This may be a rules question more than a bug if I turn out to be wrong, but does the Fathomless Warlock's tentacle from Tentacle of the Deeps get to add the Warlock's spell casting ability modifier to the damage? On the character sheet it says 1d8+4, but it doesn't explicitly say within the ability that it should be doing that. If we compare this ability to Spiritual Weapon, SW specifically states that the you do 1d8+spell casting ability modifier for damage. Is this a bug or is this just a misunderstanding of the rules on my part? Thanks!
Public Mod Note
(Sillvva):
This has been passed to the feedback portal
No, you’re not wrong. That attack is not supposed to add The character’s Ability score modify to the damage roll. It’s a limitation of the system that also affects things such as some of the Artillerist’s Eldritch Cannon options. You can adjust the damage roll for Tentacles of the Deep directly on the character sheet by “customizing” that action.
I was going to make a topic about this, but since a topic already exists, I'll add my own bug report on it.
On top of the Tentacle of the Deeps's damage erroneously adding CHA modifier, its to-hit roll does not account for the bonus granted by a Rod of the Pact Keeper.
I have a level 8 Fathomless Warlock with CHA score of 20, and he has a Rod of the Pact Keeper (equipped and attuned, naturally). So that means my warlock should get +5 from the CHA modifier, +3 from the proficiency bonus, and +1 from the RotPK, for +9 total. He does get +9 bonus to hit for Eldritch Blast, so I know the RotPK is being accounted for. But the Tentacle of the Deeps gets only +8 bonus to hit. And the Tentacle definitely should get the bonus from the RotPK since the rule says "you make a melee spell attack" to attack with the Tentacle, and the RotPK grants "+1 bonus to spell attack rolls."
Here's hoping that the system gets updated to fix these errors soon. :)
Cheers!
(p.s. this is my very first post in the forums! yay! well, not yay for the fact that it's a bug report lol)
Another question about the damage, this cold damage is considere magic? For resistance to nonmagical damage and that stuff. Thanks
I’ll start with a small excerpt from the Sage Advice (this is from “Is the breath weapon of a dragon magical?”:
“In D&D, the first type of magic is part of nature. It is no more dispellable than the wind. A monster like a dragon exists because of that magic-enhanced nature. The second type of magic is what the rules are concerned about. When a rule refers to something being magical, it’s referring to that second type. Determining whether a game feature is magical is straightforward. Ask yourself these questions about the feature: • Is it a magic item? • Is it a spell? Or does it let you create the effects of a spell that’s mentioned in its description? • Is it a spell attack? • Is it fueled by the use of spell slots? • Does its description say it’s magical? If your answer to any of those questions is yes, the feature is magical.”
Let’s look at the description of the Fathomless Warlocks feature. A couple sentences stand out (emphasis mine):
”You can magically summon a spectral tentacle that strikes at your foes.”
and then later…:
“When you create the tentacle, you can make a melee spell attack against one creature within 10 feet of it.”
Since this is a type of spell attack, then according to Sage Advice and RAW, it is dealing damage that is considered magical for the purposes of overcoming resistance.
Typically any elemental damage (cold, fire, thunder, force…) resistance doesn’t specify the source. Thus, if a creature has resistance to cold damage it refers to all cold damage regardless of source. The trick is to look at the prepositional phrase at the end. “…from nonmagical weapons” for example specifies that bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing is halved if it comes from a nonmagical weapon. However, if the creature falls, the bludgeoning damage they suffer from the fall is not resisted since it didn’t come from a weapon.
This may be a rules question more than a bug if I turn out to be wrong, but does the Fathomless Warlock's tentacle from Tentacle of the Deeps get to add the Warlock's spell casting ability modifier to the damage? On the character sheet it says 1d8+4, but it doesn't explicitly say within the ability that it should be doing that. If we compare this ability to Spiritual Weapon, SW specifically states that the you do 1d8+spell casting ability modifier for damage. Is this a bug or is this just a misunderstanding of the rules on my part? Thanks!
