Pathfinder 1E Paladin Weapon Bond for two weapons

[Empirate]

So you're basically saying: "you made a suboptimal choice for flavor reasons, and now I'm going to tax you further if you want similar bonuses to what you'd get automatically if you had chosen different." Huh? I don't agree. A houserule in the player's favor here will not take control away from you, unbalance the game or anything negative. It will just close a gap that should have been provided for in the PF rules in the first place.

Seriously, if the Inquisitor player is dick enough to intervene, just give him the same houserule (no extra investment to use good stuff with TWF) and make everybody happy. But keep in mind that a spontaneously chosen Bane property is much, much better than a simple +1 enhancement bonus.

 

[Kyramus]

Personally I think you should allow the bonuses to both weapons but the paladin will need to use his wisdom on how it is applied. the weapons need to be augmented to +1 if they are not magical to begin with. Which makes a single weapon normally +2, gives two weapons +1 each. A +3 equivalent could mean +1 per weapon with the primary weapon having an ability or a +2.
Other than that, I agree with making it a set. Allows for the flavor to seep into the character too. Perhaps if one is broken, he needs to reforge it himself inside the 30 days in order for it to function as desired.

 

[Gorgoroth]

A +3 weapon is worth a lot more than a +1 and a +2, plus it's useable by the 99.9% of warriors. I just dislike asymmetrical bonuses to each hand, it sucks IMO. One of the reasons I don't think it's worthwhile in Pathfinder to Dual Wield at all. Just not worth the feat and magic item costs compared to THF.

 

[Mad Hamish]

I would allow him to duplicate the effects for both weapons. So, on level 5, both his weapons would gain +1 with the bond.

2 weapon fighting is already pretty weak as it is, so this won't break the balance of the game.

If you consider that he has to expend a feat to achieve this, go ahead and tax him. I wouldn't.

Note that 2 weapon fighting changes in effectiveness based on what additional sources of damage you have.
Sneak Attack with multiple weapons is a wonderful thing for instance...
Also you are more likely to get a crit in a round so that could be worth considering (especially if you put the flaming burst option on or have critical feats)
If you pick light weapons so you can use 2 of them (eg 2 shortswords or kukris for instance, rather than a dagger and a longsword) then most feats you can pick up can apply to both of them


A Paladin who is smiting will get a fair bit of bonus damage out of it and using, say, holy from his weapon bond could get quite a lot of additional damage out of 2 weapon style.

Whether they get enough to make it better than a falchion or greatsword is another question but I think you do need to consider the options available to the character.

 

[Empirate]

Note that 2 weapon fighting changes in effectiveness based on what additional sources of damage you have.
Sneak Attack with multiple weapons is a wonderful thing for instance...
Also you are more likely to get a crit in a round so that could be worth considering (especially if you put the flaming burst option on or have critical feats)
If you pick light weapons so you can use 2 of them (eg 2 shortswords or kukris for instance, rather than a dagger and a longsword) then most feats you can pick up can apply to both of them


A Paladin who is smiting will get a fair bit of bonus damage out of it and using, say, holy from his weapon bond could get quite a lot of additional damage out of 2 weapon style.

Whether they get enough to make it better than a falchion or greatsword is another question but I think you do need to consider the options available to the character.

While I agree with parts of your assessment, it doesn't apply here very well:

Sneak attack on a Paladin... yeah, no.
Crit-fishing... OK with critical feats (which come obscenely late in levels), but relying on flaming burst means you have to shell out for two costly weapons instead of one if you use TWF. In this case, TWF is strictly an inferior option (not to mention that flaming burst and its ilk are weak enchantments in the first place).
Weapon-specific feats... which ones were you thinking of? I can't think of any good ones off the top of my head.

But the reason I chose to reply is the "...using, say, holy from his weapon bond...". That's exactly what the OP was asking about: can you apply your weapon bond ability to two weapons as easily as one? Your implication (you can) is in line with what other posters here argued, and they argued that way to make TWF a less terrible option.

 

[Mad Hamish]

While I agree with parts of your assessment, it doesn't apply here very well:

Sneak attack on a Paladin... yeah, no.
Crit-fishing... OK with critical feats (which come obscenely late in levels), but relying on flaming burst means you have to shell out for two costly weapons instead of one if you use TWF. In this case, TWF is strictly an inferior option (not to mention that flaming burst and its ilk are weak enchantments in the first place).
Weapon-specific feats... which ones were you thinking of? I can't think of any good ones off the top of my head.

But the reason I chose to reply is the "...using, say, holy from his weapon bond...". That's exactly what the OP was asking about: can you apply your weapon bond ability to two weapons as easily as one? Your implication (you can) is in line with what other posters here argued, and they argued that way to make TWF a less terrible option.

I'm really pointing out that you've got to consider how the abilities combine to get an idea of whether changes are unbalancing.
I'm not actually sure whether it's enough of a power up to be unbalancing but it needs a bit more analysis than "sure 2-weapon fighting is underpowered"

Generally 2-weapon fighting doesn't compare overly well with a 2 handed weapon but it can be pretty powerful if there are options to boost the damage.
Sneak Attack was an example of something that makes 2 weapon fighting powerful.
Flaming Burst can be added by the Weapon Bond (as can Holy or axiomatic), if it affects both weapons then you could get +4d6 damage against, say, a demon on every attack -admittedly not until 14th level. If it's the target for a smite at that stage it gets +4d6 + 14 damage on each hit -> plus anything else you normally have

If the weapon bond applies to both weapons you do away with some of the requirement to keep both weapons up to date, how many adventuring days do you really have more than 5 minutes a day of combat at 5th level or, say, 10 minutes a day at 10th?

as far as single weapon feats go Improved Critical isn't bad (especially with Kukri's for a 2 weapon combatant, 15-20 threat range, and smite damage is multiplied on a crit) I'm not sure if there's anyway for a Paladin to get them without multi-classing into fighter but the Weapon Specialization, greater weapon focus, greater weapon specialization combinations have a fair impact.