<delurks, waves hi to the Llama>
A copy of the pathfinder rpg alpha was given to me, and as I was skimming it, I noticed the level 20 capstone power of the Fighter is Weapon Mastery, which raises the crit rating by 1.
Which made me wince when it was introduced in the 3.0 weapon master, because if you do the math, adding 1 to the crit rating favors the x2 high range weapons over the x3.
comparing 19-20 vs. x3 as 3.5 sits now
19-20 weapon: on 19 – x2, on 20 – x2 adds up to x4
x3 weapon: on 19 – x1, on 20 – x3 also adds up to x4
With Weapon Mastery,
19-20 weapon: on 19 – x3, on 20 – x3 adds up to x6
x3 weapon: on 19 – x1, on 20 – x4 adds up to x5
comparing 18-20 vs. x4 as 3.5 sits now
18-20 weapon: 18 – x2, 19 – x2, 20 – x2 = x6
x4 weapon: 18 – x1, 19 – x1, 20 – x4 = x6
With Weapon Mastery,
18-20 weapon: 18 – x3, 19 – x3, 20 – x3 = x9
x4 weapon: 18 – x1, 19 – x1, 20 – x5 = x7
The only way to make that math work is to double the number, x2 becomes x3, x3 becomes x5, and x4 becomes x7.
For example,
With modified weapon mastery the first example becomes
19 – x3, 20 – x3 = x6
19 – x1, 20 – x5 = x6
With modified weapon mastery the second example becomes
18 – x3, 19 – x3, 20 – x3 = x9
18 – x1, 19 – x1, 20 – x7 = x9
Now, getting everyone into longswords and scimitars and away from axes and picks might be a feature you're aiming for, and implementing the "threat range doubling" might be more trouble than it's worth from a simplicity of understanding point.
But I just thought I'd point it out for consideration.
D
