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Sometimes, when the players have been pondering what kind of magic weapon they want to buy for long enough, it gets a little difficult to surprise them with an enchanted weapon found in a hoard. Or, if you're not the GM, sometimes you just can't find a good enchantment that compliments your build. So I've thought up some enchantments to put on weapons. Here's what I've got so far:
Venomous
Price: +1
When wielding a venomous weapon, add the weapon's total enhancement bonus to your fortitude saves against posion, the DC to resist any poison applied to the venomous weapon, and the number of rounds that the poison remains on the weapon (similar to the Sticky Poison alchemist discovery).
Galumphing
Price: +2
A galumphing weapon deals an additional 1d6 damage as long as its wielder is mounted. This bonus increases to 2d6 if the wielder is attacking a creature of diametrically opposite alignment, but the wielder must still be mounted to get this bonus damage-- regardless of alignment, a galumphing weapon deals no extra damage if its wielder is not mounted.
Veteran's
Price: +2
When a veteran's weapon is created, choose a combat feat. Any character wielding the veteran's weapon is treated as having the chosen feat for attacks made with the veteran's weapon. The wielder does not need to meet the prerequisites for the feat to benefit from it, but if the wielder does not actually have the feat, then he or she can not apply it to any attacks made with any weapon other than the veteran's weapon. For example, a veteran's weapon of Power Attack in your main hand does not allow you to make Power Attacks with your offhand weapon. If the feat requires you to choose a weapon (i.e. Weapon Focus), the chosen weapon is always the veteran's weapon itself. The wielder always knows what feat the veteran's weapon grants.
If the wielder of a veteran's weapon already has the combat feat chosen for the weapon, that wielder simply treats the weapon as having a +2 enhancement bonus (in addition to whatever other enhancements it may have).
Welcoming all thoughts or additional ideas!
Veteran's should be a lot more than a +2 bonus. Off the top of my head, only Keen more or less allows you the use of a feat, but it's based off the spell Keen Edge. Mighty Cleaving allows those who already have Cleave, to Cleave one extra time, but it doesn't grant access to Cleave. You also should include the spell used to add the ability to the item.
Price +1
A weapon with the weakening property institutes a 1 point Strength penalty on a successful strike. The penalty instituded by this weapon has a maximum effect of 1 point plus 1 additional point per weapon enhancement bonus. This strength penalty lasts for 1 minute, though additional strikes above and beyond the maximum penalty extend the duration.
Construction: Craft Magical Arms and Armor; ray of enfeeblement
Price +1
High impact weapons increase the damage of the weapon by one size category. For example, a medium longsword, which normally deals 1d8 points of damage, would, instead, deal 2d6 points of damage. Spells that increase the weapons damage, such as lead blades do not stack with this property, though spells that increase size, such as enlarge person or righteous might affect the weapon normally.
Construction: Craft Magical Arms and Armor; lead blades or gravity bow
Price +2
Dissolving weapons deal 1d4 points of acid damage, and an additional 1d4 points of acid damage for a number of subsequent rounds equal to the weapon enhancement. For example, a +2 dissolving longsword would deal an extra 1d4 points of damage on the first hit, and an additional 1d4 points of acid damage on the following two rounds. Additional hits do not increase the amount of damage on following rounds, but instead extend the duration for a number a rounds equal to the enhancement bonus. For example, three hits with a +2 dissolving longsword would last for six additional rounds. Submerging oneself in water will neutralize the acid on subsequent rounds.
Construction: Craft Magical Arms and Armor; acid arrow
Price +2
A forceful blast weapon deals 1d6 points of force damage on a critical hit with an additional 1d6 for high multipliers (1d6 with a x2, 2d6 with a x3 etc.). This can only be added to a melee weapon.
Construction: Craft Magical Arms and Armor; explosive runes
This is all I'm posting for now. I've got tons of ideas for special weapon properties, though I rarely, if ever, actually get to use them :(
I'm fine with Veteran's +2. Feats are around 5-10k a pop, according to other items. +2 is that only when the weapon has just a +1. So that should be OK.
Ok, and what spell grants this ability? Not only that, if you want to add feats like this, then you need to calculate the price of the prerequisite feats as well. If someone wants a Veteran Spring Attack Sword, then you also need to calculate the price of Combat Expertise, Dodge, and Mobility, and that will be the final price modifier of the spell. The ability to grant access to a feat without taking any of the prerequisites is more powerful than just 5-10k. It defeats the purpose of the Feat tax in the first place, and unbalances the game. That's why I said Veteran needs to be more than just a +2 price modifier.
