In need of help with making an epic Nodachi


Advice


So I'm starting a Sword Saint Samurai and I'm eyeballing the Nodachi. My question is how can I make this an awesome sword with enchantment. I really never enchanted an item before in this game so I haven't got a clue what to do.

Also I have about 4240 gold to spare. Not much but every small enchantment helps :)

Thanks in advance!


You need 2000 gold for a +1 enhancement and 8000 gold for a +2 enhancement. You only really have enough for a +1. If you can, grab yourself an Adamantine Nodachi. It's +3000 on top of the base price of the weapon so just over 5k will get you a +1 Adamantine Nodachi. Later, you can apply that 2000 you paid for the +1 towards the balance to get a +2; it costs 8k for +2, you already paid 2k for +1, so you pay 6k to bump your +1 to a +2. Once you hit +3, it will count against both silver and cold iron DR despite not being made of either material. That's really the optimum point; a +3 adamantine weapon will defeat DR Adamantine, Cold Iron, Silver, and Magic.


If you want to go a Two-Handing Critical Hit route, that's the best item you can get. Having a solid 1D10 damage as a Martial item with 18-20/X2 multiplier, dealing Slashing and Piercing Damage and having the Brace property makes it vastly superior to the Falchion. (It's also more fitting.)

Since the Nodachi will be your go-to weapon, you can either invest in a Keen property (+1 bonus), or I personally think you should take the Improved Critical feat for it, making your multiplier a 15-20/X2.

For properties, you'll want to go straight bonuses. Unfortunately, you can only get a +1 at your current state, though your other investments won't be of much of a priority. If you had another 800, I'd consider having you get the Impervious property, so as to help protect your weapon from rusting and Sunder attempts, because finding oddball weapons like that won't be easy when it comes to loot, but it's not really an issue unless you know your GM is going to pull that sort of shenanigans.

Getting pluses to hit are what you all really need, though you can only have +5, so afterward you can get some neat little bonuses, though if you don't take Improved Critical, you'll want Keen right away.


Darksol the Painbringer wrote:

If you want to go a Two-Handing Critical Hit route, that's the best item you can get. Having a solid 1D10 damage as a Martial item with 18-20/X2 multiplier, dealing Slashing and Piercing Damage and having the Brace property makes it vastly superior to the Falchion. (It's also more fitting.)

Since the Nodachi will be your go-to weapon, you can either invest in a Keen property (+1 bonus), or I personally think you should take the Improved Critical feat for it, making your multiplier a 15-20/X2.

For properties, you'll want to go straight bonuses. Unfortunately, you can only get a +1 at your current state, though your other investments won't be of much of a priority. If you had another 800, I'd consider having you get the Impervious property, so as to help protect your weapon from rusting and Sunder attempts, because finding oddball weapons like that won't be easy when it comes to loot, but it's not really an issue unless you know your GM is going to pull that sort of shenanigans.

Getting pluses to hit are what you all really need, though you can only have +5, so afterward you can get some neat little bonuses, though if you don't take Improved Critical, you'll want Keen right away.

So if I get this straight. If for example if I want to make a flaming keen Nodachi. Then I'd have to pay twice for the +1 bonus which makes it 4k?


No, you'd have to pay for the equivalent of a +3 bonus, since that's what the enhancements add up to.

Also, don't get Flaming or any similar enhancement. The piddling amount of damage isn't as good as a straight +1. And something people often overlook is that, by RAW, activating the Flaming property is a Standard Action.


Athaleon wrote:

No, you'd have to pay for the equivalent of a +3 bonus, since that's what the enhancements add up to.

Also, don't get Flaming or any similar enhancement. The piddling amount of damage isn't as good as a straight +1. And something people often overlook is that, by RAW, activating the Flaming property is a Standard Action.

Ahh okay, gotcha. Then I'll stick with Keen for now I think. 25 % chance for a crit is nice :)


TrollingJoker wrote:
Darksol the Painbringer wrote:

If you want to go a Two-Handing Critical Hit route, that's the best item you can get. Having a solid 1D10 damage as a Martial item with 18-20/X2 multiplier, dealing Slashing and Piercing Damage and having the Brace property makes it vastly superior to the Falchion. (It's also more fitting.)

