Bless weapon

[Eclipse]

Hi,everyone!
Can someone explain how this spell works?It only lowers DR of evil creatures by 1?If yes,it seems a very weak spell even for lvl.1. Or it has something extra?

[Amigo]

Bless Weapon
Source PRPG Core Rulebook pg. 250
School transmutation; Level paladin 1
Casting
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Effect
Range touch
Target weapon touched
Duration 1 min./level
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
Description
This transmutation makes a weapon strike true against evil foes. The weapon is treated as having a +1 enhancement bonus for the purpose of bypassing the DR of evil creatures or striking evil incorporeal creatures (though the spell doesn't grant an actual enhancement bonus). The weapon also becomes good-aligned, which means it can bypass the DR of certain creatures. (This effect overrides and suppresses any other alignment the weapon might have.) Individual arrows or bolts can be transmuted, but affected projectile weapons (such as bows) don't confer the benefit to the projectiles they shoot.

In addition, all critical hit rolls against evil foes are automatically successful, so every threat is a critical hit. This last effect does not apply to any weapon that already has a magical effect related to critical hits, such as a keen weapon or a vorpal sword.

[Mork]

Overcoming DR with Weapon Enhancement Bonus

Cold iron / silver +3
Adamantine +4
Alignment-based +5

[ELVIS]

If it's good-aligned it totally bypasses any amount of DR/good, which a lot of Demons and Devils have. All crits are also auto-confirmed so it's great for a rapier, scimitar, or any weapon with a high crit range like 18-20, especially if it's Keen (which would make the crit range 15-20 or 30%).

[dwarner]

Originally posted by ELVIS:

If it's good-aligned it totally bypasses any amount of DR/good, which a lot of Demons and Devils have. All crits are also auto-confirmed so it's great for a rapier, scimitar, or any weapon with a high crit range like 18-20, especially if it's Keen (which would make the crit range 15-20 or 30%).

This. There are some big bads who are hard to hit, so if you use true strike and get a crit, it usually won’t be confirmed. With Bless Weapon it automatically is, and if all your melee have Outflank that triggers a free swing for everybody.

Linzi recently killed a dragon for me when her Dueling Sword triggered an Outflank Attack of Opportunity for my Hospitaler Paladin to finish it off.

Crusader’s Blade is even better against evil outsiders like soul eaters.

[Eclipse]

Originally posted by ELVIS:

If it's good-aligned it totally bypasses any amount of DR/good, which a lot of Demons and Devils have. All crits are also auto-confirmed so it's great for a rapier, scimitar, or any weapon with a high crit range like 18-20, especially if it's Keen (which would make the crit range 15-20 or 30%).

And how I can check their DR?I think for most enemies very hard skill check is required.Or all daemons and devils by default have DR/good?

[Eclipse]

Originally posted by dwarner:

Originally posted by ELVIS:

If it's good-aligned it totally bypasses any amount of DR/good, which a lot of Demons and Devils have. All crits are also auto-confirmed so it's great for a rapier, scimitar, or any weapon with a high crit range like 18-20, especially if it's Keen (which would make the crit range 15-20 or 30%).

This. There are some big bads who are hard to hit, so if you use true strike and get a crit, it usually won’t be confirmed. With Bless Weapon it automatically is, and if all your melee have Outflank that triggers a free swing for everybody.

Linzi recently killed a dragon for me when her Dueling Sword triggered an Outflank Attack of Opportunity for my Hospitaler Paladin to finish it off.

Crusader’s Blade is even better against evil outsiders like soul eaters.

So even if you can’t hit on 18-19 crit still will hit and work normally?

[dwarner]

Originally posted by Eclipse:

Originally posted by ELVIS:

If it's good-aligned it totally bypasses any amount of DR/good, which a lot of Demons and Devils have. All crits are also auto-confirmed so it's great for a rapier, scimitar, or any weapon with a high crit range like 18-20, especially if it's Keen (which would make the crit range 15-20 or 30%).

And how I can check their DR?I think for most enemies very hard skill check is required.Or all daemons and devils by default have DR/good?

Knowledge Arcane before they’re dead, Lore Nature after. Jub eventually gets a boost to the former, Linzi gets free points in both every other bard level, and rangers with favored terrain get boosts in nature lore.

You get multiple tries so have several people train both skills.

[dwarner]

Originally posted by Eclipse:

Originally posted by dwarner:

This. There are some big bads who are hard to hit, so if you use true strike and get a crit, it usually won’t be confirmed. With Bless Weapon it automatically is, and if all your melee have Outflank that triggers a free swing for everybody.

Linzi recently killed a dragon for me when her Dueling Sword triggered an Outflank Attack of Opportunity for my Hospitaler Paladin to finish it off.

Crusader’s Blade is even better against evil outsiders like soul eaters.

So even if you can’t hit on 18-19 crit still will hit and work normally?

With rare exceptions if you can’t hit on 18 or 19 you should improve your strategy. But no, only hits generate a critical threat, so if an 18 is in your critical range but doesn’t beat the AC of your target you still miss. You’d need a 20, which always hits.

Bless weapon just turns all threats into confirmed crits.

[ELVIS]

Originally posted by Eclipse:

Originally posted by ELVIS:

If it's good-aligned it totally bypasses any amount of DR/good, which a lot of Demons and Devils have. All crits are also auto-confirmed so it's great for a rapier, scimitar, or any weapon with a high crit range like 18-20, especially if it's Keen (which would make the crit range 15-20 or 30%).

And how I can check their DR?I think for most enemies very hard skill check is required.Or all daemons and devils by default have DR/good?

All demons have DR that can be ignored by good-aligned weapons. The most powerful demons have DR that can only be pierced by good-aligned weapons that are also either cold iron or have a +3 enhancement. For devils it's almost the same except instead of cold iron it's silver or mithral.

This is why Bane weapons (and the Inquisitor ability to turn weapons into Bane weapons for a limited time) are important. A +1 Bane weapon becomes a +3 weapon against the creatures it's designed to harm so it doesn't need to be cold iron, mithral or silver. If you boost it with Bless Weapon there won't be any demon or devil DR that your weapon can't bypass.

[Eclipse]

Originally posted by dwarner:

Originally posted by Eclipse:

So even if you can’t hit on 18-19 crit still will hit and work normally?

With rare exceptions if you can’t hit on 18 or 19 you should improve your strategy. But no, only hits generate a critical threat, so if an 18 is in your critical range but doesn’t beat the AC of your target you still miss. You’d need a 20, which always hits.

Bless weapon just turns all threats into confirmed crits.

Aren’t all hits in crit range crit?They need to be confirmed somehow?Combat log doesn’t mention confirmation.

[HugsAndSnuggles]

Originally posted by Eclipse:

Aren’t all hits in crit range crit?They need to be confirmed somehow?Combat log doesn’t mention confirmation.

To crit you gotta make a second roll (with same attack bonus) and get result higher than target AC.

Combat log has those, actually. Of course, you do need to look at detailed info for that.

[dwarner]

Originally posted by HugsAndSnuggles:

Originally posted by Eclipse:

Aren’t all hits in crit range crit?They need to be confirmed somehow?Combat log doesn’t mention confirmation.

To crit you gotta make a second roll (with same attack bonus) and get result higher than target AC.

Combat log has those, actually. Of course, you do need to look at detailed info for that.

Bless Weapon makes that second roll always hit vs evil.