Warpriest with battle poi - what damage?


Rules Questions


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What damage would a warpriest wielding a battle poi deal?
1)Would it increase the fire damage to the sacred weapon damage?
2)Would it deal sacred weapon damage in addition to fire damage?
The idea is to have a goblin warpriest with the burn burn burn feat to deal 1d4 fire damage from battle pois +1d4 fire damage from burn burn burn + whatever.

3) If I made my battle poi magic, would it then count as magic attack that doesn't get the +1d4 from burn burn burn?

Grand Lodge

Does he have Weapon Focus(Battle Poi)?

If so, it changes the base damage.

Everything else still applies.

Stuff that you would normally add to the attack/damage, still are added.

None of it goes away.


1) Yes.
2) Yes, if I remember the description correctly.
3) Technically, the weapon is no longer a non-magical source and thus is ineligible for the Burn! Burn! Burn! bonus. This is a little silly, as the base damage is mundane in nature and ought to still count.


What I wanted to know is the following. Normally damage for a battle poi is: 0 (physical damage) + 1d4 fire damage + whatever. For a warpriest with weapon focus (battle poi) would it be...

A) 1d4 (small warpriest base damage) + 1d4 fire, increasing the 0 base damage to that of the weapon.

B) 0 (Still no physical damage) + 1d4 fire damage (that will increase as per warpriest base damage)

In other words, what exchanged with the warpriest sacred weapon damage, the non-existent physical damage or the fire damage?


Gingerbreadman wrote:

What I wanted to know is the following. Normally damage for a battle poi is: 0 (physical damage) + 1d4 fire damage + whatever. For a warpriest with weapon focus (battle poi) would it be...

A) 1d4 (small warpriest base damage) + 1d4 fire, increasing the 0 base damage to that of the weapon.

B) 0 (Still no physical damage) + 1d4 fire damage (that will increase as per warpriest base damage)

In other words, what exchanged with the warpriest sacred weapon damage, the non-existent physical damage or the fire damage?

Basically, you're positing that the Battle Poi does 0 base damage +1d4 fire. Naturally, this raises some questions. But if you change your assumptions to "The Battle Poi does 1d4 fire damage", the uncertainty disappears. And I don't see anything in the description of the Battle Poi to contradict that - on the contrary, your position that they do 0 physical damage (which is a very different thing from "not doing physical damage" - 0 is a number that you can add to) is unsupported.

tl;dr: Battle Poi does 1d4 fire damage, anything that modifies weapon damage applies.


Pupsocket wrote:


tl;dr: Battle Poi does 1d4 fire damage, anything that modifies weapon damage applies.

Do I understand you right that you would add everything that modifies weapon damage as fire damage?


Gingerbreadman wrote:
Pupsocket wrote:


tl;dr: Battle Poi does 1d4 fire damage, anything that modifies weapon damage applies.

Do I understand you right that you would add everything that modifies weapon damage as fire damage?

Yep. Just like everything you add to your axe would be added as slashing damage - the battle poi is a weapon with damage type: fire


Pupsocket wrote:
Gingerbreadman wrote:
Pupsocket wrote:


tl;dr: Battle Poi does 1d4 fire damage, anything that modifies weapon damage applies.

Do I understand you right that you would add everything that modifies weapon damage as fire damage?
Yep. Just like everything you add to your axe would be added as slashing damage - the battle poi is a weapon with damage type: fire

That's the way I read it. It's the only way it makes sense in my head.

Shadow Lodge

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Just like if you sneak attack with shocking grasp, the extra damage is electric.
This got me thinking though, you could take weapon focus ray and replace your 1d3 ray of frost damage with your warpriest weapon damage. Not particularly powerful, but potentially interesting.


I apologize for the necroing... But I was looking into a battle poi warpriest and stumbled across this post... I too wondered if the poi could be a sacred weapon and how it would work. But then I stumbled on this sentence of Sacred Weapon...

Sacred Weapon wrote:
This increase in damage does not affect any other aspect of the weapon, and doesn't apply to alchemical items, bombs, or other weapons that only deal energy damage.