Since the Nodachi will be your go-to weapon, you can either invest in a Keen property (+1 bonus), or I personally think you should take the Improved Critical feat for it, making your multiplier a 15-20/X2.

For properties, you'll want to go straight bonuses. Unfortunately, you can only get a +1 at your current state, though your other investments won't be of much of a priority. If you had another 800, I'd consider having you get the Impervious property, so as to help protect your weapon from rusting and Sunder attempts, because finding oddball weapons like that won't be easy when it comes to loot, but it's not really an issue unless you know your GM is going to pull that sort of shenanigans.

Getting pluses to hit are what you all really need, though you can only have +5, so afterward you can get some neat little bonuses, though if you don't take Improved Critical, you'll want Keen right away.

So if I get this straight. If for example if I want to make a flaming keen Nodachi. Then I'd have to pay twice for the +1 bonus which makes it 4k?

Incorrect.

I highly suggest you re-read the magic weapons section. You must have a +1 Enhancement on the weapon in order to apply special properties.

Additionally, a +3 Weapon (or, a +1 Weapon with a +2 in Special Ability equivalents, as referenced in your example) costs 18,000 to enhance, as evidenced on the table.

Remember that the costs are cumulative. If you already have, say, a +1 Keen Falchion, and want to put the Flaming property on it, you take the value of your +2 Weapon and subtract it from the cost of the +3 Weapon you're trying to make. In this case, taking 18,000 (the +3 Weapon cost) and subtracting 8,000 (the +2 Weapon cost) means you have to pay 10,000 to put Flaming on your sword.

(As an aside, I really do not recommend putting Flaming on your sword.)


Flaming is not great since it doesn't get multiplied on a critical hit, not to mention it can often be resisted.

Impact might be good, since it makes you weapon's damage dice 1 size category larger than normal. That turns a 1d10 weapon (average damage of 5.5) into a 2d8 weapon (average of 9), and it becomes 3d8 (average of 13.5) if you get some simple buff like enlarge person. And all that is subject to the critical hit's multiplier.

Still, you want to focus on straight pluses first, as well as keen (if you don't want to spend the feat). As everyone else said, that stuff is you bread and butter here. Still, it is something to consider after you get a +5 keen nodachi. Maybe grab impact and holy (because +2d6 damage against evil is always useful) if you are going to get a total of +10 enhancement bonuses.


I also fully recommend making it an Adamantine weapon, even if this delays your next +1 or Keen. You can't go back and turn it into Adamantine after putting down the coin for enhancements.

It's situational but very handy, making it very difficult to Sunder unless they also have an Adamantine weapon. And it ignores Hardness up to 20, which can can help when you just need to straight cleave some inanimate object. Troll allies and enemies alike with your katana made of GRORIOUS NIPPON STEEL FOLDED 10,000 TIMES.

But mainly you'll want it to overcome DR/Adamantine before it reaches +4, which you probably won't have until high levels.

Sovereign Court

With the nodachi, there's just a handful of weapon properties that you really care about.

1) Penetrating DR. The types of DR you normally worry about are cold iron, silver, adamantine, and [good]. Needing to penetrate any other alignment DR is exceptionally rare. DR/bludgeoning occurs now and then, handle that with another weapon. The Nodachi will deal with piercing AND slashing. Very nice.

To penetrate basically all relevant DR, you'd want a +5 weapon OR a +3 holy adamantine weapon. The second version does a bit more damage but has a little less to-hit. You can also get quite a-ways with a +3 adamantine weapon and a Bless Weapon spell.

2) Keen. The nodachi has a generous crit range, is 2H and has a big damage die. Crititals are niiiice. However, if you get the feat, that's even nicer, because aforementioned Bless Weapon will auto-confirm crits only if you didn't use magic to manipulate the crit range/multiplier.

3) Size and Impact enchantment. 1d10 scales up impressively if you become/count as bigger size.

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