
danielct18579 |
We are playing a campaign that is using a lot of tech stuff. We are using weapons that are counted as fire and electricity damage, all energy based. There is a rouge that attacks and gets sneak attack damage. When we fight robots, the electricity damage is increased. We can't figure out how it should work with sneak attack. Does the extra damage from the sneak attack also count as energy (fire/electric) and get increased as well?
Hope this makes sense.

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Think of precision damage like this: you deliver the damage directly to the circuit board instead of the armor. Will it mess up the electronics more if delivered directly to the board? Yes. Yes it will. So more "electric" and/or "fire" damage is delivered to the important bits. That is precision damage. Technically it is untyped damage, but realistically you deliver more of the same attack to a sensitive part. The reason it is "the same subtype" is because DR5/P would stop it, but if you use a piercing weapon, you bypass DR, thus all the sneak attack is applied as P damage. But technically, nowhere does the RAW ever say that sneak attack is the same type as the original attack. And a good argument could be made that it is simply untyped, and that only the normal weapon damage would be stopped by DR in the first place, leading to an entire thread about how untyped is either "not normal weapon damage" or is and is stopped by DR. Suffice to say, if you have a weapon that bypasses DR, it applies in full. If the DR stops the weapon, it stops some precision damage from the weapon as well is how everyone rules on it. Hope I didn't open a can of worms. Subtype is usually immaterial after DR is bypassed or not. I can see where "immunity to" could conflict with this, however. And how quickly we could get into a "the precision damage is straight force applied to the board, not electricity." discussion. But if the board is immune to electricity, no amount delivered to the circuitry would damage it, N'est-ce Pas?

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Think of precision damage like this: you deliver the damage directly to the circuit board instead of the armor. Will it mess up the electronics more if delivered directly to the board? Yes. Yes it will. So more "electric" and/or "fire" damage is delivered to the important bits. That is precision damage. Technically it is untyped damage, but realistically you deliver more of the same attack to a sensitive part. The reason it is "the same subtype" is because DR5/P would stop it, but if you use a piercing weapon, you bypass DR, thus all the sneak attack is applied as P damage. But technically, nowhere does the RAW ever say that sneak attack is the same type as the original attack. And a good argument could be made that it is simply untyped, and that only the normal weapon damage would be stopped by DR in the first place, leading to an entire thread about how untyped is either "not normal weapon damage" or is and is stopped by DR. Suffice to say, if you have a weapon that bypasses DR, it applies in full. If the DR stops the weapon, it stops some precision damage from the weapon as well is how everyone rules on it. Hope I didn't open a can of worms. Subtype is usually immaterial after DR is bypassed or not. I can see where "immunity to" could conflict with this, however. And how quickly we could get into a "the precision damage is straight force applied to the board, not electricity." discussion. But if the board is immune to electricity, no amount delivered to the circuitry would damage it, N'est-ce Pas?
No technically it isn't untyped damage. I am fairly sure that there is a FAQ or a Dev reply saying that, but the rules are enough:
Damage
If your attack succeeds, you deal damage. The type of weapon used determines the amount of damage you deal.
That applies to all the damage dealt by an attack unless it explicitly say differently (like the flame damage of a flaming weapon). As sneak attack don't say that it deal a specific kind of damage, the damage it deal is determined by the weapon used.

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No technically it isn't untyped damage. I am fairly sure that there is a FAQ or a Dev reply saying that, but the rules are enough:
PRD wrote:That applies to all the damage dealt by an attack unless it explicitly say differently (like the flame damage of a flaming weapon). As sneak attack don't say that it deal a specific kind of damage,...Damage
If your attack succeeds, you deal damage. The type of weapon used determines the amount of damage you deal.
This gets into the whole "is sneak attack / precision damage" a type, or just an adjustment to normal damage. I agree that it is an adjustment to normal damage. But it could be argued that since it has its own name, it is more specific, and thus an untyped different type of damage, just like the flaming damage on a flaming sword. And it is even written as an exception from the multiplier (normal damage on crit) so there is some merit to this position. But I agree that most GMs aren't going to rule it this way.
Personally, I've never thought of it having to go against immunity or resistance. Mostly because normal weapons don't typically do base elemental damage. Since the STR damage on a weapon like this would also be a similar bonus to damage which comes from STR (hitting harder/better) but is "untyped" in that it has no descriptor, it is pretty easy to see why the logical conclusion is that precision damage, being an adjustment to normal damage, would be treated just like STR and thus the same type as the weapon used. Makes pretty sound sense in this context. Doesn't matter if you are hitting harder (STR) or better (precision), you are still dealing damage from the weapon used.
So now, back to the OP's question: Do you divide the sneak attack damage in half, and apply half as fire and half as electric? Guess so.