No, you’re not wrong. That attack is not supposed to add The character’s Ability score modify to the damage roll. It’s a limitation of the system that also affects things such as some of the Artillerist’s Eldritch Cannon options. You can adjust the damage roll for Tentacles of the Deep directly on the character sheet by “customizing” that action.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Just here to state this bug still exists. Hopefully the system is changed in the future 🙂
I was going to make a topic about this, but since a topic already exists, I'll add my own bug report on it.
On top of the Tentacle of the Deeps's damage erroneously adding CHA modifier, its to-hit roll does not account for the bonus granted by a Rod of the Pact Keeper.
I have a level 8 Fathomless Warlock with CHA score of 20, and he has a Rod of the Pact Keeper (equipped and attuned, naturally). So that means my warlock should get +5 from the CHA modifier, +3 from the proficiency bonus, and +1 from the RotPK, for +9 total. He does get +9 bonus to hit for Eldritch Blast, so I know the RotPK is being accounted for. But the Tentacle of the Deeps gets only +8 bonus to hit. And the Tentacle definitely should get the bonus from the RotPK since the rule says "you make a melee spell attack" to attack with the Tentacle, and the RotPK grants "+1 bonus to spell attack rolls."
Here's hoping that the system gets updated to fix these errors soon. :)
Cheers!
(p.s. this is my very first post in the forums! yay! well, not yay for the fact that it's a bug report lol)
Another question about the damage, this cold damage is considere magic? For resistance to nonmagical damage and that stuff.
Thanks
As of this posting, this bug is not yet fixed. (Just trying to boost this bug report)
Adding to boosting the bug report. Damage still incorrectly adds the ability modifier.
I’ll start with a small excerpt from the Sage Advice (this is from “Is the breath weapon of a dragon magical?”:
“In D&D, the first type of magic is part of nature. It is no more dispellable than the wind. A monster like a dragon exists because of that magic-enhanced nature. The second type of magic is what the rules are concerned about. When a rule refers to something being magical, it’s referring to that second type. Determining whether a game feature is magical is straightforward. Ask yourself these questions about the feature:
• Is it a magic item?
• Is it a spell? Or does it let you create the effects of a spell
that’s mentioned in its description?
• Is it a spell attack?
• Is it fueled by the use of spell slots?
• Does its description say it’s magical?
If your answer to any of those questions is yes, the feature is magical.”
Let’s look at the description of the Fathomless Warlocks feature. A couple sentences stand out (emphasis mine):
”You can magically summon a spectral tentacle that strikes at your foes.”
and then later…:
“When you create the tentacle, you can make a melee spell attack against one creature within 10 feet of it.”
Since this is a type of spell attack, then according to Sage Advice and RAW, it is dealing damage that is considered magical for the purposes of overcoming resistance.
Typically any elemental damage (cold, fire, thunder, force…) resistance doesn’t specify the source. Thus, if a creature has resistance to cold damage it refers to all cold damage regardless of source. The trick is to look at the prepositional phrase at the end. “…from nonmagical weapons” for example specifies that bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing is halved if it comes from a nonmagical weapon. However, if the creature falls, the bludgeoning damage they suffer from the fall is not resisted since it didn’t come from a weapon.
Still not fixed.
Still not fixed
2021 and still not fixed
Just pointing out that it was 2021 when the OP created this thread. It’s still the same year.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
lol you're right, I was looking at the 'Join Date' for all the users and was really confused how everything was so out of order
Still not fixed
On the left side of the black bar above the post, you can see the date the post was made.
14 months later...
Characters currently being ruined on this forum:
Neria Tallfellow (Halfling Rogue) - Curse of the Crimson Throne with Ashen_Age
Still not fixed. Bump.
18 months and still not fixed? Sheesh....
September 2022 and still not fixed lol
... are they waiting for the next edition to fix it? :D