Holy weapon fusion clarification

[theGlitch]

The fusion allows to ignore DR and energy resistances of evil dragons, outsiders and undeads. What about energy immunity? Does it overcome that too?

[Jimbles the Mediocre]

I would assume not. Energy immunity is much, much more powerful than energy resistance.

[Metaphysician]

Yeah, without an explicit ruling, I would not say that fusions let you bypass immunity. Besides, given the nature of the setting, you really shouldn't hand out energy immunity very often, anyway. Fantasy settings can handwave "really really durable" as "immune", since there's a cap on how much energy damage gets practically tossed around. That goes out the door when you have starship heavy guns and antimatter warheads and the possibility of being tossed into the sun.

. . . though now that I think about it, do any starship weapons even *do* "typed" damage?

[Fuzzypaws]

Metaphysician wrote:

. . . though now that I think about it, do any starship weapons even *do* "typed" damage?

By RAW, no. I've been toying around with making the weapons Energy, Kinetic or Explosive and establishing a "rock paper scissors" like you see in most games and settings. Generally I am thinking that energy weapons would either do more damage or have an attack bonus against shields, but would do less damage or have an attack penalty against the hull if the shields in that quadrant are down. Meanwhile, kinetic weapons would be worse against shields but better against the hull, and explosive weapons are "neutral" and get no bonuses or penalties vs shields and hull. But I haven't fully settled on anything yet.

[Pax Miles]

Fuzzypaws wrote:

Metaphysician wrote:

. . . though now that I think about it, do any starship weapons even *do* "typed" damage?

By RAW, no. I've been toying around with making the weapons Energy, Kinetic or Explosive and establishing a "rock paper scissors" like you see in most games and settings. Generally I am thinking that energy weapons would either do more damage or have an attack bonus against shields, but would do less damage or have an attack penalty against the hull if the shields in that quadrant are down. Meanwhile, kinetic weapons would be worse against shields but better against the hull, and explosive weapons are "neutral" and get no bonuses or penalties vs shields and hull. But I haven't fully settled on anything yet.

A soldier with the Arcane Assailant style can affect starship weapons with their Rune (as far as I know, they count as weapons....), so could get some bonus energy damage that way.

[baggageboy]

As the rune is a class feature and doesn't specifically say you can use it in starship combat you cannot, It would be one of the many things banned by the line prohibiting such things.

[Owen K. C. Stephens]

The holy fusion does not bypass total immunity, by design.

An evil fire elemental is still actually made of fire.

[Andreas Forster]

Owen K. C. Stephens wrote:

The holy fusion does not bypass total immunity, by design.

An evil fire elemental is still actually made of fire.

I can get behind the idea for creatures with the elemental subtype. As you mentioned, it really makes no sense to harm a creature with fire when that creature is made out of fire. Although I believe the average elemental is neutral anyway.

But what about fiends? Wouldn't you think it should be possible to harm a devil with a holy laser?
Or dragons? As far as I've seen, standard dragons have no natural resistances, just immunities. So why would they even be listed then?

[HammerJack]

Andreas Forster wrote:

Owen K. C. Stephens wrote:

The holy fusion does not bypass total immunity, by design.

An evil fire elemental is still actually made of fire.

I can get behind the idea for creatures with the elemental subtype. As you mentioned, it really makes no sense to harm a creature with fire when that creature is made out of fire. Although I believe the average elemental is neutral anyway.

But what about fiends? Wouldn't you think it should be possible to harm a devil with a holy laser?
Or dragons? As far as I've seen, standard dragons have no natural resistances, just immunities. So why would they even be listed then?

Its the space future. Dragons aren't limited to relying on their natural abilities.

[Andreas Forster]

HammerJack wrote:

Andreas Forster wrote:

Owen K. C. Stephens wrote:

The holy fusion does not bypass total immunity, by design.

An evil fire elemental is still actually made of fire.

I can get behind the idea for creatures with the elemental subtype. As you mentioned, it really makes no sense to harm a creature with fire when that creature is made out of fire. Although I believe the average elemental is neutral anyway.

But what about fiends? Wouldn't you think it should be possible to harm a devil with a holy laser?
Or dragons? As far as I've seen, standard dragons have no natural resistances, just immunities. So why would they even be listed then?

Its the space future. Dragons aren't limited to relying on their natural abilities.

I know they can have resistances, that's why I mentioned standard dragons (the ones you find in the alien archive without modifications).

Also, I find it a bit hard to understand why holyness should go around a dragon's Thermal Capacitor but not it's natural immunity.

[BigNorseWolf]

Andreas Forster wrote:

Also, I find it a bit hard to understand why holyness should go around a dragon's Thermal Capacitor but not it's natural immunity.

Game balance reasons.

But I think the better question is why make an item that lowers resistances and includes a creature that typically doesn't have them?