I've gotten myself into a bit of an argument about this combination, and am looking for other voices to chime in with thoughts.
There are essentially two interaction questions, and they both default back to: "would you get the 1d8 sneak attack, or the 1d4?"
Scenario 1:
Kinetic Blade. The ability says that the shape is strictly cosmetic, and doesn't use the weapon shapes anything. But there are two possible caveats here.
The first, is that Knife Master applies to a generally category of weapon forms. This argument is admittedly weak.
The second, is that Kinetic Blade works different for Aether kineticists. Hell, Aether kinetics work super different in lots of ways. An Aether kinetic does not make a form of energy. It specifically says it transfers the power to your held item. So what if that held item is a dagger? You wouldn't get the dagger's threat range or anything, but TK Kinetic Blade relies on the item.
I can't shake the feeling that this specific scenario would let you get your 1d8 instead of 1d4.
Scenario 2:
Throwing the dagger with TK Blast. You're attacking with a Kinetic Blast, but you have options when you TK blast.
You can hit for full blast damage.
Or you can "loosen the strands."
The latter let's you actually take advantage of the items properties, specifically, but you treat it as thrown (no blast damage but you can use CON instead of STR for the thrown damage).
I'm less washy here.
If you full blast damage, 1d4.
If you loosen, 1d8.
Is this wrong? Some people say yes.
Everything about the abilities imply no.
So really, the huge hangup is over how TK Blast interacts with Kinetic Blade, specifically.
Would it be 1d8, or 1d4 Sneak Attack?
TK does not behave like other blasts.
It even has special rules within KBlade.
Because of these, I'd say a KB when you're holding a dagger as the recepient, you're empowering, not forming, so you'd get the 1d8.
What does the greater community think?
Thanks in advance!
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
nope. its not a dagger. it wouldnt benefit from any dagger related ability. no weapon focus, no weapon specialization, nothing. the ability only works with the specific weapons it calls out
Sneak Stab (Ex): A knife master focuses her ability to deal sneak attack damage with daggers and similar weapons to such a degree that she can deal more sneak attack damage with those weapons at the expense of sneak attacks with other weapons. When she makes a sneak attack with a dagger, kerambit, kukri, punching daggers, starknife, or swordbreaker dagger (Advanced Player’s Guide 178), she uses d8s to roll sneak attack damage instead of d6s. For sneak attacks with all other weapons, she uses d4s instead of d6s. This ability is identical in all other ways to sneak attack, and supplements that ability.
To further clarify, the item being held for tk kinetic blade doesn't really matter. You could hold a dagger and have it deal bludgeoning damage, because the damage of the weapon is irrelevant.
There is a gray area if you throw it weakly though.
Alternatively, you can loosen the strands of aether in order to deal damage to both the object and the target as though you had thrown the object yourself (instead of dealing your normal blast damage). You substitute your Constitution modifier for your Strength modifier if throwing the object would have added your Strength modifier on the damage roll, and you don’t take the –4 penalty on the attack roll for throwing an object that wasn’t designed to be thrown. In this case, the object’s special effects apply (including effects from its materials), and if the object is a weapon, you must be proficient with it and able to wield it with one hand; otherwise, the item deals damage as a one-handed improvised weapon for a creature of your size.
I'm pretty sure this isn't what you are actually wanting to do, but I wanted to put it here for completeness.
Yeah, loosen the threads on a throw is the only 100% way (and still needs to be within 30ft), because it treats you as having thrown the object. It's a really niche circumstance either way, and one of those thoughts that plage me once it burrows in.
Thank you both for your quick responses. My head is a Ganzi birthing ground.