aceDiamond |
As the title states, how can we pump up theoretical enhancements for weapons? Most enhancements stop at +5, but how about we see if we can get beyond that?
In the hands of a Rage Prophet who took the life mystery, a +5 Furious, Grayflame, Bane sword has an effective +10 enhancement bonus while the RP is raging, after channeling energy, and whilst striking it's favored foe.
Propsken |
Can't rightly say that I've read up the magic item creation rules for PF yet (I'm a 3.5 veteran), but I'm pretty sure that as far as pure enhancement boni go, +5 is the cap. You can keep adding other abilities that are +x-equivalents, and certain effects (like Bane) can temporarily boost the base +5, but actual enhancement enchantments cap at +5. I believe you needed to be an epic character to go beyond that cap back in the 3.5-days...
Kayerloth |
What Propsken said. Weapon enhancement bonuses cap at +5 with additionally weapon properties capable of tacking on another +5 for a total of no more than +10 (footnotes #2, #3 (ranged) and #4(melee) in the respective tables under 'Weapons' in the magic item tables)
2 A weapon can't have an enhancement bonus higher than +5. Use these lines to determine price when special abilities are added in.
3 Reroll if you get a duplicate special ability, an ability incompatible with an ability that you've already rolled, or if the extra ability puts you over the +10 limit. A weapon's enhancement bonus and special ability bonus equivalents can't total more than +10.
4 Reroll if you get a duplicate special ability, an ability incompatible with an ability that you've already rolled, or if the extra ability puts you over the +10 limit. A weapon's enhancement bonus and special ability bonus equivalents can't total more than +10.
EDIT: Recently there was a thread discussing what would happen (or how to decide what got supressed etc.) if you had a +1 weapon with +9 abilities added on that then became the target of a Greater Magic Weapon spell ... I've lost track of that thread.
aceDiamond |
I'm aware that the hard cap is a +5, but like Bane and Furious, there are special qualities that affect weapons as if they were +X higher. Therefore, I was curious if there were any interesting theories on how to boost effective weapon enhancements past the regular +5 limit that were impressive. Mostly just was wishing to see what other people would come up with for a "most powerful weapon".
maouse |
per the FAQ the bane makes a +5 a +7 versus that foe. Furious gives another +2 (or more). But the FAQ pretty well states the overall cap is +10 ENHANCEMENT BONUS no matter what skills add to the +. Basically they "don't stack any higher" is the official answer. So throw on Luck, Morale, Situation, Insight, etc... bonuses... And get to +50 that way (Look at True Strike, that is a nice +20).
maouse |
You can bump up the attack total by other things, such as differently sourced bonuses (as mentioned: Luck, Morale, Insight, Conditional, etc...). But the FAQ for Enhancement Bonuses on weapons says the cap is +10, no matter the modifiers.
For the enhancement bonus limitation, it depends on the specific effect or ability that's altering the weapon.
Bane: This allows the weapon to exceed the +5 limit, but only against the designated creature type. For example, a +5 dragon-bane longsword is normally a +5 weapon, but has a +7 enhancement bonus against dragons and deals +2d6 points of damage against dragons.
Paladin: The divine bond ability says "These [enhancement] bonuses can be added to the weapon, stacking with existing weapon bonuses to a maximum of +5." That means if a paladin has a +5 longsword, she can't use her divine bond to increate the enhancement bonus to +6 or higher (but she could use her bonuses to add abilities such as flaming to the weapon).
The +10 bonus-equivalent limitation is a hard cap for all weapons; you can't exceed that even with class abilities or other unusual abilities.
posted March 2013 |