Breath of the Ancestor damage types

[Elrich Maltah]

I recently discovered Breath of the Ancestor as a possible talent path for my rogue, and that it gives you a ki-based breath weapon with a choice of piercing, fire, electrical, or sonic as a damage type. I don't have a particular theme I'm trying to stick with, but rather what will be the most effective choice. Since I don't have access to the bestiary volumes, which of these damage types is least likely for baddies in general to be resistant or immune to?

[DAOFS]

Easily sonic. Almost nothing in the game has sonic resistance, partially because (and correct me if I'm wrong, Internet) sonic damage wasn't in 3.5, and lots of at least the first couple bestiaries were basically copy/pasted in. But for the others, I don't know whether fire or piercing would be worse, but electricity would be better than either of those. Sonic deftly trumps all three though.

[DeathlessOne]

Sound Burst (3.5) has been a part of the game for a long time, so sonic damage has been around quiet a long time.

However, DAOFS is correct. Sonic is often the least resisted element in the game. Though, being able to do piercing damage is a good option too. Damage reduction is often not as high as elemental resistances can get.

[DAOFS]

Good point Deathless, my original analysis had to do with the fact that DR is generally more prevalent than any one type of energy resistance, (and also that DR tends to be bypassed by B or S far more often) but you're right. My options would be:
1. Sonic
2. Electricity
3. Piercing
4. Fire

One point in fire's favor though, is that while fire resistance is the most common energy resistance, fire vulnerability is also in my experience much more prevalent than other energy vulnerabilities.

[DeathlessOne]

DAOFS wrote:

One point in fire's favor though, is that while fire resistance is the most common energy resistance, fire vulnerability is also in my experience much more prevalent than other energy vulnerabilities.

Check out the Flame Spirit for the Shaman class. It offers a hex (Flame Curse) that makes a creature vulnerable to fire until the end of your next turn. No save. Once per day per creature. Might pair well with the fire breath of the ancestors if you have someone pick up that hex.

[Elrich Maltah]

Thanks for the feedback, folks. I appreciate it. My gut reaction was that sonic would be top of the list here because it seems fairly exotic. I'll see how it works out in a few levels! #evilgrin

[Derklord]

Elrich Maltah wrote:

Since I don't have access to the bestiary volumes, which of these damage types is least likely for baddies in general to be resistant or immune to?

My spreadsheet of Paizo monster contains 2804 entries.

fire resistant or immune: 675
cold resistant or immune: 759
acid resistant or immune: 539
electricity resistant or immune: 594
sonic resistant or immune: 160

creatures with DR not containing "piercing": 1215
creatures with DR not containing "slashing": 1146
creatures with DR not containing "bludgeoning": 1184

Obviously, this simply checks for ther number of different monsters, with no regards of how often they're used. Similarly, this checks for all CRs. Still I think it paints a good picture of what one can expect.

[Elrich Maltah]

Empirical data FTW. Excellent!