Here is the text from the material:
"When a weapon constructed of wyroot confirms a critical hit, it absorbs some of the life force of the creature hit. The creature hit is unharmed and the wyroot weapon gains 1 life point."
When it states that the creature hit is unharmed does that mean unharmed by the life force absorption or unharmed by the critical hit?
I can see it reading two ways:
1) The target is critically hit (takes critical hit point damage) and has its lifeforce drained (which doesn't harm it in any way-no negative levels, loss of con, other things associated with that concept, etc).
2) The target is critically hit (takes no hit point damage because it is unharmed) and has its lifeforce drained (which also doesn't harm it in any way).
Am I the only one confused by this?
-AK
Here is the text from the material:
"When a weapon constructed of wyroot confirms a critical hit, it absorbs some of the life force of the creature hit. The creature hit is unharmed and the wyroot weapon gains 1 life point."
When it states that the creature hit is unharmed does that mean unharmed by the life force absorption or unharmed by the critical hit?
I can see it reading two ways:
1) The target is critically hit (takes critical hit point damage) and has its lifeforce drained (which doesn't harm it in any way-no negative levels, loss of con, other things associated with that concept, etc).
2) The target is critically hit (takes no hit point damage because it is unharmed) and has its lifeforce drained (which also doesn't harm it in any way).
Am I the only one confused by this?
-AK
I wondered the exact same thing.
I'm pretty sure it is just supposed to mean that the "absorbing life force" doesn't do any additional damage.
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I'm pretty sure it is just supposed to mean that the "absorbing life force" doesn't do any additional damage.
This is probably the right interpretation, sadly the item description is very confusing.
For something that probably is more powerful that a Black blade capstone power
Life Drinker (Su): At 19th level, each time the magus kills a living creature with the black blade, he can pick one of the following effects: the black blade restores 2 points to its arcane pool; the black blade restores 1 point to its arcane pool and the magus restores 1 point to his arcane pool; the magus gains a number of temporary hit points equal to the black blade's ego (these temporary hit points last until spent or 1 minute, whichever is shorter). The creature killed must have a number of Hit Dice equal to half the magus's character level for this to occur.
wyroot is really cheap and easy to get and use.
There was a dev answer in one a ask anything thread that stated it does damage and has said drain effect. So I think it is as was said. The "unharmed" part was meant to make it clear that the drain does no added damage.
As for it being better then black blade capstone. Ehh the big problem is that there is no one handed weapons made of wood that have a large crit range. So in practice you are not getting that much AP out of this and are losing a great deal of damage since Magus count on crits for damage output (since a crit for them doubles the spall damage too.)
Staff magus would love it of course but sadly that archetype is a bit weak.
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Staff magus
Magus with the Wand wielder arcana with a smallish sized staff (a 4' staff has roughly the size of a club, not that of a combat quarterstaff, so a lenient GM could allow its use one handed with the damage and characteristic of a club)
Axe wielding magus
Magus with most reach weapons
There are options, generally, as you say, at the expense of some of the critical range.
Some people has suggested using ironwood on a wyroot wooden scimitar. There are a few magic items that are made of wood but have as sturdy and efficient as steel. It would require to craft a custom magic item but it is not impossible.
Ironwood spell specifically states "Normal Wood" which wyroot is not. I as of now don't see any axes with a good crit range. All reach weapon other then whip are two handed thus they would have to not use spell combat. (I can see this working with Skirnir and 3 lvls of phalanx solider. But dipping with magus is costly and Skirnir is a weak archetype while very flavorful.)
So yes there are options but none of them don't pay more then a fair price for it. So someone can give up raw damage in exchange for extended resources? That pretty much is a example of perfect balance. Coin cost is irrelevant as what is really traded for it matters a whole lot more.
Now where wyroot really shines is for a monk now that they fixed flurry to work with a single weapon. More hits if more chances for a crit after all.
That might be the case. But then again wyroot while you can make things normally made of wood from it, it is in fact not wood. So that there is also reason enough to disallow it.
The fact of the matter is you are arguing munchkin cheese Vs reality. In reality without trying to twist rules to fit ones powergaming it is perfectly balanced.
Even if some DM was short sighted enough to let someone do such rules bending things one dispel and that "sword" snaps as there is no way a thin blade made of something it was never meant to be made of could stand up to real use.
The Terbutje is the goto wyroot weapon in my opinion as it is a long sword made of wood and once it is masterworked it looses the fragile weakness.
Some people has suggested using ironwood on a wyroot wooden scimitar. There are a few magic items that are made of wood but have as sturdy and efficient as steel. It would require to craft a custom magic item but it is not impossible.
Ironwood isn't on the permanency list, though. Any way to get that to stick indefinitely? Not every Magus has a high rank Druid pal.
That might be the case. But then again wyroot while you can make things normally made of wood from it, it is in fact not wood. So that there is also reason enough to disallow it.
All fibrous parts of a tree would be considered wood, as in the branches, trunk and roots.
Wyroot
Source: Advanced Race Guide.
The root of the wyrwood tree has a peculiar quality.~