Advice on magic weapon abilities for a fighter.

[byakuren]

Pretty much what the topic says. What are some recommend weapon abilities for a fighter? Or is it better to just keep adding +1 to your weapon?

I'm playing a spear-wielding fighter and the party has haste readily available, so Speed doesn't seem like it would be worth the gold.

Thanks.

[Tameknight]

byakuren wrote:

Pretty much what the topic says. What are some recommend weapon abilities for a fighter? Or is it better to just keep adding +1 to your weapon?

I'm playing a spear-wielding fighter and the party has haste readily available, so Speed doesn't seem like it would be worth the gold.

Thanks.

Merciful and Vicious are good combo's they add +3d6 no lethal damage to your weapon do 1d6 lethal damage to you (which dr effects because it is no-lethal damage), that's a 18,000 gold weapon though.

[Halfling Barbarian]

Keep adding +1 to the +5 max. After that, check out furyborn, impervious, impact, and of course dueling.

[Chernobyl]

forget the bonuses, take Holy.
weapon is good aligned and does +2d6 to evil enemies.
You can get all kinds of bonuses to hit and damage from party buffs. Inspire Courage, Greater Magic Weapon (or a staff of bolstering)+ rods of extend, Prayer, Heroes feast, etc. For a fighter, gloves of dueling!

[Overcast]

statistically speaking the only ability on a weapon worth taking (if you don't have Improved Critical) is keen. So keep getting enhancement bonuses until you get to +5. After that, you can look at other things such as wounding or holy, which also have value, just not nearly as good as the enhancement bonus. Speed is the most worthless enhancement you can get on a weapon. Not only is it horrifically overcosted(+3), but you can get Boots of Speed for a mere 10000 gp.

The bonuses Chernobyl mentioned are not enhancement bonuses (except for Greater Magic Weapon), and furthermore rely on having a party member to buff you, which isn't always the case. Certainly if you have a pocket caster, you can ignore the enhancement bonuses, but I wouldn't bet on it. Plus you're very vulnerable to a Greater Dispel Magic. Gloves of Dueling though, are a must for a fighter. There are some decent +gold enhancements you can get for weapons though, which don't cause your weapon to scale, and those are worth looking into.

[Overcast]

Something to remember about the enhancement bonuses. On top of a 10% increase in your chance to hit (surely not needed with your primary attack, but your secondary and tertiary certainly benefit) and the +1 to damage, enhancement bonuses also affect other critical things. Each enhancement bonus adds to the weapons ability to bypass DR (starting at +3, weapons start being able to bypass DR, and at +5 they bypass any form of DR). Additionally, the enhancement bonus increases your weapons' hardness and hit points, making it that much more difficult to sunder. Yet more reasons, beyond the increase in accuracy and damage, to stick to increasing your enhancement bonus over anything else.

[Silent Saturn]

If you're wielding a spear, you may want to think about Returning. Obviously you're better off in melee, since you can get all your iteratives that way, but if you can't close the distance for whatever reason, it is handy to be able to throw your weapon and have it return to you. That way you don't have to spend an action sheathing your beloved spear and drawing a bow that you don't even have Weapon Specialization for.

[mavbor]

If Returning is a great choice since spears can be thrown.

If possible why not make it an intellegent item. If you can design it so it doesnt go against the party then it can be worthwhile. (Defend the servants and interests of a specific deity can be good).

Having a weapon who has its own actions can be useful if you can keep it behaving.

Can basically have it cast spells to buff/heal/save you when needed without it taking your actions. More gold you invest the more powerful it can become.

Example: Item can use a 6th-level spell at will +132,000 gp

Make the spell Heal and you have an intellegent item who wants to protect you able to heal you 150hps when needed (at 15cl) plus other benifits.

[byakuren]

Thanks for the quick responses all!

I should have specified that its a longspear, so returning will not be so useful, though it was a good suggestion. The intelligent item sounds interesting too and is something to consider down the line, thanks.

It's only +1 at the moment, so I think I'll stack enhancement bonuses for the time being. Its not flashy, but I guess there's something to be said for a -really- sharp blade.

[Rycaut]

If you are in a party with a lot of casters you might consider Spell Storing. It is just a +1 enhancement so fairly inexpensive and it allows for a lot of flexibility and creativity (as well as great action economy since you can choose to cast that spell on a successful hit - giving you any number of interesting options).

Plus it is quite versatile - as a non-caster it depends on you reliably having fellow party members who can reload your weapon (and it is probably a once-per-combat effect) but the effects can be quite significant.

Note that this is limited to:

- Spells of up to 3rd level
- must be single targeted spells with a casting time of a standard action
- will target the creature that the weapon hits and successfully damages (so if you don't penetrate DR you won't get the option to cast the spell)
- the weapon casts the spell and does so as a FREE ACTION (and this is called out as an exception to the normal rules about casting times)

So this can't cast spells like Enlarge Person (casting time of 1 round not 1 standard action), nor can it cast a non-single targeted spell like fireball - but it can cast a lot of other interesting spells to deliver a big effect.

I'll probably be getting a spell storing weapon for my Lore Warden in the near future as I really like the idea of a nearly full BAB fighter (he is multiclassed into monk) with the option to once per combat cast a spell on an opponent he just damaged.

[Elamdri]

Overcast wrote:

Each enhancement bonus adds to the weapons ability to bypass DR (starting at +3, weapons start being able to bypass DR, and at +5 they bypass any form of DR).

That's not entirely true

+3 Overcomes Silver/Cold Iron
+4 Overcomes Adamantine
+5 Overcomes Alignment

Enhancement bonuses don't overcomes Damage Type (Slashing, Piercing, Bludgeoning) and DR/-

You need a +6 weapon to overcome DR/epic, which is impossible for a character to make, you must find them and they're typically artifacts.

[Rycaut]

Damage type DR is a good reason for any fighter, even one focused on a specific weapon to carry a few backup weapons "just in case". Ideally weapons that also fall into the same type(s) the fighter has Weapon Training in if possible but you do need something that deals slashing, something that does piercing and something that does bludgeoning if at all possible.

[Covent]

My most recommended enchants for a weapon are as follows.

1.) All the +'s you can get up to a +5

2.) Menacing

3.) Keen

That is all, although Holy, Vicious and Merciful are worth honorary mentions. I also for pure fun reasons like Courageous.

If the game is very incorporeal heavy, such as an undead based gamed, Ghost touch is sometimes worth it.

If you are fighting a lot of outsiders with teleport, Phase Locking is not bad, however I can not say it is great.

Then of course there is Bane, which I only recommend if you are fighting a lot of the same type of creatures, in a very focused game.

Long story short, the first three I mentioned are the best in my opinion.

Also, make sure to grab some gloves of dueling, from the APG, when you can.

If you are looking for anything else please remember to either have a backup bow with at least a +1 on it, or some access to flight so you can get into melee, by level 10.

Anyway have fun.

[Silent Saturn]

If you're worried about different DR types, how about Transformative? If you encountered, say, skeletons and needed a bludgeoning weapon, you could transform your longspear into a morningstar and still have it keep all its enhancement bonuses (though Weapon Specialization won't work).

The best part is that you can use this to change it from a reach weapon to a non-reach weapon, should you so desire.

The other best part is that transformative costs "+10,000gp", but doesn't have an equivalent worth in enhancement bonuses, so you can (I believe) stack it overtop of the maximum +10 usually allowed on a single weapon.