D&D 3E/3.5 Greater Magic Weapon 3.5

[dravot]

This effectively cripples archers against high DR opponents (of which there are many at high levels).

If you want to tone down archers, then take away bracers of archery, remove stacking of bow and arrow bonuses, tone down Point Blank Shot, and/or have GMW not confer an actual bonus to attack and damage rolls. All of these effectively reduce the power of archers, without rendering them ineffectual later on.

My solution to GMW and archers would be that GMW on a bow bestows only an attack bonus, and GMW on arrows bestows only a damage bonus.

 

[IceBear]

As I have always carefully placed monsters I've used the house rule that GMW doesn't count for purposes of sundering and DR (I also had +1/4 levels too ) and it hasn't been unbalancing - in MY campaign.

IceBear

 

[Rel]

This really hasn't been a problem in most of our games (we haven't played to really high levels yet) but it has always seemed to me that a good compromise would be to let the spell enchant one missile per caster level. So that way a 16th level Cleric would enchant 16 arrows to +4. Considering the high rate of fire at that level, an archer could easily burn through that many arrows in a single encounter. This would provide incentive to find or purchase some magic arrows now and then while still allowing the archer to benefit from GMW for a smaller number of arrows per day.

But like I said, we haven't run into this issue yet, so I don't know if my proposed fix would work.

 

[Spatzimaus]

We do something like what Dravot said. Enhancement bonuses have 4 effects: attack bonus, damage bonus, bypass DR, sunder. So, let the enhancement bonus of the bow contribute to attack bonus and sunder, and the enhancement of arrows do damage bonus and DR.
If you don't want to change things so fundamental, just say that this is how GMW works, that for ranged weapons you must enchant a bow AND 50 arrows with it when you cast, and the spell splits the enchantment itself.

There were three other possibilities given on the House Rule board that I liked:

1> When enchanting 50 arrows, the duration drops to 1 minute/level instead of 1 hour/level since you're splitting the enchantment up. So, if you want to GMW right before combat no problem, but it won't be the "enchant 50 arrows at the start of the day and split them up so everyone gets a dozen" situation it is now.

2> GMW increases the Enhancement bonus until the total Market Price of the item is +1/3 levels. So, casting it on a +1 Keen Vorpal Flaming Burst weapon does nothing.

3> Non-masterwork items can't hold an Enhancement bonus, so unless the arrows are masterwork, no such luck.

But, any "how would you house-rule GMW?" discussion should go in the correct forum. Not that there aren't a few billion threads on it already.

 

[Zad]

Must every third thread devolve into being another "archery is too powerful" thread?

I ran the numbers. Melee and archery are more balanced than most people think.

 

[Stalker0]

Must every third thread devolve into being another "archery is too powerful" thread?

I ran the numbers. Melee and archery are more balanced than most people think.

And there are about 300 people who have also run the numbers and would disagree with you.

I think if they just took away the stacking from bow and arrow away, then all would be rosy.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I don't think taking away the stacking is a good idea, but 50 arrows is probably too much. This is all just IMO.

 

[drnuncheon]

This effectively cripples archers against high DR opponents (of which there are many at high levels).

Flaming, shocking, frost, screaming, corrosive, and the burst versions of all of these go right through DR.

Multishot. (IIRC the damage is treated as a single attack for purposes of DR.)

In 3.5, the lowering of DR values.

Coughing up the dough (or bribing the mage) for +1 sure striking arrows (167 gp a pop, cheap at 'high levels' - convince your group replacement costs should come out of the treasure before its divided up, as 'party expenses').

Or, best yet, have a backup in mind. Melee fighters are 'crippled' when faced with foes more mobile then they are. Spellcasters are 'crippled' against foes with high SR or elemental immunity to their spells.

If you focus yourself on one thing to the exclusion of all else, then you should expect to have times when you are useless. That's the price you pay for overspecialization.

J

 

[Hypersmurf]

Coughing up the dough (or bribing the mage) for +1 sure striking arrows...

Isn't that a Melee weapon Special Quality?

-Hyp.

 

[drnuncheon]

Isn't that a Melee weapon Special Quality?

Well, it's not in the SRD and I don't have S&F here to verify - I only know we allowed it in our games. If I've introduced a house rule, my apologies, and replace 'sure striking' with one of the OGC variants, like the one from Malhavoc's BOEM3. I beleive that one is not limited to melee.

J