Bane Damage / Ritual

The Bane Ritual has been re-written, as such so have the rules on what bane damage does been changed.

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This ritual can be used to imbue a weapon or non-weapon item with the properties of Bane.  When casting the ritual the caster must designate a specific race, sub-race, class or sub-class to be the target of the Bane.

When cast on a weapon, the weapon will swing +2 Bane damage against that particular class or race, and for every permanent SRP expended beyond 1 the weapon will do one extra point of Bane damage to the target up to a maximum of +4 Bane Damage.  Bane damage always effects the target regardless of weapon or damage immunities, and bypasses all soaks and thresholds of the target.

When cast on a non-weapon item, the item may be invoked once per period per permanent MP expended.  Invoking the item repels the target race or class a distance of 5 to 10 feet away from the item, and prevent them from coming within that distance of it while it is active.  Distance is dependent on permanent magic points used during creation, with 1 or 2 points repelling 5 feet, and 3 permanent repelling 10 feet.  In order to activate this Bane effect, the user must hold the item in hand above the waste and state, “Invoke Bane Against X,” and can take no other actions while using this Bane, if the invoker of the bane effect takes damage, the bane effect is interrupted.

If at any time the target of the Bane attempts to wield the Bane item they feel such immense pain that they must immediately drop the item.

This has been updated in the Online Rulebook.

does this bypass mithral armor's soak?

<<...and bypasses all soaks and thresholds of the target.>>

would it be possible to have a weapon that is simply bane V undead?

Like my staff?

With the periodic area of effect bane, the ritual is kinda worthless for that purpose now.  The only way it would be at all worthwhile is if the bane also negated one's ability to make an offensive action against the target (that being the person holding the bane object cannot be attacked in any way by the baned creature).

I am not decrying bane in totality, only this aspect of it.  It seems like it would be better to drop that half of bane entirely rather than keep it as what it currently is.   

Tim, to answer your question and expand on it a little, yes, Bane damage would bypass the soak, including the bonus soak, from mithril armor. However, it does NOT bypass the other special property of mithril, wherein body damage is converted to normal damage, as that isn't a soak or threshold.

Yes, you can have an undead bane weapon. "Undead" is considered a viable race choice for this ritual.

Does Bane still have the pain effect?

No, that was pretty much the big change

So just to be clear Race and sub race is like  Undead (race) skeleton (Sub race) and  Class vs sub class would be Rogue (Class) Assassin (sub class). If not could I have an example?

You're right about race/subrace, but class subclass is more like:
Mage(class, effects all mages)/Necromancer(sub-class, effects only those with necromancy) or Witch Hunter/Reign

There is no actual class "Rogue" in KR. Basically a subclass is only applicable in cases where a base class can be subdivided, like in magic, sorcery, or the religious classes.

Oh ok thanks because I was confused about what exactly could be considered a sub class.