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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 2338950" data-attributes="member: 3146">It depends what level you are and what kind of foes you face. At higher levels, you face a lot of undead and outsiders who have resistance 10 to most energies. Similarly, templated foes are pretty common and most templates grant a medley of minor energy resistances.It's also unreasonable to compare "any kind of DR" to a "specific type of energy resistance." For instance, the ability to bypass DR/magic is irrelevant to discussion of a flaming weapon because the magic weapon already bypasses DR /magic. Odd are pretty good that DR /something you can't beat doesn't crop up any more often than energy resistance (or, worse yet, energy healing--for example a shocking weapon is a poor choice against a flesh golem). Furthermore, the ability of the energy weapon to bypass DR is only relevant when the DR negates ALL the damage from the initial attack. If Joe fighter 20 with a magic sword hits the pit fiend for 20 points of damage, even if he doesn't get through its DR, he still deals 5 points of damage. And if Joe fighter 20 had a more magic sword (enhancement=X+1), he would still get the added damage from the enhancement. In this case, he hits the pit fiend for 21 points of damage and 6 gets through. And it's certainly worth noting that the kinds of creatures with DR /other than magic tend to be the kinds of creatures with energy resistance. Demons, devils, slaadi, golems (many of whom are benefitted by one energy type), etc. So, the foes who DR ignoring damage would be most useful against are the very foes least likely to be effected by energies. About the only time I see the DR penetrating aspects of energy come up is when non-fighter archers go up against greater or elder elementals' DR 10/-You're looking at that the wrong way. The fighter with the +(X+1) two handed sword will presumably have a +1 advantage in his attack bonus vis a vis the fighter with the +X flaming two handed sword. If he power attacks for one, eliminating any attack differential, he deals three extra points of damage to the flaming sword's 3.5. (This power attack analysis, by not including situations where an extra point of attack bonus is more advantageous than two points of damage is advantageous to the energy weapons, so if they don't win here, they don't win anywhere).So, for two handed weapons, against non-resistant foes, an energy enhancement grants a very minor damage advantage in exchange for a loss of flexibility (you don't need to power attack if you'd rather hit), hardness, hit points, etc, and the activation requirement (mostly a non-issue).For a one-handed weapon or a two-weapon fighter, energy enhancements are a much more attractive bargain.In no cases, however, do they add up to a +2 bonus. The two handed weapon wielder power attacks for 2 and gets 6 points more damage per hit at the same attack bonus vs. 3.5 for the energy weapon user. Even a one-handed weapon user can power attack for 2 and get 4 points of damage vs. the 3.5 from the energy weapon user. (And while it might seem like that's close, both the number of energy resistance creatures and the power of other +2 equivalent enhancements (holy, wounding, etc) mean that it isn't really in the same ballpark).So, if you ask me, that puts energy weapons at about where they should be for a +1 enhancement. They are better than an enhancement bonus in some circumstances (one handed weapon, etc) and worse in others.(For comparison, a keen 19-20 or x3 weapon (assuming a 75% confirmation rate) will deal more damage than a +(X+1) weapon when its wielder deals 40 points of damage per hit and on an 18-20 weapon will add more damage than the +(X+1) weapon will deal more than 26.66 damage per hit. Which is to say that keen scimitars and falchions are good weapons for high level paladins when they're smiting (because, who wants to spend a feat on Imp Crit) or two handed power attacking, single class (because if they multiclassed with fighter, they wouldn't be short on feats) barbarian, but keen is a pretty bad deal for everyone else. Keen is generally considered weak (and rightly so)).WRT the other questions:1.  d8 energy damage would not be worth the +2 enhancement. On the two handed weapon, 4.5 points of damage still isn't close to the 6 points from power attack and a higher enhancment bonus. On one handed weapons, it's not enough more than the 4 points from power attack and the higher enhancement bonus. And on either it doesn't remotely compare to wounding or holy.2. Burst weapons are generally not worth the extra enhancement bonus and compare very poorly to other +2 enhancments. Even in a best case scenario (Paladin with imp crit and bless weapon on an 18-20 weapon against evil foes where every threat is a hit), going from energy to energy burst weapon will only add an extra .3*5.5 (2.75) to your average damage per hit. At that point, it's almost reached the 3.3 that a two handed weapon wielder power attacking for one more point would add to his damage per hit with a +(X+1) weapon. And, even with the 3.5 damage per hit from the initial energy damage (total 6.25 damage per hit), it doesn't equal the 7 points of damage per hit from holy or the (foe's HD/2) damage per hit from wounding.And that's the BEST case scenario. Most weapons will also have to figure in crit confirmation rolls and fewer than 30% critical hits.</blockquote>

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