Stat Damage

[Jacket]

So I just picked up a blade of fury on my fighter/paladin and I was wondering what exactly does stat damage do? For example, to test it out I soloed Hiding in plain sight and when I got to Hazadil I was whacking away at him and he got the little red shield icon over his head after a while but it didn't appear to actually DO anything.

So what does CON,STR,DEX etc. actually do (and I'm talking max damage here)?

[toughguyjoe]

Using a weapon that does Statistic Damage such as Weakening, enfeebling, wounding, puncturing, maladroit, bone breaking, and possibly some effects that are slipping my mind, the corresponding statistic is damaged for every hit you score that does damage(With Weakening, Wounding, Maladroit) or on critical hits(with Enfeebling, Bone Breaking and Puncturing).

Most mobs can take statistic damage. When any ability score is lowered to zero the mobs is rendered helpless and can be dealt critical damage on any hit.

Mobs regenerate their statistic damage fairly quickly so keeping them at Zero can be difficult in some situations. Some enemies are resistant or immune to statistic damage. Golems for instance are immune to statistic damage.

Weakening and Enfeebling weapons are useful in many situations. Lowering a monsters strength score can mitigate incoming hits and damage to some degree.

Wounding Puncturing weapons do not kill a monster when he is at Zero constitution(As is normal in Pen and Paper) they become automatically critically hit like any other statistic falling to zero. They are still a good option, though not as prolific as they used to be.

Red and Purple named mobs can take statistic damage. They are able to take up to 10 damage in any ability. They also regenerate their statistic damage pretty quickly, and also you must deal damage to inflict any statistic damage.

[Rusty_Can]

when I got to Hazadil I was whacking away at him and he got the little red shield icon over his head after a while but it didn't appear to actually DO anything.

When any ability hits zero, foes reach the so-called "auto-crit condition", i.e. every hit is a critical hit.

Anyway, red named foes can receive only 10 points of damage in each of their abilities and none of them can hit zero; that red shield popping over his head was telling you that.

Purple named foes are immune to ability damage.

Epic ward negates a lot of ability damage, thus this approach is not very effective in epic content.

Generally speaking,
- STR damage lowers damage and non-Finesse melee to-hit;
- Dex damage lowers ranged and Finesse melee to-hit, Reflex saves and AC;
- Con damage lowers Fortitude saves and hp; hitting zero Con, foes are stunned for a short period of time.

[Jacket]

So, are orange named monsters immune to such a thing? Because I certainly wasn't critting hazadil on every hit. Other than the red shield thing I didn't notice any difference whatsoever.

[toughguyjoe]

So, are orange named monsters immune to such a thing? Because I certainly wasn't critting hazadil on every hit. Other than the red shield thing I didn't notice any difference whatsoever.

Well Hazadil is red Named. All the other mobs that spawn up there are orange named.

[Rusty_Can]

So, are orange named monsters immune to such a thing? Because I certainly wasn't critting hazadil on every hit. Other than the red shield thing I didn't notice any difference whatsoever.

Orange named behave like "trash" foes; anyway, your target was red named.

Keep also in mind that some divine spells, such as Heal, get rid of ability damage; you will meet foes able to heal themselves or helped by divine casters ^^.

[Jacket]

oh already answered then.. so basically CON damage on the sword isn't really doing anything. That sort of sucks.

[Glenalth]

oh already answered then.. so basically CON damage on the sword isn't really doing anything. That sort of sucks.

Every 2pts of Con damage is lowering their HP total by 1 per HD and their Fortitude saves by 1.

If you get them to 0 Con, every hit will be a critical and they cannot swing back for a short period.