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I know this has come up before with really specific questions, but are there any general rules for adjudicating the improvement of specific magic weapons and armor?
To make your luck blade a +3 short sword is it a simple matter of paying the enchanter a tidy 10,000 gp (the difference in costs between a +2 and a +3 weapon) or do the weapon's other unique abilities have some sort of proportional impact on the cost of improving the weapon (even though they themselves do not an effective price modifier as the shock or holy properties do)?
Would the weapon's additional uniquely special abilities thus be considered a "flat" gp cost in the vein of magic armor properties like glamered and undead controlling?
The lack of existing rules regarding the subject (as far as I could find) lead me to believe that the unique properties of each specific weapon or armor make its abilities immutable, but I can only imagine that that becomes frustrating for players and DMs alike hoping to scale and improve their favorite items (if that is indeed the case).
Any opinions on the matter are most appreciated!
I consider most named items to already have an enhancement bonus of their caster level divided by three. Like a +3 sword requires CL 9th to create, I divvy it down by that to see how many enhancement bonuses the item is worth before adding more on.
So, a luck blade is CL 17th to make. 17 divided by 3 is 5 and change, so 5. Meaning a luck blade counts as a +5 weapon for purposes of adding further enchantments.
A sword of subtlety (CL 7th) counts as a +2 weapon for purposes of adding further enchantments, etc. etc.
At least, that's how I do it.
You could also divide an item up into 2 categories: enhancement bonuses on one side, along with abilities that are directly duplicated already (such as flaming), and on the other put everything else (like the luck blade's wishes). Cut out the price of the enhancement bonus and then what you've got left is everything else. Figure out what bonus you want, maybe add a 50% markup for adding extra abilities, and go from there.
I just deduct the numerical enhancement and work my way up from there.
For example, a frost brand is a +3 frost greatsword, which means that portion of the property is worth 32,350gp.
54,475gp (frost brand)
-
32,350gp (+3 frost greatsword)
=
22,125gp (remaining frost brand properties)
If I wanted a +5 frost brand, I would imply pay the difference.
32,350gp is already paid for, so I would just have to pay an additional 18,000gp to make it into a +5 frost brand.
At least, that's how I'd do it.