Is this weapon ability too powerful?

[Pyrex]

It's simply too good at +3. The sorcerer in the tabletop game I play would happily sell his Rod of Maximize to pay for putting this enhancement on one of our fighters (or even better, the Manyshot Archer) weapons.

Once the party hits 10th level or so the majority of the significant threats have SR. One or two hits from this pretty much eliminates SR as a factor.

I'd probably make it +2, have the penalty not stack and reduce the duration to 1 round.

 

[Black_Skull]

Some of you say that Eldritch Manawall Crushing weapon ability is too specialized and it is not worth because it is only useful against high SR opponents... but what prevents you from carrying various types of weapon?
You can change the weapon you are using according to the kind of enemy you are fighting.
I mean that the power of a weapon ability shouldn´t be considered on all circumstances, but when it works effectively.
The truth is that Eldritch Manawall Crushing weapon ability is overpowered, because in the situations in wich it is useful it makes the difference in combat, and nothing prevents you from changing your weapon when it ceases to be useful.
Sorry for my English, i will improve it

 

[two]

32K is not cheap

Yeah, you could keep a +1 EMC (+4 weapon equivalent) in your golf bag for use only against high SR meanies.

That's 32K that's just sitting there doing nothing most of the time.

If you want to spend 32K on the tough battles, you could also buy 5 scrolls of TimeStop and 5 scrolls of Shapechange. <substitute 9 or 10 other 8th and 9th level scrolls here>

Sure, they are gone after 10 big bad guys, but by that time you are 20th level or something.

Seriously though, keeping a 32K weapon around only for high SR monsters is a very expensive proposition. Might be a good idea, but it's certainly not a no-brainer.

But honestly, I'm still waffling. I think it's not worth +4 by any means. +3? With a save or not? Eh, I just don't know. I would not allow it on a bow, however - only a melee weapon. If you don't even have to get CLOSE to the bad guy to drop it's SR to nil, yeah, that's pretty useful.

 

[Shadeus]

I'd put it on arrows. Say create/buy 10 of them for roughly 6k. That's not too much to have sitting around for just such an occasion. I personally think its a clever idea. Perhaps -5 SR is too much though. Maybe -3 or -4 is more appropriate.

 

[Black_Skull]

Yeah, you could keep a +1 EMC (+4 weapon equivalent) in your golf bag for use only against high SR meanies.

That's 32K that's just sitting there doing nothing most of the time.

Yep, that´s 32K, but that is no money for a high level character in relation to the benefit obtained from it.
I agree such a weapon would be most of the time unused in low level campaigns, but it would be most of time useful in high level campaigns, when monsters that really are a true challenge for the adventurers have an amazing SR.

If you want to spend 32K on the tough battles, you could also buy 5 scrolls of TimeStop and 5 scrolls of Shapechange. <substitute 9 or 10 other 8th and 9th level scrolls here>.

Sure, they are gone after 10 big bad guys, but by that time you are 20th level or something.

The spenditure of 32K is not worthless since you have a permanent magical item that allows you to slay such powerful enemies who you would not be able to slay by any other means. Besides, you spend 32K only once.

If you think that a scroll of Time Stop is enough to decide an entire encounter whose CR would give lots of XPs, you are probably refering to the not-updated version of the spell. In 3.5 rules this spell can´t be used to cast 1d4+1 spells against an enemy nor can you affect phisically your opponent by any means. Shapechange is better to gain XPs.

As you seem to focus in low level campaigns, you should consider that casting a spell from a scroll with a higher caster level than your own is risky and may not function or cause a mishap. If you consider as well that Mordenkainen´s Disjunction automatically destroys all scrolls, perhaps buying those cool scrolls doesn´t sound so great

 

[two]

32K is never absolutely trivial, but at levels 15+ yes it's not such a big deal. Still significatn, however.

But, for levels 1-14, I would argue, you are better off using 10 scrolls of (if you insist) shapechange rather than this weapon. Most people don't play with MDisjunction, by the way, as written. Yes, they go away after 10 fights, but wow -- talk about something nice to pull out when the red dragon shows up.

All I'm saying is there are definate drawbacks, and balances. I don't even know if it IS a problem to give up +3 in bonuses vs. all the mooks leading up to the BBEG (making those fights that much tougher) just to allow an easier BBEG fight. That's a tradeoff too. And some BBEG don't have SR, anyway.

