Capping item enhancement

[Quartz]

We've seen in a couple of Story Hours how higher level characters have weapons and armour with low plusses with lots of features. These are then enhanced by Greater Magic Weapon etc to a full +5, essentially giving the item a 'plus worth' of +13 or +14 - well into Epic territory. Should this be stopped? If so, how? Should the plus worth of the features on an item be capped by the main plus of the item (e.g. a +2 item can only have +2 worth of features)? Should Greater Magic Weapon be rewritten to cope with this?

 

[Kerrick]

I actually thought about doing it like that when I came up with my variant masterwork system, but I later decided not to use it. If you're interested, here it is:

Instead of having craft bonses stack with enhancement bonuses, you could institute the following rule: An item (weapon, shield, or armor) cannot have an enhancement bonus greater than double the craft bonus. So, for example, the superbly-crafted plate mail mentioned above could have a maximum bonus of +8. The bonus can be increased up to the maximum allowed for that type, but not beyond – if you wish to increase the enhancement bonus, the item must be reforged. However, all of the enhancements add their base price modifiers to the Craft check when the item is recreated. So, for example, if someone melted dow a +4 unholy ghost touch mace in order to make it superbly crafted, he gains a +8 enhancement bonus to the roll - +4 for the weapon enhancement, +2 for unholy, and +1 for ghost touch. All of these enhancements must be re-added to the item, however, and the item enchanted anew.

This would work well for low-magic worlds, I think; for what you're thinking of, I'd change the rule to read the market bonus (instead of enhancement) can't be more than twice the craft bonus - this lets you have a weapon with 1 or 2 plusses and some abilities, without going over the top.

 

[Nifft]

Should Greater Magic Weapon be rewritten to cope with this?

If your PCs are putting all their resources into one weapon each, you're not using the sunder rules enough.

If you sunder / disjoin / rust monster their stuff regularly, the overlap between temporary buffs like greater magic weapon and "cheap" (+1 keen flaming burst) weapons becomes necessary rather than overpowering.

This is not to be unkind. Your PCs are not exploiting a hole and you are not "punishing" them by using sunder / disjoin / rust monster / whatever. It's just how the rules interact.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Kularian]

If you don't feel like destroying their items on a regular basis, (though I do agree, it is fun,) I'd advise using one of your already mentioned ideas:

Should the plus worth of the features on an item be capped by the main plus of the item (e.g. a +2 item can only have +2 worth of features)?

We almost always use this houserule in my games, more or less because it makes sense. A weapon's enhancement bonus determines its 'strength.' Thus a weapon with only +2 or +3 enhancement bonus can only handle bonus abilities up to that enhancement. That's my vote, at any rate.

 

[Spatzimaus]

IMC, we did the following:

1> The highest Market Bonus an item could hold is equal to its Craft DC modifier. (However, we use an "exotic material" system where this modifier ranges from -4 to +20, so when I say "DC modifier" I mean just the modifier due to material). It doesn't matter whether you're talking about temporary spells or permanent enhancement; it's capped the same either way. So, while Fine Steel (DC +3, which replaces Masterwork) can only hold minor enchantments, Dragonscale (DC +18) can handle even epic magic. A few materials have caps explicitly different than what their DC would imply.

2> At first, we changed the spells like this:
Greater Magic Weapon increases the Enhancement bonus such that the total market price is +1 per 3 levels (max +5). If you've got a +1 shocking flaming keen frost weapon (cost +5), GMW won't help.
We also then added Superior Magic Weapon (level 6, +1 per 2 levels, max +10, except that the Enhancement bonus itself can't exceed +5) and Epic Magic Weapon (level 9, +1 per 2 levels, max +15, enhancement can't exceed +10).
We also added another one, Adaptive Magic Weapon (level 4) that lets you replace one point of enhancement bonus with any other +1-cost enchantment, and change it at will.

3> And then we threw the spell out altogether, and just added in a series of elemental weapon buffs that could be memorized at any spell level (with proportional effects). For instance, IIRC, fire weapon memorized in a level X slot adds +2X fire damage per hit, and the wielder can choose to expend the enchantment to throw a fire bolt dealing something like Xd8 damage (ranged touch). There was more to it, but I don't have the notes in front of me, and the exact effects vary with the element (like the air weapon only adds +X damage but also gives an attack bonus, and earth weapon gives +X and a bonus vs DR and sundering).

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

A weapon's enhancement bonus determines its 'strength.' Thus a weapon with only +2 or +3 enhancement bonus can only handle bonus abilities up to that enhancement. That's my vote, at any rate.

Seconded! Really this rule is just an extension of the 'item must have a +1 enhancement before any bonus equivalent abilities are added' rule. It never seemed right to me that you can't have a masterwork flaming sword, but you can have a +1 flaming burst vorpal speed wounding sword.