Help me price this weapon enchantment!

[Pielorinho]

Forceblade
The forceblade enchantment covers a weapon with an invisible layer of mobile force. The weapon gains 10' reach (if it does not already have reach) and can also hit opponents adjacent to the weapons user (if the weapon can normally hit adjacent opponents). The weapon can hit opponents that are vulnerable to force effects, such as incorporeal opponents.

An opponent who is 10' away from the wielder of the forceblade weapon loses her dexterity bonus against the first attack she faces from the weapon, unless she has seen the weapon in use or is otherwise aware of its properties.

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What do y'all think? I'm thinking +2: it's definitely better than ghost touch, but not as good as, say, brilliant energy, and it seems about equal to disruption.

The dex-loss-first-attack also seems a clumsy mechanic, but I want some way to reflect the surprising nature of a sword that can strike an opponent from 10' away.

Daniel

 

[las]

I would say its about a +3 price mod.

 

[Crothian]

I'd lose the:

"An opponent who is 10' away from the wielder of the forceblade weapon loses her dexterity bonus against the first attack she faces from the weapon, unless she has seen the weapon in use or is otherwise aware of its properties."

That mkaes this weapon a great rogue weapon. It has the potential to be a free sneak attack.

Without that ability I'd call it a +3 weapon.

 

[Destil]

How about alowing one feint once per round as a free action against any single opponent who is outside the weapon's normal reach. It the opponent has never seen any such weapon in action they suffer a -20 circumstance penelity to their sence motive roll.

No typical creature is 'vunarable' to force effects, simply state that it strikes 'as a force effect' to infer things like projection into the etheral plane.

How does this work with reach weapons? With large weapons and large (tall) creatures (natural 10 foot reach)?

With the every round free feint check, +4. Without that (or only once, as a free action against an opponent who's never seen the weapon in action) +3. Spiritual Weapon or Mord's Sword would be good pre-requesites for creation.

Of course such a weapon would most likely need a command-word activation... I'd also allow a DC 30 knowlage arcana check if you wanted to use it against someone who's 'never seen' such a weapon before, +6 circumstance bonus if they observe you speaking the command word.

 

[Pielorinho]

+3? Really? That somehow seems high to me.

The force-effect properties of the weapon seem to me equivalent to ghost-touch, worth a +1. The granting of reach to a weapon doesn't seem comparable to other +2 effects -- it's not as good, I think, as disruption (auto-kill vs. undead sometimes) or bane (+2 to hit, avg. +9 damage vs. specific opponents). It mimics the effects of other weapons, such as spiked chain.

This weapon will likely appear in a treasure cache, so I'm not terribly worried about the cost, except that i want to try to keep it balanced. The weapon will go to an 8th-level character. Can y'all help me get it down to a +2 enchantment?

I'm thinking that maybe the force effect will be visible, so that there's no sneak-attack advantage to using it. And it'll be command-word activated similar to flaming/shocking/frost weapons and the like.

Thanks for everyone's feedback!

Daniel

 

[Spatzimaus]

The granting of Reach is HUGE, far more powerful than Disruption or Bane. That's easily a +2 weapon ability in its own right. You're effectively turning a sword into a Spiked Chain (which requires an EWP and doesn't have the greatest damage), but keeping all the Weapon Focus/Specialization Feats you already had.

The advantages of reach: you can hit the guy without stepping into his threatened area. You can take an AoO as people charge you. You can disrupt a lot of casters at once. With Whirlwind Attack and/or Great Cleave you can hit insane numbers of foes. You can attack past someone to hit a person in the back row. Against Large monsters (the ones with 10' reach) you can attack them without drawing a movement AoO.
In fact, most reach weapons have the added disavantage of being unable to hit adjacent enemies, which your ability doesn't have.

If you want to make it only a +2:
> Drop the Ghost Touch part altogether, or at least greatly reduce it (make it 75% hit chance instead of 50%)
> It's visible; no Sneak Attack (unless they're flat-footed as usual).
> Limit the duration, so that they can't leave it on 24/7. Otherwise the fact that it requires an action will be worthless. Now, you don't need to explicitly say "it lasts 3 rounds", just give a reason to want it off when you're not in combat. For example, say that it can't be sheathed (it'd cut through) and that while active it gives off an audible hum (-2 to your group's Listen checks, +4 to anyone trying to locate you, and you can't Move Silently at all).
> Maybe make certain monster types immune to the added reach (if it's like a Brilliant Energy extension, say that Constructs are immune); against those types you could still attack with the normal 5' length.