negative Damage, not Negative Damage

[jupistar]

I'm just curious, how does a weasel ever hurt anyone and not heal them with a bite that does 1d3-4 dmg. I'm sure this question has been asked before, but I kept getting lost in all the Negative Damage posts.

[Gorbacz]

Your curiosity outmatches your searching skills.

"Minimum Damage: If penalties reduce the damage result to less than 1, a hit still deals 1 point of nonlethal damage."

[jupistar]

Of course, and now I even remember that rule. Thanks.

[Ed Wiscombe]

My question is why did the weasel get designed with 1d3-4 dmg. Why not just give it 1 dmg.

[Jiggy]

Because if you cast bull's strength and magic fang on it, and also affect it with a +2 Inspire Courage, it will end up dealing 1d3+1 damage instead of the 6 damage it would deal if the base damage was simply 1.

Also, the 1 point minimum is nonlethal damage, whereas "damge: 1" would be lethal damage.

And finally, attack damage is not assigned on a case-by-case basis. It's calculated based on stats, size, etc.

[Jeraa]

Or Animal Growth. A weasel under the effects of an Animal Growth spell would have a Strength of 11, and do 1d4 damage with its bite attack.

As Jiggy said, natural attack damage is generally based on size. Universal Monster Rules Scroll down to Natural Attacks. Tiny creatures generally do 1d3 damage with a bite attack.

[Ed Wiscombe]

I'd missed the part about the minimum being non-lethal. That makes sense on a normal basis (without any enhancements) now.

[Cyberwolf2xs]

So... Weasels usually die of starvation because they have trouble killing anything? ;)

[Jeraa]

Cyberwolf2xs wrote:

So... Weasels usually die of starvation because they have trouble killing anything? ;)

Quote:

If a creature's nonlethal damage is equal to his total maximum hit points (not his current hit points), all further nonlethal damage is treated as lethal damage. This does not apply to creatures with regeneration. Such creatures simply accrue additional nonlethal damage, increasing the amount of time they remain unconscious.

Since most little animals have 1 hit point, 1 point of nonlethal damage (1 bite) knocks them out, each additional bite will deal 1 point of lethal damage.

Edit: Right. Pathfinder made little creatures have more hitpoints (no fractional hit dice.) So it takes a few bites of nonlethal damage, then the lethal damage starts.