D&D 5E +1 sword or Flame Tongue- or both?

[aco175]

The group is powerful enough to start upping the power of their weapons (hitting 10th level). I could give out a +2 weapon but are wondering of something cooler is better. I was thinking of +1 Flame Tongue, but didn't know if it needs +1 to make it worth while. I know 5e does not need to scale and such, but is a +0 Flame Tongue or something similar cool enough to trade in +1 basic with a daily power to screech a 30ft cone for 3d6 damage.

Power wise, the fighter has a large enough To-Hit and the +1 may not be needed, but taking away 1 by trading in his +1 sword may not be the best. I know another player may take the sword and giving the players a choice is up to them to handle their characters, but I was just looking for opinions. Cheers

 

[Tony Vargas]

Extra damage/attack is huge for melee types with Extra Attack, and especially for Fighters with Action Surge, so, yeah, passing on a 'meager' +1 to hit & damage for a +2d6 fire damage per hit is highly desirable.

Just hope the player of the fighter realizes that...

 

[Satyrn]

I think you should make it a +3 vorpal flametongue.

Wait, no! That's a terrible idea. Make it a +1 vorpal nine lives stealer flametongue. That's what I'd do.

 

[Mistwell]

I handed out a +0 flametongue to my group, and regret it. It's just a huge amount of damage, and it scales with each attack. The guy that has it waaaaay outpaces the damage of other fighter-types in the party. Which is not inherently bad but it wasn't in my mind when I handed it out. I did not intend to hand out a +0/+7 weapon, and that +7 is the average additional damage the 2d6 does on a hit.

 

[cbwjm]

I'd say give them the flame tongue, it's more interesting than a straight bonus to hit. I'd probably make it a +1 weapon, although I guess even at +0 it should still count as magical.

 

[Mistwell]

I'd say give them the flame tongue, it's more interesting than a straight bonus to hit. I'd probably make it a +1 weapon, although I guess even at +0 it should still count as magical.

So you'd give them a +1/+8 weapon, as long as it was interesting, relative to a +2/+2 weapon?

 

[cbwjm]

So you'd give them a +1/+8 weapon, as long as it was interesting, relative to a +2/+2 weapon?

There'd probably be both. I wouldn't be handing out a flame tongue to each party member since I'd see them as rarer than a standard +2 weapon but yeah, a flaming weapon is more fun than a +2 weapon and I would definitely be looking to hand out a flame tongue in the later levels. That or a frost brand (is it weird that flame tongue requires a bonus action to activate and frost brand doesn't?).

 

[Shiroiken]

Don't undervalue those pluses; a Flametongue is plenty powerful enough on its own. One custom item I made is a Longbow of Radiance. It deals 2d6 radiance instead of the 1d8 piercing, plus some benefits for vision. The only part of it I regret is making it +2, because the bonus to hit put him into the range of using Sharpshooter feat every single attack without hesitation.

 

[Oofta]

I think it's very situational. But an average extra 7 points of damage per hit is pretty huge, and outweighs the minor decrease in chance to hit especially for people with multiple attacks. If you are doing a campaign high powered PCs it can be OK. It actually bring the melee fighter on par with the sharpshooter that's always hiding and getting advantage or the reckless great weapon master barbarian.

It also depends on whether your group cares about damage parity. Some do, some don't. Some will just be happy if the monsters die faster, others will feel overshadowed.

 

[kbrakke]

I have never been dissapointed in the amount of damage my players do, I would be fully in favor of the flametongue. When I received one I was ecstatic, my player got one and he uses it constantly.