Arcane Assailant

[imagehunter]

If I imbue an Azimuth laser rifle with the "Rune of the Eldritch Knight" magic sigil will it do full damage to an incorporeal enemy?

[Robert Gooding]

Incorporeal
An incorporeal creature doesn’t have a physical body. It is immune to all nonmagical kinetic attacks. All energy attacks and magical kinetic attacks deal half damage (50%) to it. An incorporeal creature takes full damage from other incorporeal creatures and effects, as well as from all force effects. Corporeal spells and effects that do not cause damage have only a 50% chance of affecting an incorporeal creature. An incorporeal creature is immune to critical hits.

Nope, all energy attacks do half damage, magic or otherwise

[Greydoch]

long as the only requirement for hitting an incorporeal being is a magic weapon than the rune of the eldritch knight would sufficiently make your weapon magic. in fact I think the only thing the rune does is amke your weapon magic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

[Robert Gooding]

See rules reference above on page 264

[Pax Miles]

imagehunter wrote:

If I imbue an Azimuth laser rifle with the "Rune of the Eldritch Knight" magic sigil will it do full damage to an incorporeal enemy?

No, Half damage.

At 5th level, you can pick a free bonus upgrade for your weapon, which should include Ghost Killer as an option (Though my book lists Ethereal, which doesn't have a related upgrade description....I think they meant Ghost Killer).

[Pax Miles]

Just to add, if you used Arcane Assailiant on a weapon that normally can't do any damage to Incorporeal, it would do half damage.

So rather than buffing a weapon that can already damage the incorporeal, you could buff a different weapon.

[imagehunter]

Thanks guys, I'm doing a single level dip in to Soldier and was weighing the option of Arcane assailant instead of Blitz. My reasoning was that magic weapons will be hard to come by and expensive so Rune of the Eldritch Knight might come in handy. But it sounds like Blitz is the more pragmatic option.

[baggageboy]

You can pick up a spell caster dabbler feat at level 5, then you qualify for myatic strike which is magic to all weapons of you want. It's a slower way to get it, but more versatile.

Also keep in mind any weapon with any fusion is magical, so a level 1 weapon with a fusion is only 120 Dr more than normal.

[quindraco]

imagehunter wrote:

Thanks guys, I'm doing a single level dip in to Soldier and was weighing the option of Arcane assailant instead of Blitz. My reasoning was that magic weapons will be hard to come by and expensive so Rune of the Eldritch Knight might come in handy. But it sounds like Blitz is the more pragmatic option.

Magic weapons are cheap and abundant, as Baggageboy pointed out. Most soldier dips grab Blitz, although most soldier dips I've seen are Solarian based. My strong recommendation for any build is to shop from Blitz, Guard, and Sharpshoot for a 1-level Soldier dip.

[Robert Gooding]

Works even better for envoys

[Pax Miles]

imagehunter wrote:

Thanks guys, I'm doing a single level dip in to Soldier and was weighing the option of Arcane assailant instead of Blitz. My reasoning was that magic weapons will be hard to come by and expensive so Rune of the Eldritch Knight might come in handy. But it sounds like Blitz is the more pragmatic option.

Anything with a Fusion in it, is a magic weapon in starfinder. So they are really, really cheap. 120 credits to give a level 1 weapon a level 1 fusion.

That said, Arcane Assailant does have advantages.

For starters, Rune of the Eldritch Knight (Ex) has 3 advantages:

The first advantage is that it's free.

Second advantage is that is that it can apply to any weapon. Level 0 clubs, for example, can be affected. Starship weapons can also be affected. You don't even have to wield the weapon, it could be wielded by another character or a drone. Disposable weapons can be affected too, like Grenades, though obviously once used the disposable weapon is still disposed so you'd need to use the Rune again on another weapon.

Third advantage is that it increases the item level of the weapon for durability purposes. This stacks with the Durable weapon fusion to really make your weapon near indestructible. Helps if your soldier is enamored with a particular weapon and legitimately fears sunder attempts (or other means of damaging weapons).

All the other abilities in Arcane Assailant just build on these advantages. Depending on your character concept and build, this could be a very impressive option for a soldier or as a level dip for another class.

[gustavo iglesias]

Greydoch Beta wrote:

long as the only requirement for hitting an incorporeal being is a magic weapon than the rune of the eldritch knight would sufficiently make your weapon magic. in fact I think the only thing the rune does is amke your weapon magic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

All lasers DR, and being magic is pointles vs Fire Resist.

Arcane asailant does very little unless you use bullets. It is a not underwhelming