Struggling to Understand Weapon Effect Automation

[MaxAstro]

I thought I had this figured out but apparently not. :)

Are weapon automation effects applied as if they were an effect on the character using the weapon? My assumption was that they were applied to the target of the attack. I was trying to add "PERS: 1d4 fire" as a weapon effect, but it didn't work.

[Trenloe]

Weapon effects modify either an attack or a damage action, they don’t apply an effect to the target - so any effect that specifically modify an attack or damage action will apply. Such as ATK, target AC, DMG, etc.. PERS effects don’t specifically modify a base damage action, persistent damage is completely separate and is actually an effect that is applied to the target, not an effect that applies directly to the damage action.

You can, however, add a new damage instance to the weapon - use 1d4 for the damage and persistent, fire for the damage types. This will apply an effect to the target of PERS: 1d4 fire when damage is rolled with that weapon.

[MaxAstro]

Oh! I had no idea that was possible. Thank you, that both clears up my confusion and solves my problem.

[Stargrove]

It seems that if you add a persistent effect to the damage that way and you you hit the creature again it will apply the persistent damage a second time or however many times it is hit with the same attack. I know that effects like clumsy, drained, etc do not stack, does persistent damage after multiple hits stack?

[Benlyd]

Persistent damage will currently be applied multiple times and therefore roll the damage and the flat check as often as it is applied.
This is a known issue and will be fixed in a later version. It is currently listed as entry RS2.118 in the issue tracking spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lxgAdEnUZru6GayTSxvs8fnuhupbg8rl835HwsGLDHg/edit?usp=sharing