Weapon "Optimization" Suggestions


Advice

Liberty's Edge

Hi everybody!

As I played at a con over the weekend, I encountered folks who had different ideas on which materials/enchantments to use for their PC's in Society.

Some were in the +3 Adamantine camp - beat most DR and hardness. Others thought enchanting cold iron was a good way to go (not the only way, just away). I've often envisioned just going with a base +1 on normal steel, then adding some fun bonus damage enhancement like holy.

What are your thoughts? This is for melee weapons only, please! My ranger has a +1 bow with all sorts of blanched arrows he can pull out situationally. I just don't want my fighter and battle cleric to need TOO many clubs in the 'ol weapon golf bag.

RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16

If you can cast greater magic weapon, I'd recommend keeping a cold iron backup weapon and casting that, so you can get around the extra cost of enchanting it. You can also use it to keep the plusses up-to-date on your main weapon while you pay for fun enhancements like holy or keen.

Generally, I think Adamantine is the way to go for materials, because when you typically need Adamantine (that is, against golems), hitting them with weapons is just about the only thing that works. If you're fighting demons, devils, fey, etc., the casters will have more to contribute, so the DR doesn't hurt as much. Of course, mithral (for DR/silver) is good for low-Str builds where encumbrance becomes an issue.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Well, my melee cleric and my eldritch knight both make use of greater magic weapon, so they're saving money by wielding not-even-masterwork cold iron longswords because cold iron is dirt-cheap. As a result, they spend their adventuring days with +2 cold iron longswords that cost them less than what some folks get on a single Day Job check.


My melee inquisitor guy is still low level.

But my eventual plan was:
Primary +1 adamantine weapon.
A backup light silver weapon.
A backup light cold iron weapon.

Pay for a wand of greater magic weapon to be used when one seems like it will be needed for the scenario.

I haven't decided if I will go for more + or other abilities. On average, more + do better in the long run. But it seems kinda boring.


put me in the +3 adamantite crowd. Not only can you ignore most DRs but you can also carve your way through the dungeons walls, doors, prisoners chains etc.


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BigNorseWolf wrote:
put me in the +3 adamantite crowd. Not only can you ignore most DRs but you can also carve your way through the dungeons walls, doors, prisoners chains etc.

Depending on the type of weapon.


You can also throw Silversheen on top of your adamantine or cold iron weapon to bypass two DRs at once. That should get you by until you can afford +3 enhancement. (My regular +1 Earthbreaker did nearly twice as much damage as the two adamantine versions in the same combat, because I had the correct DR-bypasser.)

I'm also a big fan of Furious. It's really tempting to take a level of Barbarian just get "instant +3 weapon" when raging.


I like the idea of having basically a golf bag of weapons, a mattock made of cold iron, an earth breaker made of silver, and a greatsword made of adamantine.

The Exchange

and then you dip a level in a spell caster class to get unseen servant and re-skin it as unseen caddie


hand me my +3 adamantine greatsword, no wait, +2 silver earth breaker will do.

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