Normal whips, magic whips in combination rogue sneak attack

[Ronald Vagoc]

Hello there,

I came up with the idea to play a character, I was thinking rogue, using a whip as main weapon (for D&D 3.5). The idea of a whip I think is very awesome for a rogue if its works a bit but I am unclear about its game mechanics.

I believe the weapon works a bit like this:

The normal standard whip only deals a little non-lethal damage, and possibly even no damage at all if the target has body armor or natural armor.

1st question: What does this mean for the functioning of rogue's sneak-attack ability?

2nd question: A magic +1 whip does 1 extra magic magic damage, is this also automaticly turned into the non-lethal damage that possibly deals no effective damage when there is natural or body armor involved?

3th question: And what if you have a +1 flaming whip that also deals an extra magic 1d6 fire damage?

4th question: what are the effects of magic whips when it comes to the rogues sneak attack?

I hope you can help me out

Thanks in advance

Ronald

*I know there are many variations of modified whips made out there, I would like to keep this discussion focussed on the normal PHB version of the exotic whip however.

[Name Violation]

1- normal sneak attack rules apply. It would be nonlethal damage

2- yep. thems the breaks

3- the fire damage is resolved seperately. so the d6 fire still applies if you hit regular ac even if the physical damage is negated, but i believe the SA damage is tied to the physical.

4- not sure what you mean. what do you mean effects?

also Ultimate combat has a few whip feats you may want to look at

[Starbuck_II]

Ronald Vagoc wrote:

2nd question: A magic +1 whip does 1 extra magic magic damage, is this also automaticly turned into the non-lethal damage that possibly deals no effective damage when there is natural or body armor involved?

Nope, the enhancement improves whip damage. So nonlethal 1d6 becomes 1d6+1. Still limited by armor/NA restriction.

Quote:

3th question: And what if you have a +1 flaming whip that also deals an extra magic 1d6 fire damage?

Now, you deal 1d6 fire damage if target has NA/armor. Fire ignores restriction but whip doesn't.

Quote:

4th question: what are the effects of magic whips when it comes to the rogues sneak attack?

You deal no sneak attack unless it was a Flaming whip since you deal no damage means no sneak attack (assuming NA/armor restriction).

[Name Violation]

Starbuck_II wrote:

You deal no sneak attack unless it was a Flaming whip since you deal no damage means no sneak attack (assuming NA/armor restriction).

you still wouldnt deall SA damage if they're immune to the physical part.

You cant SA with just the flaming part.

[Ronald Vagoc]

Thanks guys I believe that awnsers all my questions. I am not completely sure why the sneak attack has to be tied to the physical damage however. I have not seen that anywhere in the rules about sneak attack. All I found about sneak attacks is that you need to succesfully strike a vital spot to land a succesfull sneak attack. It doesn't mention how, let alone that it needs to be physical damage. And I have seen examples of spellcasters using sneak attacks with damage spells which include spells like scorching ray. That's the same kind of damage as the 1d6 flaming. So following this logic I myself would say that perhaps the SA ability does not have to be tied to the physical weapon damage.

Is it your statement an interpretation of the rules or has this been stated somewhere?

[Skylancer4]

Ronald Vagoc wrote:

Thanks guys I believe that awnsers all my questions. I am not completely sure why the sneak attack has to be tied to the physical damage however. I have not seen that anywhere in the rules about sneak attack. All I found about sneak attacks is that you need to succesfully strike a vital spot to land a succesfull sneak attack. It doesn't mention how, let alone that it needs to be physical damage. And I have seen examples of spellcasters using sneak attacks with damage spells which include spells like scorching ray. That's the same kind of damage as the 1d6 flaming. So following this logic I myself would say that perhaps the SA ability does not have to be tied to the physical weapon damage.

Is it your statement an interpretation of the rules or has this been stated somewhere?

The sneak attack damage is tied to the attack it is made with, in your case the whip. The extra damage from the flaming ability is just that, extra. When a caster is using a spell, the spell is what the SA is being tied to. This has been stated several times in 3.5 and is still that way in Pathfinder.

[the David]

There are 2 magical whips in the Broken Item Compendium that do lethal damage instead of non-lethal.

[pres man]

Funny thing is, you can make a whip vorpal. You won't do anything most of the time, but on rare occasions you could take someone's head off.