Whip of Spiders, et al; how do they interact with whip feats?

[LessPopMoreFizz]

Quote:

You summon hundreds of Diminutive spiders, which cling together in the form of a whip made for a creature of your size. You can wield this object as if it were an actual whip, except you make a melee touch attack with it instead of

a regular attack. Any creature you strike with the whip takes swarm damage as if it were attacked by a spider swarm (1d6 points of damage plus poison and distraction, Bestiary 258). The swarm whip is able to damage creatures with armor or natural armor, even if a normal whip could not. It cannot be used to make bull rush, grapple, or trip attacks, and (unlike a swarm) is subject to a miss chance for concealment and cover.

Okay, so it can't be used for combat maneuvers, and it does lethal damage, but what about the other features of Whip Mastery/Improved Whip Mastery? (AOOs, not provoking AOOs)

Can you power attack or piranha strike with an insect whip? Does it require proficiency with whips? Do weapon focus and other similar feats apply? Can you do precision damage such as sneak attack with a bug whip?

All of the above questions can also be applied to River Whip (along with, what are the actual stats for River Whip's whip damage? Is it just a normal whip?)

[LessPopMoreFizz]

Any hope of an answer for this one?

[Calth]

Unless a special exception is made, like the combat maneuver one in the spell, a weapon-like spell counts as a weapon for all effects, so yes whip mastery would apply.

Ray: Do rays count as weapons for the purpose of spells and effects that affect weapons?

Yes. (See also this FAQ item for a similar question about rays and weapon feats.)

For example, a bard's inspire courage says it affects "weapon damage rolls," which is worded that way so don't try to add the bonus to a spell like fireball. However, rays are treated as weapons, whether they're from spells, a monster ability, a class ability, or some other source, so the inspire courage bonus applies to ray attack rolls and ray damage rolls.

The same rule applies to weapon-like spells such as flame blade, mage's sword, and spiritual weapon--effects that affect weapons work on these spells.

[LessPopMoreFizz]

The outstanding questions then are:

What is River Whip's damage? Is it non lethal?

Do attacks with these spells provoke an AOO as with a normal Whip?

[Calth]

LessPopMoreFizz wrote:

The outstanding questions then are:

What is River Whip's damage? Is it non lethal?

Do attacks with these spells provoke an AOO as with a normal Whip?

River whip would deal damage as a normal whip. Unless you have something negating the normal AoO, they would provoke.

[Mark Knights]

Does the caster need proficiency in whips to not receive a penalty?

[FrodoOf9Fingers]

Mark Knights wrote:

Does the caster need proficiency in whips to not receive a penalty?

shush, we don't want everybody to think about that :P

"Wizards can't have nice spells!"