Enhancing Weapons

[The Iron Mark]

I'm confused on enhancing/making magic weapons. If I have say, a double-bladed sword that was master work, how much would I have to pay a mage to enhance it with a +1 bonus? After that how much would it be to get, say, Sure Striking? Would it cost more/less to have it done at the same time or one at a time? I'm asking because the SRD is confusing and I want to take a prestige class where you need a masterwork weapon that you made, meaning I need a mage to enhance my stuff.

 

[kreynolds]

I'm confused on enhancing/making magic weapons. If I have say, a double-bladed sword that was master work, how much would I have to pay a mage to enhance it with a +1 bonus? After that how much would it be to get, say, Sure Striking? Would it cost more/less to have it done at the same time or one at a time? I'm asking because the SRD is confusing and I want to take a prestige class where you need a masterwork weapon that you made, meaning I need a mage to enhance my stuff.

A basic +1 weapon is 2,000gp + the cost of the masterwork weapon. If you want to enhance a double-sword, the cost is 4,000gp + the cost of the masterwork double-sword. Double weapons are twice the amount because they are two weapons in one. Conversely, each head of the weapon could hold different enhancements, so blade #1 could be a +2 flaming blade and blade #2 could be a +1 sonic blade.

Whether you enhance the weapon all at once or in pieces later, it doesn't make a difference. If you have a +1 weapon and you want it enhanced to a +2, take the total cost of a +2 weapon and subtract the cost of the +1. The result is what you need to pay for the upgrade.

 

[The Iron Mark]

Is it 4,000 for one head or 4,000 for both? Do you double it, for everything? Would it take 16,000 to enhance a double-bladed sword to +1 Sure Striking? Would that apply to one head or both? If it's one, It could get really expensive enhancing both heads of a double weapon, especially if you're giving each head different enhancments.

 

[evileeyore]

You must enchant each blade seperately. Thus if both heads are +1 it would cost 4,ooo... If only one head was a +1 and the other was not magical it would cost 2,ooo, etc....

 

[Astlin]

It could get really expensive enhancing both heads of a double weapon, especially if you're giving each head different enhancments.

Yep and it is also really expensive to enchant 2 weapons.

Astlin

 

[The Iron Mark]

It's enhance! And I thought you doubled for each head, but it seems you onlt do that if you are putting the enhancement on both heads.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

The Iron Mark:

The easiest way to think of it is to imagine that your double weapon is in fact two weapons. Each end is treated as an individual weapon for purposes of enchantment (I know what SKR says, I prefer to use the word "enchantment" when discussing an improvement which can either provide an enhancement bonus or a special ability.) Remembering that each end is considered a different weapon, all prices are standard, not double.

So to create a masterwork 2-bladed sword, you'd pay:
100gp (normal weapon) +
300gp (masterwork, blade 1) +
300gp (masterwork, blade 2) = 700gp.

To enchant it, you'll pay standard prices, but the blades are enchanted separately. Thus, you could leave one blade as only masterwork, and spend 2000gp to upgrade the other blade to +1, or you could pay 4000gp (2000gp for blade 1 + 2000gp for blade 2) and upgrade both blades to +1.

The rest is the same. Consider each blade a separate weapon, and pay the normal price for upgrading it.