Sledge said:
so the archer has 3 bows? at 32,000, 8,000 and 8,000 gp or roughly the same price as one bow with a total of a +5 modifier.
No, but I've played with a lot of archers who have two bows. A merciful bow and a holy bow with other stuff is actually fairly common--especially in settings where characters frequently want to avoid killing their foes.
So to do a few point of damage occasionally you invest in a feat and multiple inferior weapons. Or you could just do more always. The melee weapons are more expensive.
The melee weapons are expensive--if you get all of them. But it's often advantageous to have a couple of them. (That's why I made the list--not to imply that a golf bag that big is advantageous, but to point out that there are a lot of generally effective enhancements that have significant weaknesses and a lot of niche weapons that can seriously outperform more magical weapons in the right situation. (Ghost touch, merciful, and undead bane weapons probably fill the largest niches, but combining multiple energy enhancements on one weapon with a separate evil outsider bane weapon seems like a pretty good combo).
The promise of "more damage always" is a bit of a chimera too. Take two of the most popular and efficient +2 enhancements: Holy and Wounding. Holy is great against all evil foes, but it doesn't do more damage against many animals, summoned creatures, elementals, constructs, etc. (In a lot of your campaigns, it will work on 2/3 or even 3/4 enemies, but other campaigns feature a lot of neutral foes and even when you're talking about the first campaigns, 1/3-1/4 of encounters is worth planning for). Wounding is one of the best enhancements around but it doesn't do anything to undead, constructs, plants, etc. So, let's say I have a +1 holy wounding weapon. Ghost touch is also a very useful enhancement. But putting it on the holy wounding weapon costs 22,000gp. On the other hand, getting a ghost touch, undead bane weapon will only cost 18,000gp by the book and will actually do MORE damage against the creatures I'm trying to do damage to with the purchase: undead and incorporeal undead.
To use another fairly common example, a +1 flaming frost shock weapon is great against most foes. But against most outsiders, it's basically a +1 weapon. The d6 elemental damage isn't going to get through their energy resistance. So, for a character who goes that route, a +1 evil outsider bane weapon is a good investment. It costs 8,000gp--far less than it would cost to add evil outsider bane or another enhancement to the primary weapon (going from +4 equivalent to +5 equivalent is 18,000gp; +1 evil outsider bane is 8,000gp)
However I do agree that in a party where you only ever get a random sword that is below your party level you may find the golf bag of weapons happens.
You miss the point of the argument in what I can only infer from the rest of the paragraph is an attempt at snideness. I'll break it down to syllogism form for more clarity:
Premise 1: Single massive enhancement weapons tend to be bought or made. You may find a +1 keen, shocking burst weapon on the body of an enemy. You may also find a +4 human bane weapon on the body of an enemy. But you're unlikely to find a +1 holy ghost touch suppressing magebane keen weapon of wounding on the dead body of an enemy. If you want all your offensive gold in one weapon, odds are good that you'll have to pay full price for at least the latter enhancements. Maybe you found a +1 holy suppressing mage bane weapon on the body of a witch hunter and added keen, ghost touch, and wounding to it. But it's a 162,000gp weapon and you only got the first 50,000gp at half price buying it out of treasure.
Premise 2: you are likely to find some lesser enhanced weapons on the bodies of enemies that are still better than your primary weapon in certain situations. (This is especially true if you're not a fighter--paladins, two weapon fighting rangers, warrior clerics, fighter/mages, and barbarians will frequently only have one weapon specific feat--if any). For instance, you might find a +1 flaming shock bow to go with your +1 holy suppressing mage bane keen ghost touch greatsword of wounding. Or you might find a +1 construct bane adamantine morning star (which is straight up better than your primary weapon against most constructs).
Premise 3: Keeping a found weapon gives it to you at (effectively) half cost.
Premise 4: Since weapon pricing is exponential, it costs more to upgrade a +6 (72,000gp) weapon to +7 (98,000gp) than it does to buy a +3 equivalent weapon (18,000gp).
Conclusion: Keeping a found weapon for use in its niche can offer more effectiveness at a lower price than selling that weapon to upgrade. To use the example I've been working with, it would take a vicious or construct bane upgrade to make the single powerful sword as effective against constructs as the +1 construct bane weapon (at the moment, ignoring the DR penetrating advantages of adamantine and bludgeoning weapons). To get that would cost 38,000. The effective price of the +1 adamantine, construct bane weapon is 5,500gp. Even at level 20, 32,500gp isn't pocket change.
If that is the case again quickdraw can be useful in helping you with your inferiority. It's still just another cost for an inherently inferior character.
I fail to see how using multiple weapons is inherently inferior. I won't pretend that it's obviously the best option, but there are a lot of situations where it is advantageous. Of course, that, in itself is not a sufficient reason to take Quickdraw. It's when combined with the ability to recover quickly after a disarm or sunder, to finish off a full attack with thrown weapons (without dropping your primary weapon if you use a two-handed weapon or have a free hand for some odd reason--like spellcasting), and to switch between combat styles (for instance, to use a bow in the opening rounds of combat and then switch to melee after the enemy closes or to switch from a reach weapon to non-reach) without any disadvantage that Quickdraw becomes worthwhile.
For instance why do you have to pay a feat to throw daggers, but not to shoot arrows? Maybe quickdraw has value, but it is in many areas that the characters are already penalized for exploring.
I don't think characters are penalized for exploring the possibility of using a bow in the opening rounds of combat. I've observed it to be quite effective myself--even for characters that aren't real archers. Nor do I think the core rules especially penalize characters in general for choosing to wield a reach weapon and switch to non-reach at need. (The Quickdraw feat costs the same number of feats as Spiked Chain proficiency and lets you use more damaging weapons both at reach and close up for the cost of not threatening simultaneously. The Exotic Weapon Master class only offering Spiked Chains the Exotic Flurry ability alters that equation somewhat). The rules do penalize fighters for doing that--some of their most important abilities depend upon using the same weapon all the time--but not other martial classes.
