Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

While finishing up a gaming session this weekend one of my players asked me if his sword +1,+3 vs. undead does full or half damage against skeletons. I replied half damage and he brought up the point that if the weapon was made to specifically battle undead that it should do full weapon type damage. I'm just wondering about some other perspectives.

Hmmm... that might be one for the Big Boss, Solomoriah.

But ultimately, it is your call. the beauty of being the DM.

Half damage if the non-magical one does half damage, he just gains a +3 instead of +1, not all undead receives half damage from some weapons, that's part of the skeleton body structure.

Another thing would be a "sword of undead cutting" a +1 sword that always does normal damage against undead.
Or a sword of "true sharpness", etc etc

1d4+3 is how I would rule (assuming it is a longsword)

Maliki wrote:1d4+3 is how I would rule (assuming it is a longsword)

Yep. I would leave the magical bonus out of the skeletal half damage thing to add it at the end.

SmootRK wrote:

Maliki wrote:1d4+3 is how I would rule (assuming it is a longsword)

Yep. I would leave the magical bonus out of the skeletal half damage thing to add it at the end.

This is reasonable. It's not how I do it, though... I make 'em add it up, then divide the result by 2.

[quote] that's part of the skeleton body structure/quote]

That was my basic reasoning for my explanation. As for damage the total including modifiers is divided in half is what I normally use.

I like Smoots answer in this case.. Solo's seems to punish the entire weapon instead of just the part where its not a bludgeoning weapon. Roll the 1d8 and half the damage then add the +3 is how I would do it..

dymondy2k wrote:I like Smoots answer in this case.. Solo's seems to punish the entire weapon instead of just the part where its not a bludgeoning weapon. Roll the 1d8 and half the damage then add the +3 is how I would do it..

Realize though that I only said this because of the nature of the Magical Weapon being specifically vs. Undead. A bit of a special case. Had this not been the case, I would have gone with Solo's method.

I let the magical weapon do it damage normally. It is just a quick and simple way. I guess my way in not the simulalist way but it doesn't hurt the gameplay (in my games) much. I'm really tightfisted with magical items so when the players find a +1 weapon or item they are so happy.

In my games +1 is an uncommon item, +2 rare, +3 very rare, +4 are legendary artifacts.