What are the benefits of special material weapons for a Thaumaturge?

[Ravingdork]

WHat benefits, if any, does a thaumaturge get from wielding a weapon made from special materials (such as cold iron, silver, or adamantine)?

Is there much point besides the odd corner case (such as adamantine ignoring hardness) once you've accounted for the thaumaturge's class abilities?

[aobst128]

adamantine will usually get around specific physical resistances that will work with your mortal weakness/antithesis. Other than that, it could save you the action of using exploit vulnerability.

[HumbleGamer]

In addition to what pointed out by aobst, it would also result into:

- not having to choose between a metal or another ( no need to get different weapons made of different special materials).

- not having to waste tons of golds in special materials.

- being able to sacrifice special materials that trigger weaknesses in exchange of special materials that give different benefits ( for example, not having to choose cold iron would allow them to choose siccatite).

[Captain Morgan]

As discussed in the other thread, I think the Thaumaturge is intended to be able to still use Personal Antithesis on top of a normal weakness, even the rules don't quite work out that way.

[Xenocrat]

Yeah, but intended by who? There’s always the chance Mark thought it worked that way and everyone else giving feedback, editing, and development support knew it doesn’t inherently work that way.

[RexAliquid]

Special materials can either trigger weaknesses or bypass resistance. For a thaumaturge, the benefit is mostly for bypassing resistance.

[Perpdepog]

RexAliquid wrote:

Special materials can either trigger weaknesses or bypass resistance. For a thaumaturge, the benefit is mostly for bypassing resistance.

Basically this. Devils aren't weak to silver, for example, but are rather resistant to all physical damage that isn't silver, so it's less about adding on extra damage for a thaumaturge and more about ensuring their damage they're dealing isn't mitigated.

There are also lots of special materials that pile on extra damage, such as abysium's extra poison damage or hot and cold siccatite's fire and cold damage, respectively, that are just helpful on their own.

Edit: Also, I'm not sure of the rules here but it might also be helpful for triggering multiple weaknesses. If you're fighting a demon, for example, who has a weakness to both good and cold iron, and you are using a cold iron weapon, then presumably you can trigger the demon's good weakness as well with your abilities and do more damage.

[Xenocrat]

The thaumaturge induced weakness is to your strike, which would be the same instance as cold iron. If it was a steel sword with a holy rune, though, you’d trigger two weaknesses.

(Maybe)

[aobst128]

Perpdepog wrote:

RexAliquid wrote:

Special materials can either trigger weaknesses or bypass resistance. For a thaumaturge, the benefit is mostly for bypassing resistance.

Basically this. Devils aren't weak to silver, for example, but are rather resistant to all physical damage that isn't silver, so it's less about adding on extra damage for a thaumaturge and more about ensuring their damage they're dealing isn't mitigated.

There are also lots of special materials that pile on extra damage, such as abysium's extra poison damage or hot and cold siccatite's fire and cold damage, respectively, that are just helpful on their own.

Edit: Also, I'm not sure of the rules here but it might also be helpful for triggering multiple weaknesses. If you're fighting a demon, for example, who has a weakness to both good and cold iron, and you are using a cold iron weapon, then presumably you can trigger the demon's good weakness as well with your abilities and do more damage.

Ah, yes. The mortal weakness of all living creatures. Concentrated uranium. I love how it's this shadowy and mysterious power on Golarian but in starfinder, abysium is understood to just be a very radioactive metal. As a side note, the extra poison damage is compensated by reducing your maximum property runes by 1, so you don't edge out on damage. The critical effect is very good though. Sickened is potent.

[Perpdepog]

aobst128 wrote:

Perpdepog wrote:

RexAliquid wrote:

Special materials can either trigger weaknesses or bypass resistance. For a thaumaturge, the benefit is mostly for bypassing resistance.

Basically this. Devils aren't weak to silver, for example, but are rather resistant to all physical damage that isn't silver, so it's less about adding on extra damage for a thaumaturge and more about ensuring their damage they're dealing isn't mitigated.

There are also lots of special materials that pile on extra damage, such as abysium's extra poison damage or hot and cold siccatite's fire and cold damage, respectively, that are just helpful on their own.

Edit: Also, I'm not sure of the rules here but it might also be helpful for triggering multiple weaknesses. If you're fighting a demon, for example, who has a weakness to both good and cold iron, and you are using a cold iron weapon, then presumably you can trigger the demon's good weakness as well with your abilities and do more damage.

Ah, yes. The mortal weakness of all living creatures. Concentrated uranium. I love how it's this shadowy and mysterious power on Golarian but in starfinder, abysium is understood to just be a very radioactive metal. As a side note, the extra poison damage is compensated by reducing your maximum property runes by 1, so you don't edge out on damage. The critical effect is very good though. Sickened is potent.

Not only did I mix up the damage for abysium and siccatite, but I also forgot that abysium sickens on a crit, derp.