[MIC] Upgrading weapon bonuses

In the Magic Item Compendium, there's a table giving the costs for bumping up various bonuses: deflection, resistance, armour enhancement, stat enhancement, etc. But weapon enhancement bonus isn't on this table.

Is this deliberate? Okay, putting a weapon enhancement on a shirt doesn't really work, but you might want to upgrade a specific weapon to a higher plus: eg turning a crystal echoblade from a +1 longsword to +2 or higher.

If you did want to do this, would it be reasonable to treat the plus as independent of other special abilities. Taking the crystal echoblade again, it's a +1 longsword that does extra sonic damage equal to your bard level if you use it during your bardsong, with a price of 4310 gp. If I want to make it +2, would that be (2^2*2000) + (4310 - 2000) = 10310 gp?

hong said:

If you did want to do this, would it be reasonable to treat the plus as independent of other special abilities. Taking the crystal echoblade again, it's a +1 longsword that does extra sonic damage equal to your bard level if you use it during your bardsong, with a price of 4310 gp.

Click to expand...

Say... again? This is a 4,310 gp weapon that gives a 20th-level bard +20 to damage?

Lianne is getting confused by all the options!

If I want to make it +2, would that be (2^2*2000) + (4310 - 2000) = 10310 gp?

Click to expand...

I don't think we ever managed had someone actually do like this, but my group agreed that this is how it would work. Most theories involved katanas of subtlety and either some very limited amount of Rog levels or high levels of UMD.

Oops, sorry, it's half your bard level.

Total price for a +1 crystal echoblade = 4310
Total price for a +2 crystal echoblade = (2^2)*2000 + 2000 + 310 = 10310
-------
Upgrade price = 6000

?

hong said:

Oops, sorry, it's half your bard level.

Click to expand...

Ah. OK, that's not as jaw-droppingly good, but it's still very good. Damage always seemed like the biggest weakness of a melee bard. Well, damage and hp. Well, okay, damage, hp and AC...

Total price for a +1 crystal echoblade = 4310
Total price for a +2 crystal echoblade = (2^2)*2000 + 2000 + 310 = 10310
-------
Upgrade price = 6000

?

Click to expand...

As I said, as a general case it seems reasonable to me. It's a pretty good deal, considering the usual quadratic formula: a (standard, +1) sword of subtlety is more expensive than a +3 weapon, while a +5 sword of subtlety isn't even as expensive as a +6 weapon. But if that increases the appeal of specific weapon compared to generic +5 weapons, it's all good.