| 1 person marked this as FAQ candidate. |
I'm trying to get opinions—or even an official ruling—on what exactly is a "weapon" in regard of certain effects, and what is not. For example:
An affected ally receives a +1 morale bonus on saving throws against charm and fear effects and a +1 competence bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls.
It's obvious that any attack gets the bonus on the attack roll. But what exactly qualifies as "weapon damage"? Obviously, manufactured weapons. Do natural weapons get the bonus? Do "weapon-like" spells (i.e. those that require an attack roll)? What about "weapon-like" spell-like or supernatural abilities? An alchemist's bomb?
Whenever you are using bardic performance to create a spell-like or supernatural effect, allies within 30 feet of you deal an extra 1d6 points of sonic damage with successful weapon attacks.
You take a –4 penalty on weapon attack rolls.
Again. What is a "weapon attack"? do these bonuses and penalties apply to natural weapons? Melee and ranged touch attacks made by "weapon-like" spells, spell-like or supernatural abilities?
So you could argue, if the effects apply to all of these, why would they need to be called out specifically as "weapon attack" or "weapon damage" rolls? Wouldn't simply "attack" or "damage" rolls say the same thing? But then, you can take Weapon Focus for natural weapons. We have a FAQ entry that says you can take Weapon Focus for attacks like "ray" or "bomb". It stands to reason that anything that qualifies for Weapon Focus should qualify as a weapon, right?
What do you think?
Well, natural attacks are explicitly excluded from qualifying as weapons -
Most creatures possess one or more natural attacks (attacks made without a weapon).
Weapon-like attacks are tougher and honestly, I can't find anything textually that makes it clear. My argument would be that a "weapon" is anything that is listed in the rules under the category "weapon". But it's not a position I feel really strongly about. Under Weapon Focus, the rules appear to separate "ray" as not being a weapon except for the use of the feat:
Choose one type of weapon. You can also choose unarmed strike or grapple (or ray, if you are a spellcaster) as your weapon for the purposes of this feat.
So, I think I'm becoming more convinced that "weapon" means "the specific items listed under the category 'weapon' in the rules" and excludes natural attacks, rays, unarmed strikes, and grapples.
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
For the purpose of the Blackened Curse, you do not take the -4 to hit on ranged touch attacks with rays or other spells that allow attack rolls, at least per it's it's author.
Imbicatus - that link is helpful for that particular spell but it also linked to this FAQ: Ray: Do rays count as weapons for the purpose of spells and effects that affect weapons?
The answer there was "yes". So, it looks like rays do count as weapons for spells (except for Blackened Curse) but natural attacks, unarmed attacks, grapples, and such do not.