Advice sought: you have two +'s to spend on a rapier. What do you choose?

[Zaruthustran]

My character has access to a magic rapier of power equal to +2 . I'm debating how I want to "spend" those pluses.

*Do I choose a simple +2 rapier?
*Or a +1 Keen rapier? Crits are nice. But not everything can be critted, and it's only an increased CHANCE of crit.
*Or a +1 Flaming rapier? Tempting, since fire is always handy to have around. And +1d6 damage every attack is like a crit every attack (except for the extra Strength damage).

Here are the compounding factors and details:

Character is a rogue/ranger/fighter with 16 Dex and 16 Strength, and the feats Combat Reflexes, Hold the Line, and Improved Initiative.

The rapier is his only magic weapon, but not his primary weapon--he gets more use out of his longspear and masterwork mighty (+3) composite longbow.

Character is in a party with a paladin, cleric, sorceror, and rogue. Paladin is the melee tank, but my character is the secondary tank. The cleric has the Fire domain, so I figure he'll be able to rebuke/turn most anything that can't be hurt by the Flaming enchantment.

I can't swap the +2 rapier for some other type of +2 weapon - it must be a rapier, and it must be equal to +2.

Any advice?

-z

 

[National Acrobat]

I think I would stick with just a +2 Rapier, based on the experiences I have had with my dm, with regards to Damage Reduction and Undead and what not. Since you are the secondary tank, the extra plus of enchantment (+2) is good, it boosts your rolls. Now if you had 3 Plusses, to work with, that would be different...

 

[Agnostic Paladin]

Can you choose abilities from the splatbooks?

'Cause I really like

Sure Striking: A sure striking weapon harms creatures with damage reduction as if it had a +5 enhancement bonus. Bows, crossbows, and slings cannot have the sure striking ability.
Caster Level: 6th; Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, greater magic weapon; Market Price: +1 bonus.

+1 Surestriking anything is a handy item for every party.

 

[Sanackranib]

+2 Rapier

since you alraedy crit on an 18-20 and +2 will only give you +1 Damage. if it was me I would make it a wounding weapon taht way 1 hit will do an extra point of damage per round for up to 10 rounds. multiple hits are cumulative!

 

[Mr Fidgit]

a Transmuter magic-item building wizard i recently played gave the swashbuckler-type PC in the party the same array of choices. he chose +1 Keen

it was very soon after that he found it had very limited use against foes with a +2 or better DR, and often switched to the +2 short sword he had...

personally, i think it's a toss up. +1 keen can't be used on some creatures, but when it works, it's fantastic to have. +1 flaming may also not work on all creatures, but, again, a great weapon (although it takes a standard action to activate...). +2 it probably the best overall choice, because it's ability compared to the other two (another +1 to hit and damage) will always have a use in every battle

 

[Zaruthustran]

Thanks for the responses so far. I'm leaning toward a straight +2 myself. But those extra qualities sure are fun.

Agnostic Paladin, I agree that surestriking is a must-have. Alas, I'm limited to enchantments in the DMG.

One other thing I should have mentioned above (I'll edit it in): the cleric has the Fire domain. So I figure he'll be able to rebuke/turn most anything that can't be hurt by the Flaming enchantment.

Please keep the suggestions coming, and thanks again.

-z

 

[Garmorn]

Helpefull Sorceror?

If your Sorceror the helpfull buffer type with greater magic weapon? If so an arrangement could be made for him to cast a Greater Magic Weapon on the rapier as needed. Then you would have a choice between the energy damage and the Keen weapon.

If you are fighting lots of things that can't be crit don't go for the keen. If you are fighting incopreal creatures go for the ghost touch. This will make the rapier an excelent backup weapon.

Other wise I would suggest the +2 as a tank type (even a backup one) your rogue levels have lowered your attack bonus and you will need to conversate for that.

 

[Dingleberry]

Another minor factor: flaming gives off light like (IIRC) a torch. That can be handy as a light source, but can also be a pain if you ever do any sneaking or invisible action.

You might consider frost as an alternative. Even if your cleric may be able to turn most fire-resistant creatures, he probably also has a good number of fire spells, and a cold-dealing weapon may be just what the party needs.

 

[comrade raoul]

For lower to mid-level characters, the energy effects (fire, cold, electricity, acid, and sonic) are generally better than keen. Look at it this way -- the extra threat range you'd get with a keen rapier improve your damage output by 15% (in the best case, that is, when you're attacking something that can be critted, and when every attack roll that's good enough to threaten is also good enough to hit). The energy effects give you an extra +3.5 points of damage, on average, against things that don't resist them.

So that means, against something that neither resists the energy of your choice (the least-resisted are acid and sonic) and can be critted, you'd choose between an extra 3.5 damage (not multiplied on criticals) and an extra 15%. Let's round the extra damage down to +3, since you don't multiply it on criticals. Note that undead, constructs, and oozes aren't all that rare, so there's no reason to think you'll be able to take advantage of your keen weapon all that much more often than your energy damage, so let's treat those as equally useful.

So now there's only one question left. Do you average more than 20 (3 / .15) damage per hit? If you did, you'd want the extra 15% from the keen weapon. Since you probably don't, you probably want the extra energy (preferably sonic or acid) damage.

 

[Zaruthustran]

The sorceror is an illusionist. But I could try to beg a Magic Weapon from the cleric. Or buy a scroll of the spell and have him or her read it, as needed.

So far, our foes have mainly been evil humans and humanoids. But we've also run into a couple undead, and some outsiders. I'm not worried about the undead (our Cleric has Extra Turning, plus we have a Paladin). But the outsiders are a problem--I'm thinking that they'll play a bigger role in the future.

And... hm.. outsiders aren't too bothered by Fire (or cold), *and* tend to have DR.

+2 is looking more and more practical. But, sigh, it's just not as much *fun*.

One last factor: my other choice is to take a specific rapier that is +2 and later becomes +2, Defending. The catch--and in my opinion, it's a prety big catch--is that if anyone else wields the rapier (even for a moment) then the rapier reverts to a simple +1 weapon.

-z

PS: Living Greyhawk players may recognize this item as "the Rapier of the Rogue"

PSS: Good analysis, comrade raoul