Max Damage Weapon Enhancement

Kraedin · Mar 21, 2003

I think it would be fine as a +3 bonus, as long as it doesn't maximize bonus damage dice, such as that from a flaming weapon or sneak attack.

Garnet Schist · Mar 22, 2003

Kraedin said:
I think it would be fine as a +3 bonus, as long as it doesn't maximize bonus damage dice, such as that from a flaming weapon or sneak attack.

That was my intention.

But thanks for all your replies, this was just a spur of the moment idea and you all actually gave it substance. Especially all of you that did damage calculations and figured that it wouldn't be THAT powerful. Saved my fighter a pretty penny, showing it's not worth a +5 enhancement, so you get his thanks.

What would be an item creation pre-req? The Maximize meta-magic feat?

Kraedin · Mar 22, 2003

I would say either Maximize Spell or limited wish.

Al · Mar 22, 2003

seasong said:
For the constant enhancement, if you wanted something a bit more complicated, you could have it in levels; each level reduces the die type by one step, and adds +2 to the damage. Each level costs +1. Can not exceed the die type.

So a 1d10 sword would stage like this:
1d8+2 (+1 enhancement)
1d6+4 (+2 enhancement)
1d4+6 (+3 enhancement)
1d2+8 (+4 enhancement)
1d0+10 (+5 enhancement)

A 2d6 sword would treat each die separately:
1d6+1d4+2 (+1 enhancement)
2d4+4 (+2 enhancement)
1d4+1d2+6 (+3 enhancement)
2d2+8 (+4 enhancement)
1d2+10 (+5 enhancement)
1d0+12 (+6 enhancement, and epic)

Er...with due respect, no one would go for these.

Considering that a d10 sword does average damage 5.5, a simply +5 weapon will do average damage 10.5- not to mention also have a +5 to hit and +5 to overcome DR and sundering etc.

Personally, I think that the bonus equal to one-half of the average damage (rounding down) would probably be appropriate, so it would pan out roughly like this:

d3 (average damage 2)= +1 enhancement
d4 (average damage 2.5)= +1 enhancement
d6 (average damage 3.5)= +1 enhancement
d8 (average damage 4.5)= +2 enhancement
d10 (average damage 5.5)= +2 enhancement
d12 (average damage 6.5)= +3 enhancement
2d6 (average damage 7)= +3 enhancement.

It's not brilliant, and you'd be probably better off going for a straight enchanted weapon and sinking the to hit bonus into Power Attack (exception: d6 and d10 weapons, where you are 0.5pts better off) and even for those weapons where you do gain slightly, it's slightly inferior due to DR, sundering and the like.