Does a weapon imbued with the Inquisitor Bane ability count as magical for bypassing DR and damaging incorporeals?

Question

The Inquisitor's bane ability just says the targeted weapon gets the bane weapon quality.

The bane weapon quality says:

[..]Against a designated foe, the weapon's enhancement bonus is +2 better than its actual bonus[..]

But this text kind of assumes the weapon already has at least a +1 enhancement, because the Weapons section in the Magic Items chapter of the Core rulebook says:

[..] A weapon with a special ability must also have at least a +1 enhancement bonus [..]

But the bane ability just says the inquisitor can imbue the bane weapon quality without specifying any limitation to whether it needs to be magical already before doing so. Thus, nothing seems to limit the inquisitor to give bane to a non magical weapon.

Can the Inquisitor use bane to bypass DR/magic or damage incorporeals with his otherwise mundane weapon?

For example the masterwork quality also gives an enhancement bonus to the weapon without making the weapon magical.

Answer 1

No, it does not count as magical.

Let's first look at the Bane inquisitor ability.

Bane (Su) At 5th level, an inquisitor can imbue one of her weapons with the bane weapon special ability as a swift action. [...]

This does not say anything about being able to use on a non magical weapon or not. Because there is no specific rule, we need to refer back to the general rule. The general rule about weapon special abilities says:

A weapon with a special ability must also have at least a +1 enhancement bonus.

Therefore you cannot add Bane to a non magical weapon because it doesn't have any enhancement bonus.

If you look at other similar abilities like the Paladin divine bond and the Magus Arcane pool where you have a variable pool of enhancements and special abilities that you can add, you will see that they always specify that you need to at least give a +1 enhancement bonus before adding special abilities which confirms that as well e.g.

From paladin divine bond:

[...] These bonuses are added to any properties the weapon already has, but duplicate abilities do not stack. If the weapon is not magical, at least a +1 enhancement bonus must be added before any other properties can be added.

Note that it is not required for the inquisitor Bane to repeat the rule as per the FAQ ruling on Bane and double weapons:

Inquisitor: Does an inquisitor's bane ability (page 40) affect both ends of a double weapon? No. In general, the game treats double weapons as if they were two different weapons, and an ability, spell, or effect that changes or augments "a weapon" only applies to one end of a double weapon. Sometimes the rules are redundant and specifically call out that an ability that affects "a weapon" (such as a paladin's divine bond) only affects one end of a double weapon. Sometimes the rules aren't redundant (such as the magic weapon spell, or the inquisitor's bane ability), but the general rule still applies: the double weapon is treated as two separate weapons.

Answer 2

Yes, it count as magical against the chosen type of foes.

It is sure that the weapon count as magical related to bypass damage reduction and so on when you apply the bane inquisitor ability to it because the bane ability grants your weapon a +2 enhancement bonus against the selected type of foe.

Overcoming DR: Damage reduction may be overcome by special materials, magic weapons (any weapon with a +1 or higher enhancement bonus, not counting the enhancement from masterwork quality), certain types of weapons (such as slashing or bludgeoning), and weapons imbued with an alignment.

In short, yes it overcomes DR/magic and can damage incorporeal foes.

Your other question can be a bit more tricky but what I suggest to you (so do not take that as a rule because what are you asking is not directly specified in the manuals as far as I know) is to follow the rule that specific overrides general and say that you can apply the bane ability to a weapon regardless of if it is already magical or not (since it does not specify anything in this matter).

Bane (Su): At 5th level, an inquisitor can imbue one of her weapons with the bane weapon special ability as a swift action. She must select one creature type when she uses this ability (and a subtype if the creature type selected is humanoid or outsider). Once selected, the type can be changed as a swift action. This ability only functions while the inquisitor wields the weapon. If dropped or taken, the weapon resumes granting this ability if it is returned to the inquisitor before the duration expires.

It is pretty obvious that there are no limitations except the fact that the inquisitor must hold the weapon in its hand. It is not specified that must be magical or masterwork or whatever.

On the contrary you can see that limitation in other abilities of this kind (where you apply special effects to a weapon):

From paladin divine bond:

[...] These bonuses are added to any properties the weapon already has, but duplicate abilities do not stack. If the weapon is not magical, at least a +1 enhancement bonus must be added before any other properties can be added.

From magus arcane pool:

[...] Adding these properties consumes an amount of bonus equal to the property’s base price modifier. These properties are added to any the weapon already has, but duplicates do not stack. If the weapon is not magical, at least a +1 enhancement bonus must be added before any other properties can be added.

Hope it helps,

Marco.