So that would mean a warpriest using a battle poi would do nothing, right? Or is the fire from the battle poi not energy damage?

This also would apply to the ray mentioned by gnoams also, it wouldnt change the damage of it...

Scarab Sages

Fire damage is energy damage, so sacred weapon wouldn't affect it.


Imbicatus wrote:
Fire damage is energy damage, so sacred weapon wouldn't affect it.

That's what I thought. So I guess that everybody in this thread previously missed that sentence. Which is understandable, I did at first too. That sentence is a little disappointing though.

Similar question though, would you be able to apply sacred weapon damage to a torch? (Ignoring the debate about improvised weapons and all that comes with it and assuming that it is valid to select weapon focus with a torch).
I'm assuming it would affect the bludgeoning damage of the torch and you'd still get to add the fire as normal

Scarab Sages

A torch is an improvised weapon, so it would require GM approval. You normally can't take weapon focus in improvised weapons. That said, if you are a warpriest of Asmodeus and you have the torch-bearer feat, I would allow it. If it is allowed, the sacred weapon damage would be applied to the mace damage, and you would do one point of fire damage as normal.


Imbicatus wrote:
A torch is an improvised weapon, so it would require GM approval. You normally can't take weapon focus in improvised weapons. That said, if you are a warpriest of Asmodeus and you have the torch-bearer feat, I would allow it. If it is allowed, the sacred weapon damage would be applied to the mace damage, and you would do one point of fire damage as normal.

I'm assuming you mean the torch handling feat, cause torch bearer gives you a companion that holds your torch basically haha. I understand the logic of saying you need the feat though, it makes it a simple weapon which gets past the whole improvised debate. But why do you say if you're a warpriest of Asmodeus? Why would it be exclusive?


because that feat is an Asmodeus-only feat - the PFSRD files off god requirements due to OGL requirements


Snakers wrote:
because that feat is an Asmodeus-only feat - the PFSRD files off god requirements due to OGL requirements

I'm not seeing this? I even flipped to the page in the book to make sure, I don't see it listed as requiring you worship Asmodeus (which wouldn't make sense anyway, he doesn't strike me as the god of torches... Much less the only one you could worship to be better with them).


There are two, separately named versions of this feat in two different books. One, Firebrand from Faiths of Corruption is Asmodeus only. Torchbearer in ISG is not restricted.


Java Man wrote:
There are two, separately named versions of this feat in two different books. One, Firebrand from Faiths of Corruption is Asmodeus only. Torchbearer in ISG is not restricted.

Ahh I see. You guys calling it torchbearer keeps throwing me off too. Cause that's a different feat than torch handling (torch handling is the one that adds torches as a simple weapon and all the other jazz, torchbearer gives a companion that has torch handling).

Firebrand seems like a bad deal though... Torch handling gives you the same thing and more. Or am I reading it wrong?

Sczarni

C4M3R0N wrote:
Imbicatus wrote:
Fire damage is energy damage, so sacred weapon wouldn't affect it.
That's what I thought. So I guess that everybody in this thread previously missed that sentence.

That sentence didn't exist when this thread was created.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber

Firebrand--Faiths of Corruption, Asmodeus-only, torch deals damage as light mace and no improvised weapon penalty
Torch Bearer--Inner Sea Gods, same as above but not deity-restricted
Torch Handling--Dungeoneer's Handbook, torches are now simple weapons (able to take feats, deals damage as cestud) and other stuff
Torchbearer--Dungeoneer's Handbook, companion to carry torch for you

P.S. Asmodeus is also god of fire


I had no idea there were so many feats of the same name or idea... Haha

Nefreet wrote:
C4M3R0N wrote:
Imbicatus wrote:
Fire damage is energy damage, so sacred weapon wouldn't affect it.
That's what I thought. So I guess that everybody in this thread previously missed that sentence.
That sentence didn't exist when this thread was created.

That makes a lot more sense then. I wonder why it was changed...

Sczarni

That's the point of a public playtest. To see what the community does with it.

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