D&D 5E Magic Weapon Made Pact Weapon Morphing

[Dausuul]

I'd go the other way as DM. I rather like the idea that you can create the weapon you want out of whole cloth, but if you choose to bond an existing magic weapon, you're just calling it or dismissing it. It's a construct (shapeable) or an existing item (not). That's the tradeoff.

Agreed, that would be my reading too.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Personally I suggest that you can summon either
a) The specific magic weapon that you have bound (if any)
b) Any non magical melee weapon
and you can make that choice whenever you summon a weapon. That means you don't lose the perk of having the right weapon for a given scenario simply because you bound a +1 a sword, but also doesn't mean you get a +1 whip when you find a +1 sword.

In actual fact, I might go so far as to allow multiple magic weapons to be bound, and let you choose which one you summon back each time. Given how lax encumberance tracking tends to be, I don't see that as being a significant advantage.

 

[Tanaka Chris]

Incidentally, could you bind a ranged magical weapon?
Like an Enchanted bow for example? The text clearly states you can only create melee weapons, but no limitation on binding a magical weapon as long as it isn't an artifact or sentient.

Purely musing out loud here, especially since Eldritch Blast is already a d10 magical ranged weapon in it's own right

 

[Zorku]

It's begging the question to be talking about THE tradeoff when none has been mentioned. This pact gives the Warlock access to whatever type of weapon they want at the time, and includes a method for upgrading it at such a time as the party comes into possession of magical weapons, such that this feature doesn't fall behind or become very situational instead of remaining a Swiss army knife.

That you can't do this with artifacts seems to be the cutoff for weapon morphing, and fits nicely with my personal assessment of the power that demons and old ones have to tamper with reality, but YMMV.