Optimisation: Help with theorycrafting a magical greatmace

[Ref]

Hello all. First post, so please be gentle. Hope this ended up in the right forum.

Playing a human artificer in a 3.x campaign, hopefully hitting level 8 soon. Generally I'll be filling the role of blaster/crafter for the party, but it's not uncommon for the ranged characters to get stuck face to face with the Big Bads, so I'm looking to build myself a reliable melee weapon to deal with just that situation. I'd appreciate help from some more experienced and knowledgeable players about how to optimise this concept. All 3.5 material is allowed, assuming the inclusion of errata and updates. No dragon magazine. The DM has agreed to let me use a fullblade as a template for a bludgeoning weapon, and the intention is to build the weapon using the following templates/materials/enhancements:

Base:
Greatmace - 100 gp - (2d8, 19-20/x2, 2 handed, bludgeoning, 23lb, exotic) - converted fullblade from Sword and Fist

Material:
Platinum - 7000 gp - (increases damage die to 4d6, doubles weight to 46 lb) - Magic of Faerun 179-180

Templates/methods:
Dwarvencraft - 600 gp - (untyped +2 bonus to save throws, increased hardness/hp of material) - Races of Stone 159
Dire - 300 gp - (+2 dire bonus to damage, increases weight by 25% to 57.5 lb, adds exotic heavy proficiency requirement) - Arcana Unearthed 126
Devanian - 300 gp - (halves weight to 28.75 lb) - Arcana Unearthed 126-127

Magical Enhancements:
Magical Weapon enhancement +2 -8000 gp - (+2 bonus to attack rolls and damage etc.)
Forceful +1 (x3) - 6000 gp (2000x3) - (increased damage die to -> 4d8 -> 4d10 ->6d10) - Arms & Armor 3.5 46
Continuous spell "Master's Touch" - 4000gp - (Gives proficiency with the held weapon) - Complete Adventurer 154

So that leaves us with a 2 handed weapon with some very specific requirements in terms of proficiency, but a damage roll of 6d10 +4 weighing in at around 29 lbs.

If I survive to level 13 I'll probably try and add the Transmuting property from MIC, but that's for another day. In the meantime, to make this thing do even more ridiculous damage, a spell of Greater Mighty Wallop at caster level 8 takes this up two effective damage sizes from 6d10 to 12d8 to 18d8 (+4) for 8 hours (spell uses table 2-2 on pg 28 of the DMG).

As best as I can reckon, the base price for this thing (minus the wallop and transmuting) comes to 31300 gp (or 43300 gp with a +3 enhancement instead of +2) but I'm pretty new to crafting and pricing of items so corrections would be welcome.

Other stuff I've looked at for adding at a later point:

Intense (+1) - Keen for bludgeoning weapons
Wrathful Healing (+3, clvl 15) - heals the bearer for half of the damage he deals.
Sudden stunning (2000 gp, clvl 9) - swift action to attempt to stun on hit (reflex save DC = 10 + CHA bonus + half character level)

Interested to hear what suggestions people have to improve/change the weapon. Also, it needs a name, I suppose.

 

[Grogg of the North]

1) This should probably be on the character optimization boards. You'll probably get more help over there.

2) There is already a magical enhancement in Complete Arcane, and possibly in the MIC, that gives proficiency called Skillful.

3) There's a war mace in Complete Warrior. Rather than "repurposing" a fullblade, can you just start with that?

4) I guess this would be up to your DM, but combining templates that both add and halve to an object's weight is not something I'd allow. YMMV.

5) Arms & Armor is by Bastion Press, right? Is your DM okay with third party stuff?

Finally, if this is supposed to be your emergency weapon, it seems like you're sinking a lot of cash into something you may not use that much. And since it does bludgeoning damage, it isn't going to be much help if you get swallowed or entangled. For 30K+ I think there may be something out there to simply allow you to escape the attention/wrath of a big bad (invisibility, mirror image, dim door, etc.).

 

[the Jester]

First of all, you have a couple of suspect (which is to say, third party) sourcebooks that you're drawing on. Check with your dm to see that he allows those in the first place.

Second, the whole Increase weight! Decrease weight! combo is... another bit of suspect work. I wouldn't allow it either. Again, check with your dm.

Also, please note that the item creation pricing guidelines are just that: guidelines. Your dm may (quite rightfully, IMHO) adjust the price up or down. Given that this weapon does 6d10+4 damage (!), if I were the dm, hell yeah would I adjust the price. So once again, check with the dm.

You may find it more efficient to just make a flaming, frost, shock, etc. weapon to add tons of damage of different types to a cheaper base weapon.

 

[Umbran]

Moved to the Optimization board...

 

[Ref]

Thanks for the replies (and for moving the thread!)

I've spoken to the DM. The forceful enhancement is probably out (or at least it won't be allowed to stack, so probably just one instance of this). He doesn't seem have a problem with 3rd party content in general as long as it balances out. Still need to check with him about the heavy metal/light template issue. I've sunk a lot of skillpoints into craft (weaponsmithing) for this kind of thing, and it's kind of a test run for building our party's melee and archer characters some nice hitty sticks/bows.

Unfortunately the war mace in CW is a one hander. I'm specifically looking to do a massive two hander metal mace to use alongside an animated shield.

In terms of the cost for the weapon, I won't actually be spending 30k (or whatever it ends up costing) on it since the character is an artificer that crafts this stuff himself and has a couple of cost reduction feats to boot. The DM sticks to the written material pretty strictly in terms of pricing and so on, so this is one area that shouldn't be an issue.


I'll certainly try to build some evasion/avoidance type spells into the character's gear too, but pretty much everything that gets thrown at us is customised in some kind of horrible way that often ends in some kind of toothy/clawy raping at the hands of the DM's creations. And as they say, the best defence is a good offense.

Any other suggestions or corrections to make this thing work are still welcome.

 

[Grogg of the North]

You can hold a one handed weapon in two hands to get 1.5 strength bonus.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

1) Personally, as a DM or player, I'd prefer to use sources from only one edition of the game, and you have a mix of 3Ed and 3.5Ed sourcebooks.

2) as much as I like the WarMace (or the Maul, which I prefer), that wouldn't be the one I'd go with. I'd be willing to sacrifice a bit of efficacy to go with a heavy Flail and save my caster PC the cost of taking the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat, unless there is a strong character driven reason to do so. If I recall the way it works, with the Platinum special material, it will do something like 3d8 damage.

Edit: just noticed the Master's Touch enchantment.

 

[Jackinthegreen]

One of the things to note is some 3.5 books do mention rules or items from 3.0 books. But as usual, it's up to the DM what's in the game.

As far as the heavy flail would go, a medium one is 1d10 damage, thus making it out of a heavy metal would turn it to 2d6. I don't have the rules for the Forceful enhancement, so I can't comment there.

To the OP, the weapon enhancement to increase crit range on bludgeoning weapons is Impact, not Intense.