+1 Defending sword

[Cabral]

If someone has a +1 Defending masterwork weapon and shifts the 1 point of enhancement bonus from the enchantment to AC, does he still get +1 to hit from the masterwork quality? My guess would be yes.

Could the above person then cast magic weapon to regain the +1 to hit and +1 to damage, effectively making the weapon +1 with +1 AC? My guess would be no.

 

[Kurotowa]

No to both. The magical +1 enhancement bonus to attack and damage overlaps and replaces the masterwork +1 enhancement bonus to attack. You don't get the masterwork +1 back if you shift the magical +1 over. Similarly, the Magic Weapon enhancement bonus will overlap with the existing sword bonus, not replace it.

 

[Cabral]

As i understood it, you get both the MW enhancement bonus to hit and the enchantment's enhancement bonus to hit, but since they are both enhancement bonuses, only the larger is applied. When the defending quality reduces the enhancement bonus of the enchantment, the masterwork bonus becomes the larger.

 

[the Jester]

Oooh, interesting question! I'm not so sure that I agree with Kurotawa on this. The magic enhancement bonus overlaps with, but does not replace the mw enhancement. I think that you would get a +1 enhancement bonus to attack rolls (though not damage).

Interesting strategy! I guess it's a little abusive, so (should this ever come up imc) I'd prolly house rule it.

 

[Artoomis]

I had never though of it, but, most certainly, when you shift the +1 defending weapon's magical enhancement to defense the offensive "to hit" +1 from being masterwork still applies.

So it may be, at your option, +1 AC, +1 To Hit or +1 To Hit, +1 Damage.

 

[Cabral]

I had originally thought of it with an adamantium weapon (inherent +1 or +2 bonus in 3.0) ... I wonder if that's why they changed it.

 

[Nail]

Back in August sometime (IIRC), we had this discsuusion on these boards. The discussion centered around the phrase "A defending weapon allows the wielder to transfer some or all of the sword’s enhancement bonus to his AC as a bonus that stacks with all others..." That is, does the ability allow you to transfer just the enhancement bonus from magic, or must the "masterwork" enhancement bonus go as well when you move 'all'?

Patryn might remember. Hyp was in on the thread too (of course ).

I'm afraid I didn't save the bookmark....

 

[Cabral]

here's more defending silliness. If you buy a +1 defending/+2 quarterstaff, can you use the defending quality while wielding it as a +2 staff? I would say you'd need to wield the defending end in some fashion to get the bonus, though the rules are iffy.

 

[Infiniti2000]

If someone has a +1 Defending masterwork weapon and shifts the 1 point of enhancement bonus from the enchantment to AC, does he still get +1 to hit from the masterwork quality? My guess would be yes.

My response is no according to how I interpret the rules, and said as much in the previous thread that Nail mentions (if someone could search for it, that would be nice). However, defending is such an expensive method of gaining AC that it's not unbalanced to allow it anyway.

 

[Hypersmurf]

The debate had two main points that were argued.

1. Do two overlapping bonuses create a single bonus, or do the two remain distinct? Can someone transfer 'some' of the bonus, meaning a quantitative 'some' - somewhere between +1 and +5? Or come they transfer 'some' of the bonus, meaning a qualitative 'some' - transfer the magical bonus but not the masterwork bonus, for example?

2. Can you, in fact, transfer the last point of magical enhancement bonus of a Defending weapon to AC? If you transfer two points of bonus from a +3 Defending weapon to AC, it's still a +1 weapon. If you transfer all of it, however, it no longer has 'at least a +1 enhancement bonus' as required by any weapon that has a special ability... so does it lose the Defending ability temporarily, which makes the enhancement bonus return, which lets it be a Defending weapon again?

If you rule that you must always leave at least a +1 bonus when transferring, then the masterwork/magical split becomes moot anyway.

-Hyp.