The whip (weapon) says:
Whip: A whip deals no damage to any creature with an armor bonus of +1 or higher or a natural armor bonus of +3 or higher. The whip is treated as a melee weapon with 15-foot reach, though you don’t threaten the area into which you can make an attack. In addition, unlike most other weapons with reach, you can use it against foes anywhere within your reach (including adjacent foes).
Using a whip provokes an attack of opportunity, just as if you had used a ranged weapon.
You can use the Weapon Finesse feat to apply your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier to attack rolls with a whip sized for you, even though it isn’t a light weapon.
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In previous books (pre-pathfinder), there were some magical whips that were magical that dealt normal damage (I'm not talking about whip daggers from Sword and Fist or from A&EG). In the MiC, for example, there is the Lash of Sands and Water Whip that specifically state that the whip deals normal lethal damage.
How would someone go about making a whip that would deal normal, lethal damage? Does anyone have any suggestions? Magical or not, that's ok.
There's a (non-magical)"scorpion whip" in the Legacy of Fire AP player's guide. Functions as a normal whip but does 1d4 lethal. Hope that helps.
Zo
I don't see why any magical enhancement would be non-lethal myself, so flaming, electric, and acidic damage could all be applied and factor in what ... +3d6, or something like that - all of it "lethal" damage, and then leave the whip's base damage as subdual. Honestly, I kind of like that, enchanted this way, it could do both lethal and subdual - leaves a greater chance of getting the target KO'd and ready for questioning later on if needed.
I like the scorpion whip (especially since it is officially piazo), thank you.
As far as the flaming, electric, acid...Yes, that would definately work...but as you stated it leaves the "base" damage still non-lethal. I was hoping to figure out a way to turn the base damage lethal (although for a loss of an average of 1 hit point per hit, going to the scorpion whip seems more than do-able).
Any other ideas?
I like the scorpion whip (especially since it is officially piazo), thank you.
As far as the flaming, electric, acid...Yes, that would definately work...but as you stated it leaves the "base" damage still non-lethal. I was hoping to figure out a way to turn the base damage lethal (although for a loss of an average of 1 hit point per hit, going to the scorpion whip seems more than do-able).
Any other ideas?
Again on the "magic" front, isn't there some +1 ability that allows subdual damage to be inflicted w/no penalties? I'd think it would be easy enough to reverse/invert this same enchantment to make subdual weapons capable of inflicting lethal with no penalty (which, I believe, is the default for subdual weapons normally, no? They take the -4 to inflict lethal in the same way that lethal wpns take the -4 to inflict subdual.)
You can always just go all Simon Belmont, too - "whip-chains" have GOT to freakin' hurt!