Blade of Justice + instrument of zeal

[K1]

Hi there,

Since blade of Justice takes any effects like it was a retributive strike, it is also elegible for a instrument of zeal critical effect, isn't it?

[beowulf99]

K1 wrote:

Hi there,

Since blade of Justice takes any effects like it was a retributive strike, it is also elegible for a instrument of zeal critical effect, isn't it?

That is actually not clear. Instrument of Zeal calls out 2 specific abilities it can be used with: Smite Evil and Retributive Strike. Blade of Justice, "applies all effects that normally apply on a Retributive Strike (such as divine smite)," but doesn't actually seem to count as a Retributive Strike in and of itself.

So no, I don't think the two abilities actually work together as designed and I believe that is on purpose. Against an Evil creature you would be gaining a total of +5 weapon dice, 4 from blade of justice as the additional die are not due to the Critical Hit and 1 from Instrument of Zeal which is triggered by the Critical Hit and thus not doubled.

There is a difference between acting as an ability and being an ability.

At least that is my interpretation of the situation.

[K1]

To me seems "everything that goes with one, also goes with the other".

The other issue here is that it states all the effects.

But apart from divine smite and instrument of zeal, I can't find anything else. And since it is plural, and used divine smite as an example, what remains is the other effect, which is instrument of zeal.

But I agree that, as always, the way they decided to state things is a mess.