I'm trying to figure out if the Strength bonus is applied to the Area Fire part of Whirling Swipe.
You swipe your weapon in a wide swing to create a deadly arc. Your weapon gains the area (burst 5 feet) and unwieldy traits until the end of the turn. If your weapon has reach, the burst radius becomes the reach of your weapon. Area Fire with the required weapon, centering the burst on a corner of a square you occupy. You’re excluded from the burst. If you’re using a weapon with the backswing or sweep trait, you gain a +1 circumstance bonus to the save DC of the attack. If you have the primary target class feature, the primary target Strike you make is a melee Strike, rather than a ranged Strike.
Nothing about this text suggests that the burst becomes a ranged attack, and I couldn't find anything in the Area Fire or Area Damage sections that suggests that the weapon no longer gets the damage bonus, but I've seen posts online (perhaps from the playtest?) that suggest that strength is not applied to the burst.
I'm not familiar with PF2 so if this is settled rules from melee martials in the past I apologize.
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I don't see anything that would indicate the soldier loses their strength bonus. Everything I see indicates you should use your normal melee damage.
I don't see anything that would indicate the soldier loses their strength bonus. Everything I see indicates you should use your normal melee damage.
I don't, either, but there are a lot better 2nd edition rules lawyers than me around; with things like Boost being clarified as single-strike only I wanted to be sure.
Just going from rules discussion online.
Boost applies to the "next attack," and Primary Target describes itself as an attack before the area fire.
I think I may have misinterpreted a little because if you choose not to Primary Target the Boost wouldn't activate until the Area Fire.
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STR is applied to the damage of Whirling Swipe.
The damage is not determined whether you do a melee or ranged attack, but by the weapon type.
Damage rolls for melee weapons and unarmed attacks typically add your Strength attribute modifier.
Melee damage roll = damage die of weapon or unarmed attack + Strength modifier + bonuses + penalties
That's why traits like "thrown" had some text added to it to specify the rules (turning the weapon to a ranged weapon to apply other rules to it, yet retaining the STR-mod to damage).
Area-Fire does not change the weapon type and all strange things (like melee weapon having no range) are covered by Whirling Swipes itself.
where has Boost been clarified as single Strike only?
I don't know that it has officially, but primary target and various soldier feats is written in such a way that it makes it impossible for a soldier to apply boost to an area attack. So it seems likely that applying boost to an area attack if you've taken the soldier archetype and whirling swipe but haven't taken the primary target feat is an oversight.
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where has Boost been clarified as single Strike only?I don't know that it has officially, but primary target and various soldier feats is written in such a way that it makes it impossible for a soldier to apply boost to an area attack. So it seems likely that applying boost to an area attack if you've taken the soldier archetype and whirling swipe but haven't taken the primary target feat is an oversight.
Yeah, the "attack" part of the boost description is confusing there. Would it be "strike", all would be clear. For now, it would include any action/activity with the attack-trait.
As there seems to be no Boost + Area/Automatic weapon so far, it's hard to see if both working in tandem is the intention.For dedication soldiers: Normal soldiers "can" make a primary attack, they don't need to, so every soldier could decide to forgo the boosted strike for boosted AoE-damage instead.
So I halfway expect that the boost-trait gets the errata. ;)