Clarification of Net Properties for PFS


Rules Questions

Liberty's Edge

I am tinkering on a net thrower build and have a few of questions that I would appreciate interpretation and insight on.

1. Can a net be made out of a Special Material? Nets have been known to be made out of steel or iron wire links for example: basket ball nets, personal and industrial fishing nets, metal tennis nets etc. Thus, I do not believe it is a stretch that nets could be made from special material.

2. Could a Net deal weapon damage based off strength? Going off the ruling of Throwing Weapons: "Thrown Weapons: The wielder applies his Strength modifier to damage dealt by thrown weapons (except for splash weapons)". Also consider the ruling of Attack Roll: "An attack roll represents your attempt to strike your opponent on your turn in a round. When you make an attack roll, you roll a d20 and add your attack bonus. (Other modifiers may also apply to this roll.) If your result equals or beats the target's Armor Class, you hit and deal damage".

3. What type of Damage would be dealt by a Net from the Warpriest's Sacred Weapon Ability? Sacred Weapon states "At 1st level, weapons wielded by a warpriest are charged with the power of his faith. In addition to the favored weapon of his deity, the warpriest can designate a weapon as a sacred weapon by selecting that weapon with the Weapon Focus feat; if he has multiple Weapon Focus feats, this ability applies to all of them. Whenever the warpriest hits with his sacred weapon, the weapon damage is based on his level and not the weapon type".

Thank you for your time and appreciate any relevant interpretations and discussions about net properties in Pathfinder Society.


1) Unless you find a net that's made of metal somewhere you can't buy one thats made out of metal. The only special material i can think of that you could make a net out of would be darkleaf cloth, which just halves the weight.

2) Nets don't deal damage AFAIK, so adding your strength to damage is a moot point. You need to have some damage there that you DO before adding the strength.

3) I'd say bludgeoning. But then you'd be using the net like a rolled up newspaper. I don't think you'd get the warpriest damage and the special entangly stuff.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

The only character class that should be centering their builds on nets should be the fisherman.

Even for gladiators, it's a tool to use with something else... like a spear.

Dark Archive

I actually like the idea that you bring up here. I think that BNW is right and it would not work, but it is a very interesting idea.

Liberty's Edge

1) I can understand the net possibly not being made out of special material since it is not mainly metal and there is the Force Net available from Blood of the Night.

2) Consider the ruling from Ultimate Equipment on page 16 which states:"Thrown Weapons: Daggers, darts, javelins, throwing axes, light hammers, and nets are examples of thrown weapons. The wielder applies his Strength modifier to damage dealt by thrown weapons (except for splash weapons)". Even though a net does not have a Damage die, the ruling above would imply that the net still does damage off strength.

3) I don't see why you could not have both the entangle effect and the warpriest sacred weapon damage. Since from Sacred Weapon even states "Whenever the warpriest hits with his sacred weapon, the weapon damage is based on his level and not the weapon type". Thus, if you have Weapon Focus (Net) as a warpriest you must use the level damage unless "If the weapon’s base damage exceeds the sacred weapon damage, its damage is unchanged."

I would consider damaging with a Net with the Sacred Weapon ability a ranged weapon version of a Tangleburn Bag. Which is treated as a Tanglefoot bag but deals fire damage when directly hitting a target.

Silver Crusade

Yea, nets don't do damage at all. I have a net fighter Lore Warden fighter in PFS, and even two years after THIS thread started going over some of the issues with the net-feat-chain, I'm still "eh" about it...

Although the "Fighter's Fork" and the "Force Net" leave open some ideas... (and the latter answers your question about materials, at least one single unique example of it, at any rate).

"Fortification Stones" are also your friend when wielding nets.

Sczarni

This should really be over in the Rules Forum, as none of these questions are PFS specific, but BNW covered most of it already.


1) I can understand the net possibly not being made out of special material since it is not mainly metal and there is the Force Net available from Blood of the Night.

There is, but thats still going to be silver and force

2) Consider the ruling from Ultimate Equipment on page 16 which states:"Thrown Weapons: Daggers, darts, javelins, throwing axes, light hammers, and nets are examples of thrown weapons. The wielder applies his Strength modifier to damage dealt by thrown weapons (except for splash weapons)". Even though a net does not have a Damage die, the ruling above would imply that the net still does damage off strength.

to damage dealt. Nets don't deal damage.

3) I would consider damaging with a Net with the Sacred Weapon ability a ranged weapon version of a Tangleburn Bag. Which is treated as a Tanglefoot bag but deals fire damage when directly hitting a target.

Well here's the problem. You're never going to be the one to make that decision when you're playing this character. Someone else is. What you have is a IMHO, pretty bad and very rules lawyery argument that you should be allowed to use a corner case to target foes touch ac , do real damage, AND entangle them. That is not going to go over well being presented to a bunch of different Dms, possibly leading you to need to play another character. You'll need to have this convo EVERY time, eating up a good chunk of timein an already time crunched situation.

Its a cool idea, but you've bunjee jumped past where the rules go and into some pretty deep areas of "Dm may i?" which is a bad strategy for a character in organized play.


I agree with BNW. The net doesn't deal damage (the damage entry is "-"), so it can't be used in the conventional way. Instead, a character using a net uses the alternate rule presented in the net's entry, which is something the Warpriest can't affect.

The only way to deal damage with a net I see is using it as an improvised weapon (basically just smacking the monsters with a folded net), but you can't take Weapon Focus on improvised weapons, so no sacred weapon damage there.

Liberty's Edge

I have a character who uses a net as his secondary weapon. He's only used it a few times (he's 8th level now), but being able to entangle a winged creature so that it couldn't fly (and in fact plummeted 20-30 feet) was well worth it recently.

I can't see trying to make a character built primarily around net, but as a backup and flavor piece, it's pretty good.

Grand Lodge

Ah, but if he has a Shocking, or Merciful Net...


blackbloodtroll wrote:
Ah, but if he has a Shocking, or Merciful Net...

still doesn't have a base damage to add str to or replace with WP sacred damage.

Now, if they ever release a 'barbed' net, that did damage to anyone entangled, might be a different story.

Grand Lodge

dragonhunterq wrote:
blackbloodtroll wrote:
Ah, but if he has a Shocking, or Merciful Net...

still doesn't have a base damage to add str to or replace with WP sacred damage.

Now, if they ever release a 'barbed' net, that did damage to anyone entangled, might be a different story.

Well, Snag Net can deal damage.

Grand Lodge

Actually, how would something like a +1 Mecriful Net function?

Ultimate Equipment pg. 145, PRPG Core Rulebook pg. 469 wrote:

Merciful

Aura: faint conjuration CL 5th
Slot: weapon quality; Price: +1 bonus; Weight —
Description:
A merciful weapon deals an extra 1d6 points of damage, but all damage it deals is nonlethal damage. On command, the weapon suppresses this ability until told to resume it (allowing it to deal lethal damage, but without any bonus damage from this ability).
Construction
Requirements: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, cure light wounds; Price —

When you hit with the weapon, does the source of damage considered the Net, and thus, can have reductions/additions to it?

Is the extra damage considered weapon damage at all?

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