Non Magical Weapon Properties

[Primitive Screwhead]

The Black Company setting book has very detailed listing on what you are looking for. In this setting magic items are extremely rare, so the upped what a craftsman can do. IIRC 6 different levels of 'Masterwork' and special addiitons. Some of the additions replicate magical effects such as Keen, but all the weapons require upkeep to maintain.

Its a nice section to read, I have yet to see it in play.

 

[the Jester]

When my epic party visited an extremely low-magic setting called Arba, I had non-magical weapons properties, including one called razor-sharp that increased threat ranges by one.

I also had master craftsmen out there who could increase the nonmagical enhancement bonus of a weapon to at least +2 to hit and +3 to damage, but I don't believe that part ever came up.

 

[Felnar]

Hmmm...the sunder thing might be neat. What's the exact details?

errr...what's a basket hilt and what's the purpose/advantage behind it?

dunno, i just had the idea, you can flush out the details (cost, etc)
but +dmg on sunders is a mod that could be useful on magic and non-magic weapons alike

a basket hilt is a large hilt that protects the hand aids blocking attacks
in 2nd Ed., a basket hilt gave +1 to block attempts, but the block action isnt in 3rd Ed.

i cant remember what other weapon modifications were in 2nd ed

 

[Sir Brennen]

a basket hilt is a large hilt that protects the hand aids blocking attacks
in 2nd Ed., a basket hilt gave +1 to block attempts, but the block action isnt in 3rd Ed.

I think I saw in some third party publication basket hilts giving swords a bonus against disarm attempts. Like, +2 or so.

 

[jaker2003]

I think this might have a few ideas you'd like:
http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=20712

 

[eris404]

I just wanted to give a quick update in case anyone was interested. Last night, I was going through some PDFs and found some non-magical weapon property/creation rules by complete accident. Both The Book of Hallowed Might II (of all things) and The Advanced Gamemaster's Guide have very similar rules for some of the things we listed above. Combined with the rules from The Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves and Arcana Unearthed, there is quite a list of different non-magical enhancements for armor and weapons and even some new weapon/armor materials here and there. I may post an index here if anyone is interested.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Liath Anam]

Thank you for the larger list of sources! I am definitely interested in the index as I think this is a great idea.

 

[The Traveler]

Wouldn't be unreasonable to expect that a sufficiently skilled smith could craft weapons with more generous critical ranges.

 

[Sledge]

Arms & Armor 3.5 also has some here