[Math] Is the Great Scimitar balanced?

I have a question for some of the math experts out there good at figuring up these things (and anyone else with an opinion). One of my players wants a exotic weapon called the "Great Scimitar" (not sure where he got it from). It deals 2d6 damage like a greatsword, is a two-handed weapon, and crits on 18-20. It is exotic.

My question is: is this a balanced weapon, mathmatically?

My first thought was yes: it seems to be a weapon (Falchion) with dice that are one step bigger. That's pretty standard. However, it got me thinking that with it's larger crit range, it might matter more that the dice were bigger.

Thoughts?

It seems fine to me.

Compaired to a greatsword it seems fine. They do the same damage, only the scimitiar crit range is one greater. But since it is exotic, it should be fine.

Seems ok.

You "reduce" the die to d12 instead (poor d12's. They might spin the best, but they sure a used the less!).

TS

Hey

For the record, I hope to God that I never again see a subject line with the word Math in brackets ... *shudder*

-Matt

Be prepared for a keen one and/or for him to get Improved Critical. Also with 2-handed he gets the extra damage... average damage on the crit will be 14 plus double his strength bonus (that is the effect of multiple dice, they create a bell curve to damage probability), if you take tabernak's suggestion you create an equal probability of damage from 1-12 and average crit damage becomes 13. On the whole, considering it as an exotic weapon (therefore costing a feat) it probably is balanced.

Looks good to me. Compare to the Martial Weapon Flamberge with the same stats but more expensive.

Such a weapon would be the most damaging weapon in the game. But that's not necessarily unbalanced. At the moment, there are no core rules two handed exotic weapons without special abilities. A few considerations:

1. Core Rules Precedent: When increasing from simple to martial or martial to exotic, weapons generally increase either their crit multiplier, their crit range, or their damage die by one step. This is in line with that. (And crit increases are probably overall less powerful than damage die increases).

2. It's mathematically equivalent to the Mercurial Greatsword (S&F) 2d6 20/x4 and 2d6 18-20 are equivalent. The mercurial greatsword got a lot of complaints on the grounds that it's a silly concept but very few on the grounds that it's unbalanced.

3. Keep it in perspective: The effects of allowing an unbalanced weapon into the game are not quite as drastic as might be imagined. In the Arcanis setting, they have an exotic weapon (the Tralian Hammer) that's 2d8 20/x4 Pierce/bludgeon damage. It's an overly powerful weapon. However, I still see (a few) players wielding scythes, glaives, spiked chains, rapiers, longswords, etc in the Living Arcanis campaign. (That they haven't made any magical Tralian Hammers available might have something to do with that). I also haven't seen the difficulty of the game reduced to cakewalk levels. The weapon is broken and a great temptation to power-gamers (and my main character uses one) but it hasn't ruined the campaign.

It doesn't look too bad. To be on the safe side, you might change the damage to 1d12, though.

Edit: Where did thost other posts suddenly come from? Well, I guess I just agree with what's already been said

Great Sword: 2d6 19-20, Martial
Great Scimitar: 2d6 18-20, Exotic

Spend a feat to get +1 Threat Range, which is in line with other martial/exotic comparisons (though some give +1 average damage instead of threat range)