A Kensai and his Signature Weapon

[Planchet]

Greetings!

I have a question about the Kensai's signature weapon.
Looking at the Signature Weapon chart on page 50 of Complete Warrior - is that the maximum bonus that a Kensai can use, or the bonus he gets to add to a weapon?

Because I'm always afraid that I can't explain things properly, here's my situation:
I have an 11th level fighter, and he's going to take the Kensai PrC at level 12.
My current blade is a +2 keen longsword; am I restricted from adding any bonuses to the blade until I reach 4th level in the PrC, or do I get to make it a +3 keen longsword (adding a +1 bonus) for 280 exp now?

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Greetings!

I have a question about the Kensai's signature weapon.
Looking at the Signature Weapon chart on page 50 of Complete Warrior - is that the maximum bonus that a Kensai can use, or the bonus he gets to add to a weapon?

Because I'm always afraid that I can't explain things properly, here's my situation:
I have an 11th level fighter, and he's going to take the Kensai PrC at level 12.
My current blade is a +2 keen longsword; am I restricted from adding any bonuses to the blade until I reach 4th level in the PrC, or do I get to make it a +3 keen longsword (adding a +1 bonus) for 280 exp now?

Hrm. My initial look would suggest that he couldn't do anything until Kensai-4. However, looking at it again, the wording is unclear; I can see where one could interpret it such that, at Kensai-1, getting to add a +1 enhancement-bonus-equivalent to one's weapon.

There may be nothing wrong with that; you'll run into a hard limit once you hit +10 total enhancement bonus, since you won't be able to afford the gigundous epic surcharge in XP. However, I do believe that the intent is that you can't enchant a signature weapon past your level.

Brad

 

[noeuphoria]

I'm not certain, but I think that the spirit of the class is that your Kensai starts out with a masterwork weapon, and then it gains abilities as he levels up. If not, you'll get some weird situations. For instance, if your sword gets broken, and the Kensai gets another one, what abilities does it have when he finishes imbuing it? In any case, I would say have to wait until level 4 for more abilities - otherwise you would have inordinately powerful weapons very soon.