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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 5327903" data-attributes="member: 20741">And this differs from the Paladin's Bonded Weapon ability how...exactly?Near as I can tell, there is not a meaningful difference between the two. To the extent that one is more powerful than the other, it is the Paladin's Divine Bond Weapon which remains the superior class ability, overall. Let's look at the Paladin's Divine Bond and compare it with the Magus' Arcane Weapon ability:PaladinDivine Bond: Upon reaching 5th level, a paladin forms a divine bond with her god. This bond can take one of two forms. Once the form is chosen, it cannot be changed. The first type of bond allows the paladin to enhance her weapon as a standard action by calling upon the aid of a celestial spirit for 1 minute per paladin level. When called, the spirit causes the weapon to shed light as a torch. At 5th level, this spirit grants the weapon a +1 enhancement bonus. For every three levels beyond 5th, the weapon gains another +1 enhancement bonus, to a maximum of +6 at 20th level.Paladin Bonded Weapon Progression:5th = +1 defending, flaming, keen, merciful8th = +2 axiomatic, disruption, flaming burst, holy11th = +3 speed14th = +4 brilliant energy17th = +520th = +6The Paladin can add the following abilities, using the + for the ability as reflected in Table 15-9 of the Core Rules: axiomatic, brilliant energy, defending, disruption, flaming, flaming burst, holy, keen, merciful, and speed.Meanwhile, the Magus Bonded Weapon ability works as follows:MagusArcane Weapon (Su): At 4th level, a magus gains the ability to imbue a melee weapon with powerful abilities. When he prepares his spells, he can also spend a portion of this time bonding with a single melee weapon. At 4th level, this grants the weapon a +1 enhancement bonus. Forevery four levels beyond 4th, the weapon gains another +1 enhancement bonus, to a maximum of +5 at 20th level. These bonuses can be added to the weapon, stacking with existing weapon enhancement to a maximum of +5, or they can be used be used to add any of the following weapon properties: dancing, flaming, flaming burst, frost, icy burst, keen, shock, shocking burst, speed, or vorpal.Magus Arcane Weapon Progression:4th = +1 flaming, frost, shock, keen8th = +2 flaming burst, icy burst, shocking burst12th = +3 speed16th = +4 dancing20th = +5 vorpalEach of the Paladin and the Magus can add these same bonded weapon abilities: flaming, flaming burst, keen and speed.Uniquely, the Paladin can add: axiomatic, brilliant energy, defending, disruption, holy and merciful.Uniquely, the Magus can add: : dancing, frost, icy burst, shock, shocking burst, and vorpal.In all honesty, I cannot see anything game breaking about the Magus bonded weapon ability. Yes, it can add vorpal – but only at 20th level. Put bluntly, level 20 abilities in Pathfinder RPG amount to little more than flavour text. They have essentially ZERO impact during actual gameplay. Moreover, if you were to take “vorpal” off that list, would anybody seriously complain if the GM just armed his 20th level Magus NPC with a vorpal blade instead anyway? I don’t think so.In terms of abilities that have significant and REAL effects during actual gameplay at the levels that the overwhelming majority of games are actually played, the Paladin’s abilities of disruption and holy are the real eye-openers which can have a significant effect in game.  The Magus has nothing to compete with these extraordinary weapon abilities. Disruption is a save or disintegrate effect vs a raft of typical foes the party will fight - and it's available at 8TH LEVEL!!  The game seems to have survived this all the same. I'm not too worried about a 20th level vorpal effect compared to disruption at 8th, frankly. And I suggest you should not be too concerned about it either.Yes, speed is very powerful, but not at the level that the power is granted (11th and 12th, respectively). The game seems to have survived nicely up until now. If a Paladin can have a weapon of speed at 11th level and the game has not broken, I don’t perceive a significant impact on game balance if the Magus has that ability at 12th level  – especially seeing as he already has a resort to haste FAR earlier than 12th level already in the game (as does everybody else, in practice).Sorry, but I am unable to see your criticisms of the Magus bonded weapon ability as being reasonably grounded. These criticisms simply don’t survive dispassionate scrutiny and rational analysis.</blockquote>

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