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

[The Sigil]

+1, light-emitting (free) with Sonic energy damage (equivalent to flaming, but with sonic energy, name escapes me just now)

1.) Energy damage bypasses DR, making it nearly as useful as another plus with respect to DR - and I would rather do 1d6 rapier plus 1d6 sonic damage to almost everything and "just" the 1d6 instead of the 1d6+2 to everything provided by a +2 rapier to a creature with DR)

2.) VERY few creatures are resistant to Sonic damage, so you rarely have to worry about energy resistance slowing you down (a problem with fire/cold weapons).

3.) **Great** for breaking items and sundering stuff since Sonic energy does *full damage* to objects. With a +1 sonic rapier, you're dealing (on average) 8 points of damage - not quite enough to overcome hardness unless you have a strength bonus, but it also means that you have a good shot of getting by hardness and doing some sundering. Much better than the 5.5 average points the +2 rapier provides. Someone with a +3 Str bonus will, on average, damage his opponent's weapon.

4.) With a light-emitting, sonic rapier, you can effectively play it as a lightsaber, complete with sound effects.

--The Sigil

 

[coyote6]

For spell-storing, I like dispel magic (for use on the enemy with Way Too Many Buff Spells) or inflict serious wounds (at least 3d8+5 extra damage, or half if they make their Will save).

PS: I've been allowing the spells stored to be at the caster level of the person who cast them; IMO, the spells are stored in the weapon, but cast by whoever cast 'em. So effects that depend on the caster use the caster's stats.

 

[coyote6]

2.) VERY few creatures are resistant to Sonic damage, so you rarely have to worry about energy resistance slowing you down (a problem with fire/cold weapons).

IIRC, a silence spell will stop all the damage, though. So beware of the cleric that buffs up their fighter friend with a ton of spells, and finishes the suite with a silence on his hat!

 

[Zaruthustran]

4.) With a light-emitting, sonic rapier, you can effectively play it as a lightsaber, complete with sound effects.

--The Sigil

Now that is too cool. Thanks for the idea. Here's to hoping I'll be allowed to pick that sonic enchantment.

-z

 

[tleilaxu]

i say +1 frost rapier

 

[Sir Hawkeye]

Yep, I ran some numbers on Spikey's Melee Combat Calculator and Flaming (or any energy effect) comes out well ahead, followed by +2, then keen. Even with a rapier, you have to be doing a fair bit of extra damage before keen is really worth it.

Unless you're facing high ACs and DRs often, energy enhancement is the way to go.

 

[Mark]

Did I miss this somehow? What is your race and level?

 

[Ciaran]

Does your DM favor incorporeal creatures such as undead? If so, you might want to consider ghost touch. We've had plenty of trouble in the past dealing with shadows and such, and a ghost touch weapon in the party really would have come in handy.

- Eric

 

[mkletch]

There is a thread on rules concerning the spell-storing ability, and how it works. Some say that you use the level of the caster who put this spell into the item. I (and maybe others; I haven't checked in a while) feel that, since it is from an item, the spell is at the minimum caster level. There is nothing in the rules that would indicate that your 10th level caster gets to store a 10-die lightning bolt in a +1-effective ability, but there is a lot in the rules that would indicate that you use the minimum level for the spell, regardless of who cast it into the weapon. Check with your DM to see how this would work in his campaign before wasting cash on it.

In any case, wounding can quickly surpass even the 35 points from an average 10-die spell. See Sanackranib's last post.

-Fletch!

 

[Sanackranib]

+2 Rapier

dollar for dollar wounding is the best weither its a +1 mod OR +2
I'm glad others seem to see the "value" of automatic damage for 10 rounds that stacks both with successive hits and the base damage that the weapon does.