What is the most you could increase a weapons threat range to?

[RigaMortus2]

I know in 3.0 you could stack Improved Crit and Keen Weapon together, and have a Scimitar that had a threat range between 12 - 20. Is there any way to do this in 3.5? What if the weapon was a Mace, with a starting threat range of 20. How far could you increase it? Talking 3.5 stuff...

 

[Question]

Erm.....15-20 is the most you can get it to in 3.5, unless you allow the weaponmaster prc from 3.0.

 

[Kurashu]

There's a PrC floating around here (don't remember where I saw it) called Forgepreist that let's you craft a weapon with an improved critical range. So if you allow that, and then take Improved Crit. you get 18-20. However, with just WotC material you can 19-20 on a mace (Improved Critical).

I'll see if I can find the Forgepreist stuff. I'm also curious about the Weaponmaster PrC, any idea where I can find that at?

 

[Christian]

The Weaponmaster PrC referred to is in the 3.0 Sword & Fist supplement.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Disciple of Dispater, from Book of Vile Darkness (which is 3.0), has an ability called Iron Power, which, among other things, doubles (at 4th level) and triples (at 8th level) the weapon's crit range. It states that it stacks with Improved Critical, but not with the Keen property.

Hrm...actually, with flaws, it's possible to effectively combine Disciple of Dispater and Weapon Master in 20 levels. Say, Fighter-5, Disciple of Dispater-1, Weapon Master-7, and Disciple of Dispater 2-8. At that point, you've got a crit range of 7-20 with your falchion, which is truly disgusting.

Dodge (1st level)
WF: Falchion (Ftr-1 bonus)
Combat Expertise (Human bonus)
Combat Reflexes (Ftr-2 bonus)
Mobility (3rd level)
Spring Attack (Ftr-4 bonus)
Whirlwind Attack (6th level) (Note that 6th level is DoD-1)
WS: Falchion (9th level)
Improved Critical: Falchion (12th level)

15th-level and 18th-level feats are open.

Choose two flaws (ideally at 1st level), and take these as your bonus feats:
Power Attack (Flaw)
Disciple of Darkness (Flaw)

Of course, without modifications, Disciple of Dispater really isn't useful for PCs. That whole "sold soul to archdevil and sacrifice a sentient being" thing. However, there's probably a good BBEG use for this build. My DM used a version of this way back in 3.0 on us, with a Vorpal Falchion, and boy, was that fun.

Brad

 

[Kurashu]

7-20 Crit range with a falchion. Vorpal at that. I bet heads were rolling. =P

Sword & Fist eh? Well, I'll add that to my list of books to check out.

 

[Nyeshet]

Just be aware, any DM worth his salt will allow for the NPCs and foes what was allowed for the PCs. The fact that you need to learn from - or even join - two PrCs to gain these abilities makes it even easier for the DM.

Perhaps members of the PrC organizations are angry at your character for some reason. Perhaps your character's teacher was to teach them instead, and put off their training for a time - a critical time for them - to complete your character's training. Thus they may have lost an opportunity, been embarressed in a fight, etc due to not having the training earlier - and blames your character for that.

Or perhaps the two organizations are currently experiencing some friction - each believing itself to be better than the other or following a better path in their training / techniques. Then you come along, learn from each without letting either know of your other learning (as you were likely aware of the friction and knew you would not be able to learn from both without keeping that little tidbit secret), and now members of both are hunting you down.

Perhaps some major rival or high ranking member of one or the other organization has realized the height of your mastery comes from learning both styles and has decided to follow a similar path - so that he can claim to be the better / best - and views you as an obsticle to that goal (of being the best). Or perhaps he believes another like him will similarly realize the power that comes from learning both styles - and seeks to kill you to prevent another from contemplating your skill and realizing your methodology as he did.

So, if I were your DM, I would allow you to follow such a path and become as proficient as that, but I would also have the group facing a few challengers every now and then from either school - or your PC specifically. And I might just create a competing rival NPC specifically seeking to upstage or even kill your PC - a reoccurring villain tied in directly to your character's past (and future), advancing in his classes as your character advances, but having a few differences here and there in any feats / skill allotment not absolutely necessary for following that path (ie: pre-reqs), thus allowing for a more interesting villain.

 

[Arkhandus]

In 3.5 I don't know of anything close to what you could do in 3.0. With 3.0 Sword & Fist, you could get yourself a Keen +1 Bladed Gauntlet, take the Improved Critical (Bladed Gauntlet) feat, and take the Weapon Master class with Bladed Gauntlet as your chosen weapon, gaining Ki Critical with it eventually, and thereafter have a threat range of 7-20.

 

[Hypersmurf]

In 3.5 I don't know of anything close to what you could do in 3.0. With 3.0 Sword & Fist, you could get yourself a Keen +1 Bladed Gauntlet, take the Improved Critical (Bladed Gauntlet) feat, and take the Weapon Master class with Bladed Gauntlet as your chosen weapon, gaining Ki Critical with it eventually, and thereafter have a threat range of 7-20.

Don't forget, the Bladed Gauntlet was errata'd from 17-20/x2 to 19-20/x2. You can only get it down to 7-20 if you have a first printing S&F and ignore the errata.

-Hyp.

 

[Question]

Vorpal only works on a nat 20, not on every crit hit. Otherwise you have a 30% chance of insta killing any non-crit immune creature per hit with a 18-20 weapon and keen or improved crit.