summon monster celestial template smite evil effect?

[rangerjeff]

hmmm... PRD says "smite evil 1/day as a swift action (adds Cha bonus to attack rolls and damage bonus equal to HD against evil foes; smite persists until the target is dead or the celestial creature rests)"

um, Cha bonus equal to HD? what the heck does that mean?

looking at, for example, summon monster I celestial riding dog, which has 2 HD but like 6 Charisma. so, when it smites, either it gets +2/+2 vs evil enemy from HD, or no bonus from Cha.

[Cheapy]

Take a look at the hit points an animal has. It'll be something like 9 (2d8). That 2 in front of the d8 is how many "hit dice" it possesses.

Hit dice can be thought of as "levels". The races you play as all have "0 Racial Hit Dice", meaning that their hit dice is equal to their class levels, combined.

[RumpinRufus]

Quote:

adds Cha bonus to attack rolls

Quote:

adds damage bonus equal to HD

Two different effects. A creature with 12 charisma and 5 HD will get +1 to attack and +5 damage (when smiting an evil foe.)

[rangerjeff]

thanks for parsing the grammar for me, RumpinRufus.

now, if Cha is 6, and HD 2, does that mean -2/+2 when smiting? or is it just the bonus, not penalty, that's applied, so +0/+2?

[RumpinRufus]

I believe that since it says "charisma bonus" instead of "charisma modifier", you can ignore it if you have a charisma penalty (so if its cha is 11 or less smiting has no effect on your to-hit.) But, I don't have a reference for that handy.

[Cheapy]

If the game says "bonus", they mean "bonus", not modifier.

So it'd be +0/+2.