"Broken" says to me "always better," or "always use," aka 3.0 haste. Buying a weapon with this ability definately has drawbacks.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

The ability seems powerful but quite possibly balanced.

Comparing it to other abilities, it's worth the same as both Wounding and Bane or both Keen and Holy. So, comparing it other abilities, the +3 equivalent is worth about 55 points of damage and 4.2 points of con/round in the hands of a fighter who is using a specialty weapon against a vulnerable foe. Well, 90-110 points of damage per round or -20 SR or so? Not an obvious choice.

Keen and holy is worth about 50 points of damage per round in the hands of a 20th level full attacking fighter. So, about 50 more points of damage against nearly all foes or -20 SR or so against foes for whom that's relevant? The SR penalty sounds interesting but, again, I don't think it's completely obvious.

If you ignore the fact that enhancement bonusses are limited to +5 and achievable through Greater Magic Weapon, a simple extra +3 enhancement bonus is worth somewhere around an utterly reliable 40 points of damage/round in the hands of a 20th level fighter.

So, I don't think it's obvious that this would always be a better choice than standard +3 abilities.

Furthermore, a lot of creatures have multiple sources of SR. Most high end evil outsiders, for instance, have Unholy Aura at will which provides SR of it's own in addition to their native SR.

However, there is reason for concern since:
1. SR is nearly ubiquitous at high levels. At level 20, it's not a specialized enhancement; it's useful against everything.
2. An archer using this ability could easily reduce any single foe's SR to negligable levels with two hits. And since archers almost always have the ability to make full attacks, and almost always hit, this could easily make SR a non-factor in most of the PCs' battles.
3. Eldritch Manawall Crushing?!? Talk about a mouthful of a name. Enhancements should have simple names like vorpal, or speed. Brilliant Energy is pushing it but Eldritch Manawall Crushing is completely over the top.

So, based on that, I'd be inclined to allow it as a melee-only enhancement at +3 and see how it worked.

 

[Nail]

.
3. Eldritch Manawall Crushing?!? Talk about a mouthful of a name. Enhancements should have simple names like vorpal, or speed. Brilliant Energy is pushing it but Eldritch Manawall Crushing is completely over the top.

Well, there you are. If the name's wrong, the power has got to go. Couldn't agree more.

This is hardly a rules discussion now, but:
SR is way to crucial and prevalent at higher levels to be taken lightly....and this enchantment will reduce SR to worthlessness within a round. That's not acceptable as a +3 power.

 

[Victim]

I tried really hard to convince people in my group to get an EMC weapon in my high level game, but no one went for it. In most cases, fighters don't want to have a crappy weapon and do less damage so someone else in the group can do more damage. It's a spotlight thing. Of course, I can how archers would be a problem, since they can get a handful of arrows rather cheaply and then use one or two at a time.

Since most attack conjurations ignore SR, I don't think it's as big of a deal to have ways to weaken it. Also, WotC has introduced it's own way to reduce SR, which, to me anyway, seems more broken than EMC weapons.

Against Dragons, a wounding weapon is probably better than EMC? Versus the big ones, we're talking ~40 damage per two hits, plus the ability to instant kill when Con=0. And if the wizard chain casts Cloudkill (no SR, save vs Con damage is for 1/2), then SR isn't a problem and the dragon will take a bunch of Con damage each round.

 

[AuraSeer]

two, I disagree.The chance to turn an extremely difficult boss fight into a two-round encounter is so powerful, the opportunity cost and lengthened "mook fights" are totally insignificant. Remember that dealing with the mooks is seldom life-threatening; it may use up resources, but barring awful planning or unusual dice rolls, it doesn't actually cause PC deaths. (That's why it's just a mook fight, not the boss battle.)

Comparing this to ten uses of shapechange is a little misleading, because over-level scrolls are very strong to begin with, and if any 9th-level spell is overpowered it's shapechange. But even putting that aside, the scrolls are only a short-term benefit: they're usable in at most 10 encounters. That's if you succeed on every level check, no one ever targets you with a dispel magic, et cetera. After those ten fights, you're out of luck.

The EMC longbow is good for the rest of your career-- which could easily be a hundred encounters or more-- and it's usable in every single fight. Wielded by a fighter, it's worth three stackable Greater Spell Penetration feats for each spellcaster in the party, and all it costs is money (not feat slots). As soon as the party can afford one such weapon, SR just disappears as a significant factor in the game, which makes this clearly too strong for a +3 enhancement.