Weapon crystals, add properties

[MarkB]

Then see my post directly after his.

I did. It didn't seem like much of a refutation, if that was what you intended.

 

[Slaved]

I did. It didn't seem like much of a refutation, if that was what you intended.

It was more refutation than was required since the arguement was very weak to begin with.

I do not see people taking something like Flaming unless someone in the party can cast Greater Magic Weapon. I do not see people taking Ghost Touch unless there is a RolePlaying reason or the game is heavy on Incorporeal foes.

Having a way to get these abilities on Weapon Crystals is great!!
Spending extra money to have the Weapon Crystal do multiple things is bad how?

Flaming is not worth a +1 but getting it on a Weapon Crystal can be worthwhile.
Ghost Touch is not worth a +1 but getting it on a Weapon Crystal can be worthwhile.
Both of those are balanced options.
Getting a Flaming Ghost Touch Weapon Crystal that costs more than the sum of the two parts does not seem bad to me. It is merely trading one restriction for another. 8)8)

 

[eamon]

I do not see people taking something like Flaming unless someone in the party can cast Greater Magic Weapon. I do not see people taking Ghost Touch unless there is a RolePlaying reason or the game is heavy on Incorporeal foes.

I do see people take flaming damage even without characters to cast greater magic weapon.

Even for those with power attack and a two-handed weapon, a +1 enh. bonus is effectively +3 damage, whereas elemental damage is more. For those that aren't two-handed power attacks, the advantage is much more clear. And, consider that greater magic weapon is an effect much easier to come by than all kinds of special abilities.

Many of the weapon enhancements are fully worth their price, and reducing that price by means of removing the scaling factor and thereby built in limitations is asking for trouble.

And, like I said, it's still just more fun to use the crystals as written than to allow combining them! The whole point is to allow cheaper access to exotic abilities which you'd otherwise never take. Why don't you take these abilities otherwise? Because it's such a huge trade off. You don't use that Lawful weapon since it's just +1 and despite the DR, your weapon focussed specialized mastery+otherwise optimized weapon just bashes right through the DR more effectively! So, you provide crystals which have few trade-offs. You can now attach that ghost touch effect without serious troubles. Would you ever attach it if your "primary crystal" was already loaded with 10 other effects? It's easy to find 10 other effects at a low level and low cost, so that's not a far-fetched issue!

The weapon crystals work well as is, and would be overpowered if stackable, and furthermore, would be less fun in-game. If you really feel the need to make this, then balance it (but I still don't recommend it): that means, make it much much more expensive than merely 50% more, and make powerful crystal require powerful enh. bonuses (for example, if you stack a +1 requiring effect with a +3 requiring effect, require that the resultant crystal is +4 or better). Again, I think that's a bad idea, but if you're insistent on stacking these effects, it's only reasonable.

 

[akbearfoot]

What magical properties are there that add effects that directly benefit combat rolls (ie attack rolls, damage rolls, or grant an extra type of attack or damaging effect)or your success at hitting and arent expressed as enhancment bonuses?


I know of things like blueshine that make it more durable, or give skill bonuses, or the ability to generate non-combat effects. But I dont know any that affect combat directly.

 

[Slaved]

I do see people take flaming damage even without characters to cast greater magic weapon.

Even for those with power attack and a two-handed weapon, a +1 enh. bonus is effectively +3 damage, whereas elemental damage is more. For those that aren't two-handed power attacks, the advantage is much more clear. And, consider that greater magic weapon is an effect much easier to come by than all kinds of special abilities.

Many of the weapon enhancements are fully worth their price, and reducing that price by means of removing the scaling factor and thereby built in limitations is asking for trouble.

And, like I said, it's still just more fun to use the crystals as written than to allow combining them! The whole point is to allow cheaper access to exotic abilities which you'd otherwise never take. Why don't you take these abilities otherwise? Because it's such a huge trade off. You don't use that Lawful weapon since it's just +1 and despite the DR, your weapon focussed specialized mastery+otherwise optimized weapon just bashes right through the DR more effectively! So, you provide crystals which have few trade-offs. You can now attach that ghost touch effect without serious troubles. Would you ever attach it if your "primary crystal" was already loaded with 10 other effects? It's easy to find 10 other effects at a low level and low cost, so that's not a far-fetched issue!

The weapon crystals work well as is, and would be overpowered if stackable, and furthermore, would be less fun in-game. If you really feel the need to make this, then balance it (but I still don't recommend it): that means, make it much much more expensive than merely 50% more, and make powerful crystal require powerful enh. bonuses (for example, if you stack a +1 requiring effect with a +3 requiring effect, require that the resultant crystal is +4 or better). Again, I think that's a bad idea, but if you're insistent on stacking these effects, it's only reasonable.

Minor Energy Resistance gets more common as levels increase.

As Weapon Damage increases the extra 5% to hit adds extra damage by itself. Enhancement Bonuses also increase the weapons Hardness and Hit Points. Power Attack is not the only factor to think about.

There are already many different Weapon Enhancements that are flat gold costs by themselves. Do you also dissallow multiples of those on a single weapon?

The point of Weapon Crystals to me is to have an interesting option that also allows the use of abilities which would normally be poor choices to pay a full Enhancement Addition on.

I like the idea of Weapon Crystals that are powerful. I would like to see them expanded into Intelligent Item, Relic, Legacy, Set, and other territories.

I was also going to suggest adding an extra +1 Enhancement Requirement if you felt that it was bad to let them stack normally. With that extra cost though I would ignore the extra +50% cost.

 

[Slaved]

What magical properties are there that add effects that directly benefit combat rolls (ie attack rolls, damage rolls, or grant an extra type of attack or damaging effect)or your success at hitting and arent expressed as enhancment bonuses?


I know of things like blueshine that make it more durable, or give skill bonuses, or the ability to generate non-combat effects. But I dont know any that affect combat directly.

There are some in both the Expanded Psionics Handbook and Magic Item Compendium.