Looks like my original post attempt got eaten due to site maintenance timing. Very new to Starfinder, learning differences/etc.
Short version:
Is weapon specialization bonus dmg applied before or after DR or Elemental Resistance as appropriate.
So 2d6 laser vs a Fire Resistance 15 can do potentially no dmg (unless maybe a crit) in the hands of a newbie, but that same laser could potential due damage even without a crit by a guy who adds at least enough specialization to boost the total damage over 15?
So if that newbie rolled an 8 for a x2 crit, they'd do 1 point of dmg?
I'm assuming its 'figure out all damage including bonuses, then reduce by damage reduction/resistance' but the 'adding weapon specialization damage to a purely elemental attack' is sorta new for me.
The numerical part of a creature’s damage reduction is the
amount of bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage the
creature ignores from each attack.
A creature with resistance to energy has the ability to ignore
some energy damage of a certain type (acid, cold, electricity,
fire, or sonic) per attack.
DR is the same, it is on a per attack basis. Remember also if either of these negates all damage then it also negates most special effects (like say Stun on a crit...if the crit doesn't exceed the ER/DR number then that special effect is negated)
Sorry, so I was looking at the monster stat blocks for Starfinder and was wondering if I understood this right.
Are the blocks saying any specialization bonus dmg to a weapon attack is also the same element/type bonus?
Like I'm seeing:
AG accelerator rifle +15 (3d4+7 P) or
corona laser pistol +15 (2d4+7 F; critical 1d4 burn)
for the Aeon Trooper. So if you were immune to Fire, you would be immune to a laser pistol (that does fire) regardless of the shooter being level 7 or level 20, since the bonus dmg is also the same type as the base dmg?
And then rolling that to Trick Attack, is the 'additional damage' also considered the same type of damage as the primary attack, so in this case you functionally would do no damage using a laser (fire) vs something immune to fire, even if you succeed on a Trick Attack?
Ala, your level 5 operative succeeds on their roll for a trick attack (I dunno, they bluff or something) and use their Laser Pistol doing 2d4+5 F plus additional dmg via trick at 3d8. But regardless of what they roll, since their target is Immune to Fire, they do no actual damage?
Now if this was just damage resistance/elemental resistance, rolling well could be useful since it would be applied as a sum against the DR/resistance, but since its flat immunity, it doesn't matter if you're a level 20 Operative using a Level 20 laser rifle, it just doesn't matter via a foe Immune to Fire?
Weapon specialization adds a bonus to weapon damage. Weapon damage has a type determined by the weapon and can be energy damage. Trick attack adds bonus damage dice to weapon attack and does not specify damage type as any other than the weapon so the same should apply unless we get an errata/clarification changing it.
Immunity to fire generally defeats laser weapons but remember that in Starfinder energy immunities are supposed to be rare.