I received a magic weapon in our campaign, and was wondering rare it is...hopefully I don't screw up the poll...
It is a magical two handed sword. In our campaigns, we roll for initiative every round and two handed swords are heavy and two handed, so a -4 to initiative (so frequently my initiative is in the negatives). Magic weapons don't affect initiative.
+1 Two Handed Sword with the following modifications:
-An extra +1 to damage (so a total of +1 to hit, +2 to damage)
-The person it is attuned to learns Dwarvish (I don't know what happens if you're not attuned; if it is retained or forgotten)
-One additional action surge per long rest
A standard +1 weapon is "uncommon". I was wondering if you think this is a "rare", "very rare" or "legendary" item based on the above information. Plot-wise it is a legendary item (which is great for plot development and the campaign), but I thought I'd ask a fun question
I like simple weapons like a magic longsword that can light up on demand. Still counts as a magic weapon to overcome resistance but otherwise has no other bonuses. Great weapon for low level adventurers.Heck, I would give this out to a 3-5th level PC. I tend to not give out basic +1 weapons and tend to give +0 weapon with some of these things.
Judging purely on power level, this is at best a rare. It's a bit worse than a sword +2, which is also a rare.
It's an extra action per long rest, not short rest. If it was short rest, I would rate it ahead of the sword +2.No. 5% bonus to hit is not as good as an extra action surge.
Even if you get it at level 1, you need to make 20 attacks per short rest so that an extra +1 to hit will make a difference. An extra attack of a fighter usually hits with more than 50% chance. So you need more than 10 attack that the extra +1 to hit is better than an extra chance to hit.That proportion actually does not change a lot with extra attacks. It is even better though, because you might use it for extra movement so you actually might make an attack when the +2 weapon wielder does nothing. I also ignored the possibility of hitting twice as much and I ignored advantage and crits.
I don't know about your campaign, but getting an extra attack when you want seems better to me than having chance determine when you hit that one more time.
It's an extra action per long rest, not short rest. If it was short rest, I would rate it ahead of the sword +2.
If I were a gish, I would probably favor the flexibility of the extra action over the +1 to hit, but I personally tend to favor flexibility over purely numeric concerns. But there's no way the sword as written is anything other than a rare. (Again, judging rarity on mechanical power, not on campaign narrative considerations.)