shadow striking too powerful?

[calebw]

New Weapon Special Ability: Shadow Striking
Although mystery users are not normally martial combatants, they have developed the shadow striking weapon special ability to aid them and their companions in battle.
A shadow striking weapon takes on the properties of a creature it hits, developing the ability to overcome damage reduction.
Description: A shadow striking weapon is an unreflective jet black. It seems almost to ripple on occasion, like an object viewed under a thin layer of uneasy water. It is uncomfortably cold, but not painful, to the touch.
Prerequisite: The striking surface of a shadow striking weapon must be made of metal. Weapons that are made entirely of wood cannot be shadow striking. Bows, crossbows, and slings cannot benefit from the shadow striking ability, but metal ammunition can.
Activation: A shadow striking weapon automatically attunes itself to the target. When it strikes a target that has damage reduction, it adjusts itself to overcome the damage reduction of that creature.
Effect: Shadow striking weapons draw on the reflective nature of shadow to alter their nature and overcome damage reduction. A shadow striking weapon can adjust to emulate any alignment or substance required to overcome damage reduction.
A shadow striking weapon's attunement to a particular sort of damage reduction fades 1d4 minutes after the last time it made contact with the appropriate creature.
Aura/Caster Level: Moderate universal (shadow). CL 9th.
Construction: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, creation of the weapon must take place on the Plane of Shadow.
Price: +3 bonus.



it is official and from teh wizards website. is it just me, or is this FAR too powerful for only +3?

 

[Drowbane]

balance is vastly overrated anyways

Naw, I don't think so.

3.0's "sure-striking" (sword & fist?) property had an equivilent ability as a +1.
It struck as a +5 weapon for matters of DR... which cut through anything except Epic or /-.

Then again, I don't recall a single character of level 6+ in 3.0 that didn't have that property on thier weapon

 

[Rath the Brown]

The Transmuting property from Magic Item Compendium does pretty much the same thing and is only +2.

 

[Cbas_10]

I can't imagine it would ever appear in my game.

First reason is that it seems a bit wonky. What does the Plane of Shadow or shadow-like properties have to do with adapting to various bits of Damage reduction? Maybe a sort of precedent could be found in Shadow Conjuration/Shadow Evocation spells....but even then, those are illusions that are inferior to the spells they are imitating.

Using the justification of Sure Striking doesn't work for me; that ability was rendered moot with the 3.5 DR rules. Besides, Sure Striking did not have to "duplicate" a myriad of substances/sources - it was just a minor bit of foolery that allowed an already magical weapon to act as if it were a bit more magical when hitting a creature.

I think the Transmuting enhancement is quite enough, already. But, if someone really wanted to have thier PC Craft a weapon with this ability, I'd come up with a different crafting prerequisite. Shadow just doesn't do it for me.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I don't have too much of a problem with it being +3. Might be a little better if its power took effect on the second hit, not the first (unless the first was against a creature it was already attuned to).

 

[calebw]

i am trying to incorporate this weapon into my campaign with this ability, but i think it is a little powerful, so i am tweaking it to wear the first hit is negated damage-wise, and that hit is "adapting" to the DR (unless of course the creature have no DR). then the second hit would work as normal, bypassing the DR. it would work as normal for following rounds provided that the PC hit only a creature with that specific DR, if they switched to a different creature with different DR, then the process would repeat itself.
what do you think?

 

[Maleketh]

I don't have too much of a problem with it being +3. Might be a little better if its power took effect on the second hit, not the first (unless the first was against a creature it was already attuned to).

Based on the description, that sseems to be the case - it attunes itself after the first hit and remains attuned until 1d4 minutes after the last. I really don't see a problem with it.

 

[Slaved]

So I could get this or just a normal extra +3 or I could get vicious and vampiric on a weapon? I think I would go with either of the last two options before shadow striking. If the dungeon master allows multiple instances of the same weapon ability on a weapon then I would also rather get three psychokinetic over shadow striking.

 

[Rvdvelden]

3.0's "sure-striking" (sword & fist?) property had an equivilent ability as a +1.
It struck as a +5 weapon for matters of DR... which cut through anything except Epic or /-.

There is a revised version in Player's Guide to Faerun (a 3.5 book, iirc). It's still +1 and adapts DR according to alignment. So all x/good, x/law, x/chaos and x/evil is overcome by it. Still very handy and for it's price way better than the shadow striking ability.

 

[andargor]

I read it as being effective right from the first hit. Otherwise, ammunition would not benefit from this property.