Is this weapon ability too powerful?

[Arravis]

Monte Cook's Complete Book of Eldritch Might has the following weapon bonus:

Eldritch Manawall Crushing: With each successful strike, this weapon drains 5 points of spell resistance from the target for 24 hours. Every subsequent strike drains an additional 5 points of spell resistance. +3 bonus

Is this ability too powerful and unbalanced for a "standard" 3.5 D&D game? I'm honestly not sure. Before the Planar Handbook, I would have thought so... but when compared to the Spell Resistance lowering spell in there (whose name I cannot recall, but it's a 3rd lvl spell), it might not be so bad.

If you think it is too powerful, what suggestions would you have to "lower" it to a +3 bonus? Perhaps 3 points of SR instead of 5? Or perhaps a 10 minute duration instead of 24 hours? Anyway, all opinions and ideas welcome, thanks guys!

 

[two]

pretty specialized

It sounds good... put in on a bow, just a melee weapon, and any mid-level fighters should be able to hit a target 3 times a round (particularly if this is a valid bow enchantment).

That's -15 SR, pretty much takes SR out of the picture.

But, it's VERY specialized. I mean, how often do you care more about reducing SR than doing damage?

It's a nice dragon-killing boost, or something like that... but hardly overpowered. Think about it this way, would you prefer your monster to have -15 on its SR, or have taken something like 50 extra hit points of damage?

I mean, vs. any monster without significant SR, it's not doing anything.

I'd rather have speed, simply because it ALWAYS helps against everything.

 

[Nail]

I've not seen the spell in the Planra Handbook....

Other +3 bonuses in the core rules are ...well, just speed. This sounds more powerful than "one extra attack per round", since it allows your fellow party memebrs (the spell casters) to get at the BBEG.

+4 powers are "brilliant energy" and "Dancing"....and we all know what the +5 power is.

As written, this sounds more like a +4 power, rather than +3.

 

[Nail]

Think about it this way, would you prefer your monster to have -15 on its SR, or have taken something like 70 hit points of damage?

No contest: -15 on it's SR.

Think about it: the spells we're talking about may only be resistable with SR.

<EDIT>Moreover, the weapon is also doing damage. So it's not an "either/or" kinda thing.

 

[AuraSeer]

It seems too strong to me, since one round of attacks with this will effectively remove SR from any nonepic monster. At high levels, SR is the only thing that keeps monsters alive for more than a round or two; remove that defense and casters rule the campaign (even more than they normally do).

Worse yet, there's no way to defend against it, other than having an unhittably high AC (which shouldn't ever happen).

I'd change it so the first hit applies a penalty to SR, but subsequent hits do not stack. That's still strong-- like giving all spellcasters in the party a Greater Spell Penetration feat that doesn't use up a slot-- but at least it doesn't skew class balance.

 

[was]

You might lower it by only applying this ability on successfull critical hits.

 

[two]

No contest: -15 on it's SR.

Think about it: the spells we're talking about may only be resistable with SR.

<EDIT>Moreover, the weapon is also doing damage. So it's not an "either/or" kinda thing.

Sorry, I probably exaggerated. There is almost no way an extra +3 ability will result in 70 extra damage. Possibly 50, or even less.

Still, this ability is specialized. It's great against devils, demons, dragons, the biggest of the scaries. It's worthless against anything without significant SR, which (depending on your campaign) could be 90% of the bad guys.

Unbalanced? I'm not sure. It MIGHT allow quick SR dropping of a Dragon -- if something gets within full attack range of a dragon, which is a scary proposition. Ditto other meanies with SR.

I don't know. There are plusses and minuses. Throwing away +3 in bonuses vs. most opponents (with no SR) has gotta hurt.

Would be a great weapon ability for something like a anti-magic user class.

 

[babomb]

At the very least, I think it should allow a Will save.

 

[Sejs]

I don't see it as too powerful at all. It doesn't enhance the functionality of the weapon in any way - it just allows someone else to do their thing more effectivly. If it's just the weapon wielder (and he doesn't also cast spells) solo against some critter, he garners no benefit for his +3 investment.

 

[UltimaGabe]

I think it would be perfectly balanced if it were only on a critical hit. Of course, my only worry then is that it won't seem powerful enough- it's not going to do much of anything the majority of the time (albeit fighting a monster without spell resistance, or fighting a monster WITH spell resistance but not getting a crit), but when it does take effect, it's going to be an extremely powerful effect. I'd even say to give the target a save rather than limiting it to critical hits (although, if it were a save, I'd have it be a Fortitude save, in keeping with the "Lower Spell Resistance" spells), but that (in my mind) would just result in all sorts of unnecessary dice rolling.