Besides, in order to have a weapon modifier such as Veteran there needs to be a spell that gives that ability. Part of creating magical items and abilities is determining how it works, and how you can apply it, try and think of possible ways of breaking or abusing it. Compare it to similarly priced items or items with a similar power level. Look at how they're built, and try to emulate them.
For instance, the Venemous ability is another ability that isn't priced correctly. A +1 modifier should do 1 thing, not three separate abilities. Not only that, it needs clarity as well. In some cases, the Venemous ability is doubling the affects of poisons. For example does the enhancement bonus stack with Resistance for example? Each of the three abilities of Venemous should, in their own way, be a different ability for a sword.
Galumphing is actually, a fairly decent ability and I see no problem with it. It's Veterans and Venemous that I think need fixing.
Not to rain on your parade, but Huntsman and Furious are both +1 abilities and grant two features each. Also, dunno where it might be, because I cannot find any text stating that a weapon ability has to have just one feature, or that it needs to be exactly able to copy a spell.
Prey tell, how is Align Weapon spell any same as the Greyflame ability it's a requirement for?
Ontopic;
Veteran looks cool, reminds me of the 3.5 Chameleon prc.
For venom, I'd probably remove the fort bonus, keeping it an offensive ability, the duration boost alone is pretty sweet.
They don't need a spell to exactly match it, but there needs to be a spell to fuel it's energies. I said a +1 bonus should do 1 thing, that doesn't mean in can only do 1 thing. While both Hunstman and Furious do perform 2 different abilities, neither of the abilities they do is particularly powerful in and of itself. But when you combine the abilities, it's a potent mix. However, Venemous does three separate abilities that are all fairly decent. Just two of them would have been fine, all three of them though? That's over-reaching the limits of a +1, though well within the realms of a +2. I personally think Venemous is a neat ability, however, it should probably be a +2 ability, and I should have mentioned that in my previous post.
Galumphing
Price: +2
A galumphing weapon deals an additional 1d6 damage as long as its wielder is mounted.
hehe, you need an "outgrabing" quality to complete the set!
Crushing
Price +1
A weapon with the crushing special property impacts with force very few can withstand more than once. Increase the critical modifier for the enchanted weapon by 1. Only bludgeoning weapons can be crushing.
Construction: Craft Magical Arms and Armor; [not sure, I don't know a spell that can be used here.]
Just a note, there are no rules saying magic items need a spell. Elixir of Swimming does not have any spell requirements. Neither does a +1 weapon. Do they usually have spell requirements? Yes. But there's nothing to say they need them.
And also, the main abilities of Venomous only work when there's a poison on it...which costs money. That's going to hurt the price of it quite a bit.
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The main reason I had Venomous give a bonus to Fort saves was that I didn't want it to outright grant its wielder the Poison Use ability that prevents you from being at risk to poison yourself. Maybe Venomous should be more like Veteran's-- choose a type of poison, it magically coats itself in that poison?
I was fairly worried that I was underpowering Veteran's, but I really wasn't sure how powerful to make it. I'd be fine with taking away the ability that lets you treat it as a +2 if you already have the feat, and bumping it up to +3 (it bugs me that there's only one weapon enhancement in the CRB that costs +3 but several at +4).
@Laurefindel: I couldn't think of a good ability for "outgrabing", but you might like this one.
Mome
Price:+2
When a Mome weapon is created, it is attuned to the terrain it was created in. It does an additional 2d6 damage as long as it is wielded in its native terrain. For example, an urbanmome dagger does an additional 2d6 damage as long as its wielder is in a city.
Outside of its native terrain, a mome weapon acts as a -2 cursed weapon. It does not compel its owner to retain possession of the weapon, and can be discarded at any time. Remove curse has no effect on a mome weapon.
And here are the crafting requirements for all these, as I should have included originally:
Venomous:
Craft Magical Arms and Armor, Accelerate Poison or Transmute Potion to Poison
Galumphing:
Craft Magical Arms and Armor, Mount
Veteran's:
Craft Magical Arms and Armor, Magic Weapon, crafter must have the chosen feat
Mome:
Craft Magical Arms and Armor, Commune with Nature, crafter must be in native terrain while crafting weapon.
@Laurefindel: I couldn't think of a good ability for "outgrabing", but you might like this one.
;)
Imagine a drow arena which specially crafts limited mome-weapons attuned to their grounds. With these weapons in hand, the drow's slaves are forced to battle, spilling blood to delight their captors.
If mome-weapons exist, this is where I'd expect to find them.