Aura of Prescience + Calcific Touch

[Wormyxl]

Aura of Prescience says that it grants you a +2 insight bonus on all damage rolls... How does this interact with ability damage rolls such as those from Calcific Touch?

[Kazaan]

I forget off-hand where I saw it, but the basic summary is that if it says, "bonus to damage rolls", it's talking about bonuses to HP damage rolls.

[GM Lamplighter]

Agree - I think it is one of those weird pockets of the CRB, like the definition of damage or something.

[Finlanderboy]

I looked over everything in the core and I can not find where it says this. Maybe the other two are conufsing ability drain, but ability damage should be granted the benefits to modifiers.

[Archaeik]

Damage wrote:

If your attack succeeds, you deal damage. The type of weapon used determines the amount of damage you deal.

Damage reduces a target's current hit points.

However, critical hits include a clause to multiply ability damage/drain...

Even so, the rules typically tell you what you can do, and this is often taken to mean 'only can do', which is likely true in this case. Ergo, while it is logical to infer from the section on critical hits that "ability damage is damage", it doesn't seem to be the case from an overall reading of the rules.

There may be some argument to be made that non-specific* "damage" bonuses can apply to any damage, RAI, it is simply too abusable to reasonably conclude as the intent. (Now you have me trying to figure out the best way this could be abused :p)

*by non-specific, I mean things like AoP, or Touch of Rage, or the Pain Taster feature; things like Weapon Spec or Arcane Strike restrict how the bonus can be applied.

[Rikkan]

Well in the CRB FAQ there is this:

Quote:

Note that Weapon Specialization (ray) only adds to hit point damage caused by a ray attack that would normally deal hit point damage; it doesn't increase ability score damage or drain (such as the Dexterity drain from polar ray), penalties to ability scores (such as from ray of enfeeblement) or drain, negative levels (such as from enervation), or other damage or penalties from rays.

Not sure if that is specific to Weapon spec though.

[Cap. Darling]

I am gonna have to agree. It is only HP damage that get that kind of bonus.