio wrote:
meatrace wrote:
TriOmegaZero wrote:

I think of it like 4E's (W) notation. W=weapon damage dice.

Vital Strike does 2(W).
Improved does 3(W).
Greater does 4(W).

Precisely! It really could have been written a lot more clearly. Think of it as extra dice of damage like sneak attack or a flaming weapon.

Question:

It does not mention at all feat based damage, or class given damage.

I'm thinking about power attack, deadly aim, weapon specialization and Point Blank Shot.

So, does it multiply or not?

No bonuses do multiply with a Vital Strike attack.

As Jason Buhlman himself said here:

Jason Bulmahn wrote:

As for the Vital Strike issue... just roll the damage dice for the weapon twice. Everything else is as normal. If you normally deal 1d8+4 with a longsword, you would deal 2d8+4 with a longsword using Vital Strike.

Liberty's Edge

What about grenade like weapons? Do they qualify for vital strike? Arcane Strike?


Xuttah wrote:
What about grenade like weapons? Do they qualify for vital strike? Arcane Strike?

Given the Bulman quote (thanks for digging that up Wraith) since Arcane Strike does not modify the damage dice, then it would not apply. A splash weapon (grenade) thrown at a target should be affected by this feat, but only for the direct damage and not the splash damage for being in the radius. (From a logic view point, I guess this infers that you splashed the target's mouth/eyes/ears/nose causing the target to imbide some of the effect)?

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