The perfect weapon(s)?

[James McMurray]

If you could create +7 weapons, and Damage Reduction was not an issue, what weapons would you use in different situations? In other words, what is the best weapon in various situations? Please restrict yourselves to non-FR material (simply because I don't own much of it). Magic of Faerun is ok, but all the other FR books I don't have access to.

The only thing I won't be using is +1 Keen, Vorpal, because its just too cheesy...

 

[mkletch]

+1 keen wounding screaming frost shock (adamantine anyweapon)

If you have MMII, the Greater Wounding property (2 pts/rd, +4 bonus) is tasty, too. For that one, I'd go:

+1 keen greater wounding screaming (adamantine anyweapon)

If DR did become a problem, just swap out any +1-equivalent ability for sure-striking.

This is a question of a thousand answers. If I can come up with two in a couple seconds, I'm sure you'll get hundreds of ideas. I don't know about your thought processes, but for me, too many options makes the decision even harder

-Fletch!

 

[James McMurray]

Follow-up questions

What about making armor and missile weapons, if armor were limited to +5 (no enhancement bonus necessary) and the bow were limited to +5 also (+1 minimum enhancement bonus).

The reason I’m asking is that I’m currently running a Mana Knight NPC in my RttToH campaign. He is a fighter who specializes in weaving magic for battle (but not spellcasting).

Basically he uses raw magic (mana) to create armor and weapons for himself. The weapons he creates ignore Damage Reduction, but are affected by Spell Resistance (it grants DR = SR - 15). The armor he creates acts like Mage Armor, with the Armor Bonus and duration dependant upon the results of his Mana Weave skill check.

At 16th level he can create a +7 melee weapon (which would be a Scimitar, since he has feats for them). He can also enhance the armor he creates with the Mana Weave skill by giving it up to +5 in special abilities.

The Mana Weave skill generally allows firing bolts that do a d6, but the class changes them to be as if they were fired from a bow, and the "bow" can have up to +5 in enhancement bonuses / special abilities (but must have at least a +1 enhancement bonus to have any abilities).

Since he’s a 16th level character, I figure he would know how to use these abilities fairly well, so I’m looking for ideas on enhancing his versatility.

 

[mkletch]

In general, only the enhancement bonus is restricted by caster level, not the total effective bonus. As long as a caster has the prerequisites necessary and enough XP to burn, he can run a weapon all the way to +10 effective, and armor to +10 effective.

Not familiar with this PrC, though.

-Fletch!

 

[comrade raoul]

My favorite weapon property is Holy. It works on at least half of the monsters you'd face in a standard adventure (probably more) and, unlike the energy effects, can't be resisted. A +1 holy speed greatsword would be really effective, I think.

 

[James McMurray]

mkletch: The plus limit is due to the PrC. they start off at first level with +1 weapons, then advance from there. At 2nd they get +1 armor, and at 3rd plus one bows.

Comrade raoul: I just played him for the first time today. I always went with holy and X bane, as the party faced groups of similar foes.

 

[mkletch]

My favorite weapon property is Holy. It works on at least half of the monsters you'd face in a standard adventure (probably more) and, unlike the energy effects, can't be resisted. A +1 holy speed greatsword would be really effective, I think.

But holy is far less useful in a morally neutral adventure or campaign. Not having any details about the campaign, anything that causes general damage or a special effect (e.g. wounding) would be best, then energy damage second (sonic, acid, electricity, cold, then fire if you have to pick ahead of time without any info), then alignment specific effects (e.g. lawful, holy, etc.), and finally creature specific effects like bane.

If you have the ability to create these weapons as needed, though, then you can really create whatever you need. A spell like Know Protections or Know Vulnerabilities would be extremely valuable and effective for you (MoF).

-Fletch!

 

[kreynolds]

If you have MMII, the Greater Wounding property

What page is that on? I've been meaning to hunt that up.

 

[med stud]

James McMurray, is it any chance that you may post the Mana Knight in the House rules forum? It seems very interesting!

 

[mkletch]

What page is that on [greater wounding]? I've been meaning to hunt that up.

It's under demons, because the assassin demon presented always has a greater wounding weapon. The property is described on p. 62 in MMII.

-Fletch!